This just in from Angie Witmer, Super-FINK in Des Moines and just back from Dr. Eric Jensen's brain based learning school in California:
Big take home messages: hope has to run in and through everything we do; we need to work with parents so that they are working with kids every night at home (sound familiar?); transformation is possible with almost any brain--the only ones that are seemingly beyond repair are those who have been abused with drugs for years and years; there are really very few people who have healthy brains (long story--but amazing stats).
There are a lot of 'little' take homes, too: learned helplessness can be unlearned (and let's face it, aren't many folks in our congregation acting helpless: "It's your job, pastor--I'm just a lay person!"); what we do with our kids between the ages of 0-5 is critical--absolutely, positively critical; optimal skill building has to include repetition, buy-in, regular feedback and practice, practice, practice (again...sound familiar?).
Relationship. Relationship. Relationship. We need to belong to a social fabric--the neurobiological set of capabilities that makes us feel that we belong to something beyond ourselves.
We used to say "it's the quality, not the quantity". We were wrong. It's both.
Angie's thinking about writing a book on the brain and the church. Drop her a line if you've got ideas she should cover.
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