More on Growing Braincells
Seed Magazine has now posted their fascinating article on the research regarding how we do (or don’t) grow new brain cells from the February issue. I referred to this article in a previous post.
I love it from two entirely different perspectives. First, as an educator, the insight into how our environment hinders or enhances the growth of new brain cells is really powerful. We now have evidence that the kind of learning environment many of us seek for students actually makes a difference in the physical structure of kids’ brains. When we talk about shaping their minds, it’s literal!
Second, as a science-type person, I am fascinated to read about how a researcher with fresh eyes can come in and turn a long-accepted fact (”People do not grow new brain cells”) and turn it on its head. This doesn’t just happen in science - any profession develops a herd mentality, which is why sometimes the most clueless people on any given topic are experts in that field. (Witness the mass delusion of investment experts during the tech bubble, for instance!) I have great respect for the kind of person that can come in and see through the unchallenged assumptions and argue for a radically new vision against long-established thinking.
The question that it brings to mind is this - how do we innoculate ourselves from this kind of group thinking? I hope we can use blogs and the internetworking created through Web 2.0 to help challenge incorrect group-thinking, instead of reinforcing it.