Brain Rules and Empathy

Medina's third chapter talks about the enormous variations in how individual human brains are wired. Some of this is genetic, but much of it is experiential; the result of the constant rewiring of our brains as we process new information and experiences. Similar information is often stored in completely different parts of the brain from one person to another.

We have also known for years - since Howard Gardner, at least - that people can be 'intelligent' in very different ways (little of which, I feel obliged to add, is measured by standardized tests.)

The result of different brain wiring is that every person approaches and learns new information somewhat differently; hence, the need for 'differentiated instruction'. A good teacher understands this about his students, and that the way he learned best is not necessarily the best way to teach.

Teachers, therefore, need to have strong skills of empathy – the ability to see and understand things from another point of view.

We ordinarily don't see empathy as a skill - you either have it or you don't, to varying degrees.  (This perception is probably connected to the widely held belief that teachers are born and not made - most recently articulated by Bill Gates, who should be more careful about what he says.)

But the idea of 'learning' to be empathetic becomes more plausible once you get past the idea that this is not just another way of saying "being a nice person". (Although being nice helps.) Strictly speaking, empathy is the ability to understand what another person is thinking and feeling. 'Being nice' is what you might do with that information. For example, good poker players are, in a sense, highly empathetic - but not necessarily "nice".

Another important human variation is the rate at which the brain develops. If you've ever seen a third grade class picture, you were not surprised to see some students standing fully head and shoulders above others. Why would we think there isn't similar variation in brain development?

And yet we have an educational system that has been designed on the premise that every eight-year-old "should" be at the same place in intellectual development. Perhaps we need to rethink this.