A leading scientist has dismissed the latest approach to teaching that has been endorsed by the Government and embraced by teachers.

Under the new system children are considered to have different “learning styles” and instead of being taught by the conventional method of listening to a teacher, they should be allowed to wander around, listen to music and even play with balls in the classroom.

But now Baroness Greenfield, the director of the Royal Institute and a professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, has dismissed as “nonsense” the view that pupils prefer to receive information either by sight, sound or touch.

She said that the method of classifying pupils on the basis of “learning styles” is a waste of valuable time and resources.

The approach, first introduced in the United States following research on brain development, is being adopted by an increasing number of schools, colleges and local authorities and forms a key part of the Government’s drive for “personalised learning”. In effect, it dismisses so-called “chalk and talk” teaching as inadequate.

Pupils are instead given questionnaires to discover if they prefer to learn through “visual, auditory or kinaesthetic” (Vak) teaching…

According to Susan Greenfield, however, the practice is “nonsense” from a neuroscientific point of view: “Humans have evolved to build a picture of the world through our senses working in unison, exploiting the immense interconnectivity that exists in the brain. It is when the senses are activated together - the sound of a voice is synchronisation with the movement of a person’s lips - that brain cells fire more strongly than when stimuli are received apart…

Baroness Greenfield’s heavyweight criticism will be welcomed by academics who have been trying to debunk the notion of learning styles, as it fast becomes education orthodoxy in the UK.

Frank Coffield, a professor at London University’s institute of education, who reviewed 13 models of learning styles, insists that the approach is theoretically incoherent and confused.

“We do students a serious disservice by implying they have only one learning style, rather than a flexible repertoire from which to choose, depending on the context.”

Source: Telegraph.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/29/nteach129.xml

“Fifty years ago, mothers didn’t have a choice,” said 92-year-old La Leche co-founder Edwin Froehlich, who had her first child at age 35 and was told she wouldn’t be able to produce breast milk because she was over 30. “Bottle feeding was what a doctor knew, and if you mentioned breast-feeding, he’d shrug. He had no idea how to help.”

Half a century ago, breast-feeding rates were an abysmal 20 percent. The medical establishment was largely ignorant to the benefits of nursing for both the baby and the mother, a normal biological process as ancient as life.

New mothers were routinely told they didn’t have enough milk or that it wasn’t good enough. Meanwhile, the conventional wisdom of the day—separating a mother from her newborn for 24 hours, spacing feedings every four hours and topping off a nursing session with 2 ounces of formula to make sure infants were full—sabotaged breast-feeding.

Today we know the best way to establish breast-feeding is to nurse infants immediately after birth, something that also has important postpartum recovery benefits for the mother. We know that breast-fed babies need to eat 8 to 12 times a day in the early weeks, often every two hours. And we know that breast milk is a baby’s perfect food…

Source: Chicago Tribune
http://tinyurl.com/38zh9e

At the five-day international teachers’ conference in Berlin this week, which brought together around 1,800 educators from all over the world, education experts said Germany’s overregulated and under-funded schools needed a massive reform injection if they were to compete internationally…

The criticism is not new. In recent years, Germany’s education system has taken a severe battering after a string of PISA study results showed the country’s exalted schools to be trailing internationally.

In 2001, Germany ranked only 21st in reading skills and 20th in math and science among 31 countries assessed.

In March this year, the country was dealt another blow when UN special education envoy Vernor Munoz — amid protests by Germany’s federal education ministers — published a damning report saying the class-based three-tier school system was selective, discriminatory and undemocratic by shutting out children from immigrant and poorer backgrounds…

Whereas most other European countries have moved on to more inclusive school systems, Germany has essentially stuck to a three-tier structure which means that children are only 10 (or 12 in Berlin) when their high school is chosen…

Source: Deutsche Welle
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2707548,00.html

We live in a time of rapidly increasing pregnancy rates. So how I laughed at an angry, rather bitter little book witten by French economist/psychoanalyst Corinne Maier entitled, No Kid: 40 Reasons Not to Have Children…

… It’s a touchy, awkward subject. It’s as close to a taboo as you can get: admitting that you don’t want children and that if you have them, perhaps life would have been better if you did not. It’s the kind of thing you might say to your shrink, but not something you blurt out at a polite dinner party.

