Early Childhood Education

A new study Indicates that Early Childhood Education in Brain Health brings hope to boost future incomes of children of low-income families. As I read the Daily Press published on the Virginia Peninsula, I was intrigued with this article about the Dallas Center for Brain-Health at University of Texas Dallas and the Momentous Institute, a non-profit which provides mental health services for 5,500 students from bi-lingual families. The licensed therapists also spoke Spanish and English.

    This study found that a child can learn how mental health affects learning. In turn, this enables a child to regulate his/her emotions and stress as they affect learning. When teaching high school English students in the 1960's, I realized that a crying, distraught teen coming from a heated discussion about Viet Nam in her previous history class was in enormous stress. Her brother was fighting in the Vietnamese War, and she could not learn until she calmed down.  However, I never recognized the importance of her learning CONTROL.  I usually took her into the hallway and let her talk.  Eventually she was able to return to my English class to learn. Unfortunately, later in college, she committed suicide. Perhaps brain health learning could have helped her.

     Dr. Andrew Nevin, research director for this Brainomics Venture at the Center for Brain Health and Dr. Jessica Gomez, executive director of  Momentous Institute both believe that teaching children between 3 and 11  "helps them consider how brain health shapes life choices."  This brain health could provide one avenue to lower the current suicide rate. Dr. Andrew Nevin at UTDallas states that understanding the brain helps students "improve their cognitive skills, such as information processing, decision-making and innovation." He sees these skills as helpful in a world which will be increasingly driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI). If humans can't do a job better than AI, he/she will not have a job. 

    Dr. Jennifer Kitil, a Psychology professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, who was not involved with the study in Dallas, also believes that humans can make ethical decisions that A1 cannot.  

    In addition, researchers found that "97% of the Momentous low-income    alumni received a high school diploma and 48% received a college degree" compared to a control group in which 91% of a high-income group earned a  high school diploma and 31% went on to earn a college degree. Using data  from U.S. Career Institute, researchers found that Momentous low-income    families' group could expect "to earn between $1.3 million and $2.7 million over their lifetimes...." after their brain-health learning in childhood."  

    To me, this neuroscience finding on brain health can bring hope to the future.   If mankind begins to improve learning outcomes, I believe not only increased income but lifestyles will improve.  I think mankind's role will change. We will have problems to solve, both personally and environ- mentally, as we bravely approach a new world. But I have hope for  mankind to learn to assimilate new findings such as brain health and AI.