Just finished "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins, the guy who invented palm pilot and graffiti handwriting recognition software and the Treo. I learned a lot about how the brain learns through pattern recognition.
The best part of the book is his in-depth look at how the layers of the neo-cortex build upon patterns that already exist. One might come to the conclusion that you can't learn anything you don't already know. (Educatio = to draw out). I call it a "frame of reverence". It is surprize and novelty that allows you to put things you already know together and build new understandings. Without telling stories and using existing patterns, they don't have a frame of reference, and you might as well be talking in Swahili. Also, without surprize in your teaching - breaking patterns they expect - and without surprize in your preaching, they aren't going to learn or understand anything new.
The second best part of the book is his explanation of how memory works. We're trying to apply that right now to our music/art/sign language Bible Song Sunday school piece.
I do have some major problems with his underlying "you are your brain... and that's all you are..." philosophy. It leaves no room for the transcendent, the spiritual, or the eternal. Sad.
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