Brain Scramblers

by Kelly Knowlden

What are contributing factors to brain confusion? Let me start by talking about pedagogical methods. Having student learn information in haphazard ways without connecting it to previously learned material gives students the impression that learning is not systematic. Also, not making connections to daily life in either application or by motivation increases a student’s disinterest in the educational pro- cess. ICS deals with these teaching methods by training teachers and reminding ourselves of these often.

Another thing that causes disruption to the brain is a lack of discipline. Corporal discipline that starts when children are little and incorporates the biblical standards of patience and prayer help structure the heart in not giving in to whatever it desires. This translates into learning taking place when it is hard and not full of fun. It helps the motivational process as well. Children that are trained by the method explained in the Proverbs will gain the value of hard work.

Brains are also scrambled by emotional stress. This can be due to many factors, including a move, death of someone close, perceived or real stress in the home because of parental tensions, physical needs, health needs, hurts from those close to the family or many other issues. These are all results of living in a broken world and are often outside the scope of our control. However, parental ability to be confident in the goodness of God and ultimately His work on the cross will undermine these stresses and help children learn.

There are neurological brain scramblers whose causes are far too complex for us to figure out. We do know that they exist and do affect not only the way students learn, but also how they perceive all of life. The reason these disabilities show up in the classroom is that the structure of learning imposes certain requirements of the brain that may not have been noticed in the home environment.

Of course, dislike of learning a subject affects ones ability to acquire that information as well.

So in dealing with all the possible reasons for learning problems, we end up working as consistently as possible with a “troubleshooting” mentality that tries to “figure out” what is the thing that a particular student is dealing with. Then we work at applying various methods of discipline, correction, learning devices until we see real learning take place. Over all, the teachers and administration at ICS work very hard at serving you to help unscramble the brain puzzle that makes learning difficult. If you need our help, call and set up an appointment with the teacher or myself.