Why Do Schools Flunk Biology? - By LynNell Hancock - part 3
Scientists argue that children are capable of far more at younger ages than schools generally realize. People obviously continue learningtheir whole lives, but the optimum “windows of opportunity for learning” last until about the age of 10 or 12, says Harry Chugani of Wayne State University's Children's Hospital of Michigan. Chugani determined this by measuring the brain's consumption of its chief energy source, glucose. (The more glucose it uses, the more active the brain.) Children's brains, he observes, gobble up glucose at twice the adult rate from the age of 4 to puberty. So young brains are as primed as they'll ever be to process new information. Complex subjects such as trigonometry or foreign language shouldn't wait for puberty to be introduced. In fact, Chugani says, “it's far easier for an elementary-school child to hear and process a second language — and even speak it without an accent. Yet most U.S. districts wait until junior high to introduce Spanish or French — after the “windows” are closed.
Reform could begin at the beginning. Many sleep researchers now believe that most teens' biological clocks are set later than those of their fellow humans. But high school starts at 7:30 a.m., usually to accommodate bus schedules. The result can be wasted class time for whole groups of kids. Making matters worse, many kids have trouble readjusting their natural sleep rhythm. Dr. Richard Allen of Johns Hopkins University found that teens went to sleep at the same time whether they had to be at school by 7:30 a.m. or 9:30 a.m. The later-to-rise teens not only get more sleep, he says; they also get better grades. The obvious solution would be to start school later when kids hit puberty. But at school, there's what's obvious, and then there's tradition.
Why is this body of research rarely used in most American classrooms? Not many administrators or school-board members know it exists, says Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of education at Columbia University's Teachers College. In most states, neither teachers nor administrators are required to know much about how children learn in order to be certified. What's worse, she says, decisions to cut music or gym are often made by noneducators, whose concerns are more often monetary than educational. “Our school system was invented in the late 1800s, and little has changed,” she says. “Can you imagine if the medical profession ran this way?”
- Why Do Schools Flunk Biology? - part 1
- Why Do Schools Flunk Biology? - part 2
- Why Do Schools Flunk Biology? - part 3