Maier claims she wrote her book half as a provocation and half as a genuine thesis addressing questions that people ask themselves. Part of it comes from growing up in a culture where we are surrounded with images of Madonna-like pregnant women and where children, though heavily disciplined, have a crucial role in society…

… France has the highest fecundity rate in Europe, 830,000 births in 2006, the average of 2.9 children per woman.

It even surpasses Ireland. Part of the reason is religion and tradition but also the fat subsidies the state hands out to pregnant women, babies, new mothers, and families. It’s one of the few places I know where young girls start talking about having a “bébé” in their early twenties and where reproduction, rather than a career, is viewed as a viable option after leaving university…

Maier complains about all the things that most people with children feel but would never say: the loss of those wonderful lazy weekends, lounging in bed and drinking coffee on Sunday mornings; the vast expense of having a child; the overwhelming sense of responsibility for the next two decades…

Source: Telegraph.co.uk
http://tinyurl.com/2sja74

Information tells that, in China, over 2000 babies are given birth per hour. The total number of babies aged between 0 and 3 has exceeded 70 million, and 11 million babies were born in cities among them. A recent investigation indicated that over half of families spent more than 20 percent of total revenue on their kids every month. Assume that each family spends RMB 3000 on the early education of their kids per year, and then the market scale will reach RMB 30 billion…

A preschool education expert of Beijing Normal University pointed out that children’s brain grew most quickly when they were aged 0~6 and the period before 3 years old was of particular importance. Early education is much helpful for the healthy growth of children. Based on such a huge market demand and development space, both domestic brands represented by Oriental Baby Care and RYB, and foreign brands represented by Gymboree and Child First speeded up market exploration in recent years. The whole early education market is entering a fast track of development…

While early education market is growing fast, it is facing an unexpected challenge, namely shortage of early education talent. “Now there hasn’t been any college in Beijing that specially cultivates early education talents. Many teachers involved in early education are from childhood education field and most institutions train teachers by their own”, Zhang, Headmaster of a children’s center in Beijing, told the reporter about his feeling.

In fact, as the country hasn’t formulated unified and definite laws and regulations on early education of children, early education institutions design teaching contents based on their respective characteristics. The crucial point for early education institutions to get the upper hand in competitions is experienced teachers acquainted with children’s psychology…

Source: China Economic Net
http://en.ce.cn/Insight/200707/26/t20070726_12321002.shtml

Mercury is a known poison that can damage the nervous system, so why is it still being used to fill cavities in peoples’ teeth?

The European Union is grappling with this issue as it faces pressure to ban mercury-bearing “amalgams” that some patients’ organizations say are dangerous, and counterarguments from dentists and some governments, who say the material is safer and more durable than alternatives…

Most countries advise against use of amalgam for children and pregnant women due to its negative effects on brain development, but patient organizations believe the rest of the population, carrying an average of 2.5 grams in their mouths, is also at risk…

Others say studies pointing to these symptoms are flawed.

“There is no evidence that amalgam fillings cause anybody any sort of illness or unwellness, unless you are truly allergic to the materials in the amalgam fillings in which case removal of the fillings will cure the symptoms,” said Susie Sanderson, chairperson of the British Dental Association…

The use of amalgam has declined in most European countries as more people opt for aesthetic white composite fillings and in many countries dental hygiene overall has improved, resulting in fewer cavities…

Source: Reuters
http://tinyurl.com/33duz2

A breakthrough involving New Zealand scientists points to new ways of handling the developed world’s obesity crisis.

People who became obese were thought to be victims of bad genes which caused them to pack on the kilos.

But the scientists’ discovery suggests destiny may be reversed through good nutrition in early childhood…

The scientists have shown that if a mother is undernourished, her children’s bodies are set up to cope with a life of scarcity.

But the energy-dense “hamburger and milkshake” diet of modern Western society is likely to result in children who are likely to become fat - unlike those from mothers who eat a balanced diet during pregnancy…

Co-researcher Dr Alan Beedle said the study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, dispelled the common idea that a person’s life course was set by their genetic make-up at birth.

