.5 Brain Connectivity

---

Brain researchers do the darndest things. That is the nature of research; you have to look at simple things before you start understanding bigger things. There are some brain researchers that figure out what parts of the brain you use when you figure out how to cross the street. That sounds pretty mundane; here I am about to step off the curb, and some brain is trying to figure out what I am using in my brain to help me cross the street. But the interesting thing is that they found that even in a simple exercise like crossing the street, we use five different areas of the brain. Watching for visual pattern, movement, shape, velocity, sounds and feelings. When I get ready to cross the street, I don't say, number 1 what is the visual pattern? Number 2 what is the movement? Number 3 what shapes am I dealing with? Number 4 what speeds are these coming in? The light pole is coming at me in a different speed than the car. I have to take this into account, I don't dodge the light pole the same way I dodge the car. So I am taking into account velocity. The sounds and feelings, how am I feeling about this, if I am all nervous and frightened I respond to it differently then if I am confident. All this happens subconsciously.

You've seen in movies, the hero always manages to dash across absolutely clogged intersections, nimbly dogging all the cars and making it to the other side, and the bad guy gets trapped. That's because the bad guy doesn't have the same kind of processing abilities as the hero does. We tend to assume that our students are short of those processing abilities in our teaching environment. Here the average 15-year-old has no problem crossing the street, but the average 15-year-old gets stuck in class, why? Brain researchers say the reasons why the average 15 year old can get stuck in class is because we are trying to get that 15 year old to behave contrary to what the brain of the 15 year old is telling him or her is the right way to behave.

The total number of connections that the brain can make is unknown. It's now known (if someone wants to count them) that the brain has 100 billion brain cells. But the number of connections is not known. The lowest number of connections that is estimated is 10 to the 14th power. 10 with 14 zeros after it. Most argued that it is 10 to the 80th power, to as many as 10 to the 100th power. I don't know whether it makes a difference if it is 10 with 80 zeros, or 800 zeros. But to get an idea, consider this: the number of atoms in the known universe, not just on earth, is only 10 to the 80th power.

	How is merit pay different from differentiated staffing?	Answer Here
	No application question	Answer Here
	What questions do you now have about what you just read?