Poverty Class 2

 

Takeaway from Chapter 3

What stuck with me from Chapter 3 is a very simple statement:  “Brains can and do change.  Brains are designed to change.”  So why do low-SES kids stay in their same environment and don’t change?  We know that poverty is not a sentence for a standard life, but why does the pattern continue.  Even stretching that idea to non SES kids, why do some students stay average-enough to get by- and don’t push to the next level?

Jensen states, “The reason things stay the same is because we’ve been the same.  For things to change, we must change!”  Brains are designed to reflect the environment they’re in, not rise above them.  Wow!  So as a parent and teacher I need to make a change.  Boy is it too late?  Jensen reassures me later in the book that it is never too late to change, just easier at a young age.  That statement made me feel a little better, but what a big task to make the change.

Jensen talks about the change in the brain using the terms Neuroplasticity and Gene Expression. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s structure that allows region-specific changes to occur in the brain as a result of experience.  This brain study is a topic that really is of interest to me.  Research shows that our parietal, frontal, and temporal lobes are all receptive to specific stimuli that cause measurable neural changes.  These changes are: Video games, language training, and learning skills like playing music.  The brain is pushed to increase its processing speed and size for growth.  Jensen further states that students’ brains will be changing every single day.  When this happens, their level of attention, learning, and cognition change too.  “Whether they are changing for better or for worse depends heavily on the quality of the staff at your school.”  Another WOW!  The pressure keeps building.  It does make sense, we are in a constant movement of learning and change it is how we use that change for better or worse.  Like a marriage vow!  As teachers we take our job and try to make the worse better and keep the better going. 

We still have the old debate of gene versus environmental for brain development or IQ.  This factor of gene expression is another interesting topic discussed in chapter 3.  One statistic that sticks with me is that all humans share 99% of the same genes,  yet they may not be expressed in each human.  We as teachers need to remember that students can make changes regardless of their genetic makeup.  Studies show that students are not academically stuck, yes IQ is highly inheritable but not 100% genetically determined.  So with that study how do we make those changes so SES students change the pattern to rise above their environment?