Good bye left side!

In yesterday's technology section of The New York Times an article was published titled, " Let Computers Compute. It’s the Age of the Right Brain". I don't know how to take it. First it crosses my mind how wonderful it is that large companies and the computer age so set in logical processing are investing in the creative end of the right side of the brain. One of the 'morals to the story' as they call it is that when people focus on the right side of their brain,

"There’s power in making career choices for fundamental reasons, such as doing something you love, instead of instrumental reasons, like hoping a job will be a steppingstone to something else."

That is important. I always value people who do things because they love them and not because it gets them a grade or a bigger paycheck. Yet, there is something about ignoring the left side of the brain that scares me. Where the advent of computers certainly lets some of that logical thinking off the shoulders of humans it arguably needed a lot of creativity in order to create the computers in the first place. I recall a book I read a few years ago, Plowing the Dark by Richard Powers, that to me integrates a lot of that left brain thinking with right brain thinking. In the book virtual reality designers, and a special artist look to create a space called 'the Cavern' where are can take form. Many of these virtual reality art pieces look just like the original. The virtual reality researchers are sharply countered by the story of one many held prison in a war torn country with little stimulation at all.

I think I just figured out the meaning of the book.

It's not about the left side, the right side, and the left side versus the right side but how the two interact and compliment each other. Yes, people tend to prefer one side to the other but both the logical and creative need to be stimulated in order to create masterpieces like 'the Cavern' in Plowing the Dark. Whether you are getting your BFA or MBA in order to truly excel to the top of your field, and probably to gain satisfaction, you need both. Okay, so not everybody is going to be a revolutionary in their career of choice but why not train kids early on to use both sides, or lots of sides as Gardner might argue.

Between the left side of the brain and the right side of the brain lies the corpus callosum. Where the left side used to be favored there is no reason now to focus solely on the right. People were born with thousands of nerves connecting the two, and that is the way it should ideally be.

Paranoid...wait...do you think I am...?

Ever feel like those people laughing are laughing at you? That when your co-worker smiles at you they are secretly thinking about stealing your job? That the stranger on the subway is really thinking, what are you wearing? Don't worry, as hard as that might be, apparently lots of people are paranoid.

'Paranoia' was generally thought to be a part of a major mental illness. In a study with 200 British people 40% exhibited paranoid thoughts in a simulated subway situation. So don't get too concerned if you exhibit a few thoughts that the person in the next room is laughing at you, it's kind of normal.

Is it a sign of the times? With terrorism and war on peoples minds are they constantly thinking what will happen next? Once while waiting to pick friends up from the airport I was joking about a bomb and it occurred to me, what if they are taping me? What if I can't get on an airplane in a week? I laughed it off, but with the invasion of privacy that the government has taken on it can create that paranoid feeling that someone is always watching you.

So yes, people are more paranoid now, but if political leaders at large peeled away some of their paranoid anxieties I wonder if the every day person riding the subway might see someone smiling and just think, that's nice.

Clifford Stoll and his ideas worth spreading

Clifford Stoll's TED Talk has many different ideas. The physicist talks about a little bit of everything, most of all how children are the future and how he went from teaching a little bit of graduate school to teaching 8th grade science.

Pigeon of the Week

WARNING SPOILER ALERT

I waited. and waited. and waited some more. I couldn't go to the big release in Bryant Park but I made it to the book store today and to my delight, The Pigeon Wants A Puppy! I could not be more delighted with Mo Willems newest creation. I picked it up and read it right there in the book store before I bought it.

The pigeon has it's usual charm of a five year old in a pigeon body. Lines like, "I promise I'll water it once a month" and "You don't want me to take a piggyback ride on my puppy" have the great spirit and humor of a small child. The shift in colors from browns and purples to pinks highlight the 'passion' behind the pigeons voice. I am especially font of the type set when the pigeon says, "I WANT A PUPPY! RIGHT HERE! RIGHT NOW!" There is something about the pink highlight around the black capital lettering that fuses the sweetness and innocence of the pigeon with the demand to be taken seriously.

And he is, he gets the puppy, only he doesn't want it anymore. How many kids get dogs and then a week later decide they don't want to walk it and feed it...a lot. So now, the pigeon wants...a walrus? We'll have to wait and see if the next book holds in store a walrus and pigeon love story.

To see more about Mo Willems check out his BLOG!

Bruce T. Perry also known as my new idol

I'm usually not one for sitting in large lecture halls listening to academics speak about their work. Not because I'm not interested, but usually because I find their style to be dry and like they are reading from a script. Bruce T. Perry is quite the opposite. Never have I listened to someone so engaging and over an hour later realize how long he has been talking. Bruce T. Perry is an expert on child trauma and I look forward to reading his book I just purchased, The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog. Until then let me provide you with some ideas he imparted on me and some links to resources on Bruce T. Perry.

Lessons I learned from Bruce T. Perry

The brain is most malleable in early childhood. This means that we, as adults, need to focus on this age and make sure children get the best attention and care as this will effect the trajectory of their development. Enduring trauma and neglect in early childhood puts a child at risk for crime, depression, and ending up in the special education system. If even 1 million is invested in a program to aid at risk youth and one child in this group is effected and does not end up in special education you have got your moneys worth. Unfortunately, the further you get away from people interacting with children the more you are involved in the policy that involves them.

And some excellent quotes from the lecture,

"How can you love someone if you were never loved?"

"Being born a human does not make you humane."

An inspirational man that I cannot wait to read more of. Here is some of his writing and information on the scholastic website. This is his biography at the Child Trauma Academy where he is the senior fellow.

Does The Maze Ever End? or A scary stroll through the maze...

Did you ever notice how high school seniors can't wait to get out but college seniors avoid talking about it? Senioritis is a common term in most high schools. Second semester comes and the kids planning to go to college already have been accepted and kids who used to put all their energy into every inch of work start to slack a little. But college seniors are different. When I bring it up to most of my friends the fact that in less than two months we will graduate most people respond with, 'please don't talk about it'. It's scary. In the community I came from when you graduated high school you were expected to go to college. You had a path for the next four years. Obviously this is not the same for all children, but as my undergraduate education comes to an end I question, when does the maze ever end? Does it?

I'm starting to think it never will. Graduate school, post-graduate learning, professional seminars, the news, and even curling up with a book you have yet to read. It's all a part of the education maze. It may not end, but how does it change? There is a point in school when check pluses become As, book reports become analytical essays, and four pages essays that take forever to write become all night term papers in the library. As you get older you get to make more choices about what classes you take and what ideas you study. In some ways one might imagine the maze getting more narrow as you close in on a specialty but I imagine a maze that all of a sudden has multiple choices that lead you the 'right way' because it's up to you to chose the end point.

Okay, so I've faced it, I'm never leaving the education maze, but I still want to know how it's changing, shifting, and maybe even creating vortexes to other mazes.

Medical advice from movie stars.