“It’s really development, and modifiable factors during development, that can change how we grow and what diseases you are susceptible to as an adult,” he said…

Source: New Zealand Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=271&objectid=10453665

Last month, I joined a group of American legislators and educators for a tour of Chinese schools, the equivalent of our K-12 system. The trip was a real eye-opener.

We visited Beijing and the Yunnan Province in the People’s Republic of China as guests of the Hanban office of Chinese Language Council International, an organization seeking to promote Chinese Language programs in the U.S. and Korea.

From what I saw, we are in deep trouble here in America. Our K-12 education system is so far behind China’s, there is no way we can catch up in the near future, let alone the next 10 years, without a change in the political correctness that plagues our system.

China’s government runs its schools much like America did in the early 20th Century. Students are taught the importance of attending school and that excelling in school is the way to a prosperous future. Schools are not run by teachers unions, curricula are not dictated by special interests like the ACLU, and schools will not tolerate alcohol, drugs, weapons or disruption of any kind. Teachers are dedicated to the children, helping them learn and making sure they have a bright future. This takes talent, a warm heart and a firm hand.

Students in China far outpace Americans at every grade level. How do they do it? First, students are not coddled. Teachers set clear expectations and students rise to the level of those expectations. Attendance is not optional and misbehavior is not tolerated. Students have approximately three hours of daily homework - it is required to pass the testing process. They study hard because they know that good jobs and a promising future depend on it. If a student fails, he or she does not graduate, period. As a result, students compete for high grades and show exceptional scholarship. Student academic scores far surpass ours at every level…

Source: HeraldNet
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20070722/OPINION03/707220317

The children of wealthier parents are more likely to be overweight than those from poor households, a survey has revealed.

They are forced to leave their offspring with nannies or nurseries where not enough attention is paid to diet or physical exercise.

High consumption of snack foods and sweetened drinks, long hours spent watching TV and low rates of breastfeeding are also major factors…

Health experts said that the results were a warning to middle-class parents who often assume their children are living healthy lives…

The study, by the Institute of Child Health at University College London and Great Ormond Street Hospital, followed the lives of more than 13,000 children born in the UK between 2000 and 2002.

By the age of three, 23 per cent were overweight.

They were more likely to have weight problems if their mother had started work following their birth and the problems increased in proportion to the amount of time she worked.

‘Long hours of maternal employment, rather than lack of money, may impede young children’s access to healthy foods and physical activity,’ the researchers said…

There are now 13.3million working women - a total which is rapidly catching up with the number of working men.

In the last 25 years the number of stay-at-home mothers has fallen from nearly 55 per cent to just over 21 per cent…

Dr Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said: ‘I do not want to condemn these women but I do think the priority has to be the health of the child and its continued health into adulthood.

‘We are in danger of raising a generation of young people with a much shorter life expectancy than previous generations.’

‘If women are working, there will be less time for food preparation and more resorting to convenience food…

Source: Daily Mail
http://tinyurl.com/3bg5r7

Sleep experts say the secret to getting little ones to fall asleep and stay asleep is parents recognizing and respecting a child’s natural rhythms and establishing good bedtime habits early on.

“Parents need to understand that sleep has a strong biological basis. Babies and young children need to sleep when their internal clocks tell them to. You cannot fight circadian rhythms,” says Chicago pediatrician and sleep expert Mark Weissbluth, a clinical professor of pediatrics at Northwestern School of Medicine.

Weissbluth says many parents try to mold their child’s sleep patterns to their adult schedules, but just like with food, there’s good sleep and junk sleep. “When a child sleeps is probably more important than how long he sleeps,” he says…

“Chaotic family schedules interfere with the stabilization of a child’s circadian rhythms,” says Richard Ferber, director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children’s Hospital Boston. “The lack of a sleep routine, unenforced bedtimes, and no limit-setting leave a child feeling unwell in a manner analogous to jet lag,” Ferber says…

“Create healthy, consistent routines, then stick with them,” Culbert says. He recommends keeping it simple—a bath, a book, a cuddle. Steer clear of television, computers and caffeine…

… Ferber cautions parents to be patient. A baby’s sleep patterns are often irregular for the first few months, and a child may need nighttime feeding and cuddling. “By 6 months, babies can usually sleep through the night,” he says.

Source: USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-07-22-sleep_N.htm