On 11 April 2008 Chris Green wrote: >I hadn't heard about this Brain Gym junk before? Has anyone >else? Allen, perhaps? In any case, it sounds like the kind of >stuff we'll be hearing more about soon (unfortunately). >Proof positive that it isn't only the North American school >system that is bonkers. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/07/education
>Man the lifeboats. The idiots are winning. Last week I watched, >open-mouthed, a Newsnight piece on the spread of "Brain Gym" >in British schools. The schools in question are primary schools (up to about age 7). I only heard of Brain Gym from the same BBC 2 Newsnight piece this week, on which it was pretty thoroughly debunked, especially by Colin Blakemore, the eminent Oxford University neuroscientist. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm (Scroll down to low down on the right hand side of the screen for the link.) What you won't see was the interview that followed immediately after this clip with Dr Paul Dennison (in California), who invented the system. The Newsnight presenter, Jeremy Paxman, challenged Dennison on 'scientific' statements in the Brain Gym Teacher's Edition such as "Processed foods do not contain water", and showed him up to be a scientific ignoramus (surprise, surprise). Some better news: "Two leading scientific societies and a charity that promotes scientific understanding have written to every local education authority in the the UK to warn that a programme of exercises being promoted to help child learning relies on 'pseudoscientific explanations' and a 'bizarre understanding' of how the body works." http://tinyurl.com/2m593m Let's hope they take notice. Primary school teachers in the Newsnight programme were enthusiastic. I imagine that any physical procedure that enables young kids to focus their attention for some minutes before lessons would have mildly beneficial results. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
