Rewiring Brains

I heard a story about this great ballet dancer from the early 20th century. As a child, she wouldn't sit still and performed very poorly in school. Distraught and not knowing what to do, her mother took her to see a doctor. The doctor tried various remedies at the time, including just strapping her down in a chair, none of which worked. The mother took her to see another doctor and he recommended putting her in dance classes as a way to "get it out of her system". Well it turns out that dancing was just the medicine. Dancing was just what this young girl needed. She didn't know how to communicate before she began dance. And she turned out to be this incredible dancer.

I just read this story in NYTimes about technology rewiring the brains of young people and how it is creating a population of easily distracted kids. Nothing we haven't heard before.

The main subject of the story was a high school student who is known around his school as one of the brightest, yet his grades beg to differ. He's received Ds and Fs in most of his classes except for his film classes. Sure enough, this kid loves nothing more than to make and discuss videos with his friends. He uses Facebook and YouTube religiously. I'd assume that he wants to be a filmmaker or some kind of multimedia producer.

Now the story uses this kid as an example of someone obsessed and distracted by technology, which is hindering his learning. It also posits that the brains of children are being rewired by technology and that they will literally think differently when using technology. I've actually read literature about this regarding cell phone use and the research is fascinating and convincing.

But I don't honestly see a problem with this kid. I mean, his story sounds a lot like the ballet dancer. His brain is probably being rewired, but is that a bad thing? He's obviously got a lot of passion about filmmaking and passion usually makes people not care about anything else. But it also makes people really good at the things that they are passionate about. If I were an educator, I would cultivate that passion, instead of strapping him down and forcing him to read Cat's Cradle (although that is a fabulous book, which he should probably read).

Moreover, why are the brain patterns of adults better? With all the problems in the world, you'd think someone would want to rewire the human brain. I say, make films Vashal Singh!

Andy Rooney's Tweets

I'm not sure if Andy Rooney keeps the @Andy_Rooney handle on Twitter. It sounds like him but in a stripped-down almost satirical way. Basically, if it came to light that it was actually a young person who was making fun of him, it wouldn't come as a shock.

Here are some of my favorites that I've read:

"Why do ice cream manufacturers insist on such fancy flavors? Strawberry? Pistachio? What's wrong with chocolate and vanilla?"
I agree. Nothing illustrates the decadence of modern society like strawberry ice cream.

"People are using entirely too much foul language. You're free to say whatever you want, but "turd" just makes you sound uneducated and low"
Those whippersnappers!

"They're amazing, walls. They hold up the roof, but they're also handy for hanging pictures. I like that."
Poetry.


"There are too many brands of popcorn. Orville Redenbacher, Jolly Time, Jiffy Pop, Pop Weaver, Pop Secret, and Newman's Own are just a few."
DEAR GOD INFORMATION OVERLOAD WITH THE POPCORN


"I'm not a "dog person," I'm just a person who prefers dogs to cats. They say the Persians worshipped cats. I don't care for them, either."
Wait, you don't care for Persians...or cats?


"My favorite photograph of Mike Wallace: c:\users\arooney\my_documents\mikesnewtrousers.jpg"
Great. Now all I have to do is break into your house, log onto your computer, and look at the photo. You really know how to harness the power of the Internet.
 
Well in his defense, Twitter doesn't exactly lend itself to intelligent commentary.