The first is from the New York Times Magazine, about a new early childhood program called Tools of the Mind…it’s designed to facilitate the development of “executive function” skills in young children. I’m finding that executive function is the new catch phrase in education…and while I have lots to say on that, and this article, it’s late, so I’ll save it here for a later post.
Then there’s this one, about the decline of cursive writing in school…which should come as no surprise to anyone who’s used a computer in the last few years…it is interesting though, as a Montessorian, because we have all kinds of reasons for advocating the continued instruction and use of cursive handwriting. A cursory explanation can be found here, at the website of Montessori Australia.
Lastly, I was able to attend a lecture last Thursday here in Portland by neuroscientist Lise Eliot, who has just written another book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain. I haven’t had time to read it yet (ha!), but it was an interesting talk. The basic thrust of her presentation was that neurologically, there’s not that much difference between boys and girls, and that all the hype recently about gender differences in learning are much more subtle than we think. Check out this interview in Newsweek.
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