Learning about the brain helps understand achievement

The kind, quantity and quality of use and experiences determine the kind, quantity and quality of neuron connections. The higher the quantity and quality of neuron connections, the more intelligent one is and vice versa.

The simple empowering implications of neuroplasticity are clear — we can create our own brain. With effort, we can intentionally manufacture intelligence and determine our level of intelligence and intellectual achievement ranging from pre-meditated ignorance, to acquisition of basic facts, to various levels of learning and understanding, to wisdom – the highest level of intellectual achievement, a synthesis of broad and deep knowledge, understanding and experience.

This knowledge imposes a moral obligation of parents to provide children with the appropriate experience and exposure.

When families and whole communities adopt these values, creativity and achievement of old and young increases exponentially, boosting the economy and improving the lifestyle.

The extraordinary achievement of immigrant children from Confucian cultures in Asia is one of the best examples of how effort can create superior brains and intelligence. Many come knowing little or no English but through effort, graduate from high school at the top of their classes and go on to some of the most selective colleges and universities.

Another example is the ability of the adult brain to create new neuron connections. Up until about 20 years ago, the adult brain was thought to be almost in rigor mortis. You could not teach old brains new tricks.

Repeated research, however, shows this is wrong. Old human brains can remake, reorganize and remodel themselves by creating new neuron connections as is often demonstrated after strokes.

The kind, quantity and quality of these neuron connections are essentially what we mean by intelligence, learning and level of education.

When we say, for example, that middle-class children, with supportive educated parents perform better than poor children of poorly educated parents, what we are really saying is that middle-class children have more and better neuron connections in the brain because of the quantity and quality of enriching experiences – for example, access to books, parents that read and read to them, rational conversation in which parents use mainstream English and speak in complete sentences.

Research shows that rational conversation and using complete sentences with young children alone significantly contribute to brain development, laying the foundation for lifelong learning and academic achievement.

Poor and disadvantaged children without these kinds of experiences and opportunities start behind at conception, especially if their mothers are poor children, and are likely to remain behind for life. This is one of the tragedies of teen pregnancy and the tragedy and immorality of institutionalized, gross inequality, which keeps children from getting an even start.

It is no accident that the countries we marvel at because of the general overall high academic achievement of their children have far less inequality and a safety net that ensures a continued dignified lifestyle even with illness or loss of income.

Low academic achievement is rooted in socioeconomic inequality and poverty. Programs to remedy low academic achievement without abolishing inequality, are primarily Band-Aids, a let-us-pretend game played with smoke and mirrors. This continuing inequality should be at the heart of the continuing civil rights and social justice struggles, a continuation of the Brown v. Board of Education litigation.

When we say that some people are more educated than others, what we are really saying is that the better educated have more cognitive tools to work with, which at the molecular biological level means more basic factual knowledge stored in greater quantity and higher quality neuron connections. They have superior brains and superior brainpower.

Van Caldwell, a lawyer, lives in Kettering. He can be e-mailed at wvcaldwell@comcast.net.