Parents for Educating Texas

PFET Weekend Edition!

Temple Grandin, who was diagnosed with autism with a child, speaks to thinking with pictures instead of language. According to the TED website, "She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids." Watch this inspiring TED Talk about the importance of including different kinds of thinking in education, and in the world. Happy weekend!

  

 

PFET Weekend Edition!

(Illustration of Maria Popova courtesy of Brain Pickings)

If you follow my posts, you know how much I love cultural curator Maria Popova and her intelligent, thought-provoking blog Brain Pickings. (If you don't already, please follow her on Twitter, because her tweets alone comprise an entire education.) For the weekend, I bring you her fascinating list of 7 Must-Read Books on Music, Emotion and the Brain. We live in a time when the powers-that-be believe that kids need math and reading, and everything else is merely fun and "extras" we can live without; these amazing books show us that artforms like music aren't extras at all, but are an integral part of who we are as a culture and a species. Could there be a close connection between children's achievement and the emotion, fun, and soul-lifting they receive through an education in the arts? 

Take a look and expand your mind with these books on music and its effects on emotion and the brain.

Have a great weekend! 

PFET Weekend Edition!

 

Why does your child spend more time playing Wii than reading? Why does she wake up each morning and beg you not to take her to school? Why are we rapidly falling behind among the world's leaders in education? Why is it a large swath of American children make it through school and still don't know the basics of reading and math? 

Former teacher, writer and thinker Sir Ken Robinson explores the reasons why our education system isn't working. He suggests that, instead of numbing our children into sumbission under the current system, we change the entire paradigm to spark their interest, leading ultimately to better learners armed with skills, passions and creativity for the 21st Century.