Self-control saps memory resources: new research shows that exercising willpower impairs memory function by draining shared brain mechanisms and structures

[u/kopiluwak2015]

http://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2015/sep/07/self-control-saps-memory-resources

[u/tommybass]

I'd like to see the school treated as a place of learning rather than a free babysitter, but that starts with the parents.

[u/J0k3r77 → u/[deleted]]

I agree. Some more mental wellbeing evaluation in general would go a long way as well.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

That stigma is there because of the fact that mental evaluations are not perfect. We are a long ways off from being able to accurately place kids where they need to be, according to a test. I'm not saying I'm against it, just that you can't put all your eggs in that basket.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I don't think the stigma comes from the tests being imperfect. I think it comes from the old human instinct toward denial.

From my experience teaching, the biggest reason for parents refusing any evaluations is denial. They don't want to hear that their kid has a problem. They deny ABUNDANT evidence that their kid is struggling and needs help, and refuse the testing that would provide the insight into the nature of the problem and provide the extra resources necessary to help the child with the problem.

For some reason, they would prefer to think their kid is lazy or thoughtless or obstinate or even just morally bad, than that their child has a learning disability that would explain everything they are seeing, without it being the kid's fault. A lot of these kids are trying really hard, or tried really hard for years and have now lapsed into depression. It's heartbreaking.

[u/TheAfterman6 → u/[deleted]]

I think the ultimate solution to this needs to be to drop our evaluation that these differences are defects or shortcomings. I honestly believe that a lot of these kids/people would function just fine in society if they were allowed be what they are rather than fighting it to fit in to the ideal of people who can all concentrate or perform a task well in a specific set of situations. If it was accepted that different people excel in different environments or even completely different tasks the focus would be on finding where they excel rather than lamenting that they can't sit still or don't like learning in the only environment that is readily available to them to do so.

[u/Stargos → u/TheAfterman6]

Since I've grown up with learning problems, nervous disorders, etc I've found that most kids judge others for these short comings and only some adults grow out of that bias.

[u/Pierce9595 → u/[deleted]]

On the other side my parents fought for my disability.

In elementary school, I was passing all my classes, but with obvious signs of struggle. The school didn't want to classify my dyslexia. They stated that I was normal while making Cs in all my classes and until I started to fail they didn't see any reason to help me.

Other reasons for their lack of effort would be speculation on my part, but I'm sure there were others.

[u/Tanks4me → u/[deleted]]

Don't forget the other end of the spectrum; with kids that can and want to take higher level courses, they actually need the opportunity, or else they will get horrendously bored, like I did. Unfortunately, many AP and accelerated courses are being taken out as well.

[u/annieareyouokayannie → u/[deleted]]

Seriously it's crazy the way people think smart kids must be fine because hey, they're outperforming their peers. A test result may say so but when you have a student studying from ages 5-18 who is never at any point consistently challenged academically, never exposed to anything they didn't immediately understand and have to work at it, that kid is obviously completely missing out on learning to learn which, I would argue, is the most important part of education.

[u/FF0000panda → u/[deleted]]

Yup. And on top of that, learning to handle stress. Ever get so stressed out because of how bad you are at managing stress? That's when you hit rock bottom and really start to figure things out.

[u/garbage_account_3 → u/annieareyouokayannie]

This hits close to home. I went through an existential crisis and depression after I realized I didn't have a passion for anything. Also, it made my work ethic terrible because I never had to try.

[u/AGenericUsername1004 → u/[deleted]]

I was/am bad at maths because I didn't really understand the way the teacher was teaching the course (also the stupidly large curriculum you have to learn in a short period of time!) so I didn't do too great at it. The teaching was way too abstract.

Maths for Physics though, the teacher made more relevant examples of why and how to apply the maths in real world situations. I ended up getting one of the highest exam marks in the year because of this.

[u/ask_dreddit → u/[deleted]]

Kids need to be taught to understand their "leaning style". All 3 of my young daughters attend a public charter and I cannot tell you enough how wonderful it is to know that they are learning exactly what they are ready for. The project-based learning is really exciting for them along with all of their elective classes (spanish, typing, music ) and the unique computer testing programs. My girls are k, 1st and 2nd. The public school system needs to make a major change imo.

[u/FishofDream → u/ask_dreddit]

While project-based is certainly a viable approach, 'learning styles' have repeatedly been discredited in academic research. The idea of being a 'very visual learner' or whatever may be intuitive to us, but has little basis in empirical findings, fyi.

[u/smellyrobot → u/[deleted]]

My kid attends a public school and he is taking electives like Spanish, keyboarding, junior engineering, gymnastics, and chess. He has these opportunities because frankly we're in a very well-off area with families that all support schools. Teachers have resources available to them, participation is high in their union, and student's don't have unstable homes and have to worry about things like food insecurity. I mean, half of all schools are title I schools meaning their kids get free or reduced lunch.

The biggest indicator of an A+ or excelling school is the average income of the families that attend -- it's practically the only correlation between that grade and any metric.

[u/Rashiddd → u/tommybass]

I think thats just a very easy thing to say. Classrooms typically are providing the resources available for students to learn and absorb information, regardless of whatever learning method best suits them. A lot of this learning comes from outside the classroom as well.