Educators, parents, and innovators came together for a conference held by Arizona State University titled “Brain Education: Integrated Learning for the 21st Century” to celebrate humanity’s greatest asset — the human brain. The consensus was that the future of humankind depends on how well we understand and use our brains. Ilchi Lee, the founder of a mind-body training program called Brain Education, stresses that the brain is the most valuable and potent tool for influencing our individual lives and creating community welfare. “Our current world needs true leaders,” Lee says. “By cultivating brain potential, leaders are prepared to fully accept their responsibilities to change human destiny.”
Diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a child, Lee is now a living example of our ability to rewire our brains. “I just kept taking tests and failing. Life was miserable,” he says. “I wanted to find out whether the problem was me or the education system. Everyone said it was my problem.” Lee later learned to manage his ADHD — by through realizing that, no matter what kind of system he was in, he could tap into his own internal power. “I discovered a brilliant light inside. My absolute value, trust, and conviction,” Lee adds. “When I discovered the value of the brain, my creative value, I wanted others to realize it too. So I developed Brain Education with that in mind.”
Consisting of five main steps, Brain Education helps people rediscover their brain’s potential and provides the tools to actualize it in their lives. Step one, “sensitizing,” focuses on health and increased awareness of the five senses. Sensitizing ultimately stimulates various areas of the brain. The second step is “versatilizing” — through learning and attempting new challenges, the brain continues to adapt and remain open to new ideas. Versatilizing helps the brain stay flexible.
The third step, “refreshing,” teaches emotional management. “Smiling and laughing is the best way to change one’s mood and release endorphins into the body, creating pain reduction and pleasurable sensations,” Lee states. The fourth step, “integration,” helps us use different aspects of the brain to develop its maximum potential. “Brain mastery,” the fifth step, employs the first four steps in a process of continual self-improvement to take ownership of the brain. This step refers to the awareness of the power of choice. In any given circumstance, no matter how bad, your brain can choose how you relate to it.
If educators and school systems had a better understanding of the brain and its functioning, we might be able to better address the challenges that children face as their brains develop and further help optimize their neurological functions for a healthy life, Dr. Mariale Hardiman contends. A former public school educator and professor of cognitive development and education, Hardiman is the creator of the Brain-Targeted Teaching Model. Among all professionals, educators should especially have easy access to neuroeducational research because “These are the people shaping the human brain,” she stresses.
The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model offers a way for neuroeducational research to be accessible to teachers, “the people who need it the most,” Hardiman says. It identifies six stages or targets for teaching and learning: establishing an emotional climate for learning; creating a physical learning environment; designing the learning experience; teaching for mastery of content, skills and concepts; teaching for the extension and application of knowledge; and evaluating learning. A central theme of the model is the “integration of the arts to foster retention of information, conceptual development, and higher-order thinking and creative problem-solving.” Hardiman explains.
Dr. Raun Melmed, a behavioral and developmental and pediatrician, has traced the history of the evolving definitions of autism, which have ranged from a “pathology” to infantile autism as “the parents’ wish that the child should not exist” to today’s spectrum-disorder criteria. Melmed is the medical director and founder of the Melmed Center, a diagnostic treatment center for people with autism, Asperger’s syndrome, and ADHD.
Melmed has outlined the expressions of “autism spectrum disorder” as defined in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), which include difficulties with communication and social interaction; restricted, repetitive behaviors, interests and activities; early-childhood symptoms; and symptoms that limit or impair everyday functioning. A child diagnosed with autism must meet all criteria, he emphasizes. Physicians may prescribe medication and alternative and traditional treatments, but “educational and developmental therapies are essential.” Most important, he stresses, “the patient’s insight and beliefs” must be respected. Melmed reminds participants that all children are different: “These are kids first, who happen to have autism.”
Based on this conference, one might wonder which is more important — education or wisdom? The participants conclude that bringing the discoveries of neuroscience to the school system can be a powerful tool to manage neurological imbalances such as ADHD and autism — as well as further develop your brain to bring it closer to its fullest potential. With that nurturing context, it becomes more possible for any individual to unleash their own insight and creative capacity inside their brain — to overcome perceived limitations and thrive in the world.
This article is updated from its initial publication in Brain World Magazine’s print edition.
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