The Power of

Learning
Building Blocks of Knowledge
Amazing Brains at Every Age • The Science of Memory
Learning in the Real World

PLUS
How
Animals
Learn
•••
 The Power of
Learning
Building Blocks of Knowledge
Amazing Brains at Every Age • The Science of Memory
Learning in the Real World
Contents

2 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 4
All We Do Is Learn

8
CHAPTER ONE

The Ways We Learn

10 Harnessing a Universe
of Knowledge
16 The Secret Brainpower of Babies
24 Food for Thought 28
28 Forgetting Can Be a Friend to Learning
36 When Learners Stumble
40 What We Know About What
Animals Know

48
CHAPTER TWO

Shaping Education

50 The Art and Science

of Teaching
56 The Lessons of History
66 Addressing Bias in
the Classroom
40
70 Education Around the World

80
CHAPTER THREE

Modern Learning

82 The New (Virtual) Reality

86 How to Raise a (Successful) Failure
90 Learning in a Brave New World

96 Learned Words

Parts of this special edition were previously published in Real Simple.

66

3
 INTRODUCTION

ALL WE DO
IS LEARN
By observation, by practice, by conscious
studying and by subconscious imitation, human
beings are multifaceted learning machines
from our first days to our last
BY RICHARD JEROME

Y OU MAY NOT realize

it, but you’ve
got something
wonderful in
common with
observed knowledge to their advan-
tage, a strategy thought unique
to Homo sapiens. “Nine-spined
sticklebacks may be the geniuses
of the fish world,” study co-author
the nine-spined stickleback. That Kevin Laland, an evolutionary
would be a species of freshwater biologist at St. Andrews University,
fish, scarcely more than two inches in Scotland, has said. “It’s remark-
long, named for a row of spiky able that a form of learning found
protrusions from its backboness. to be optimal in humans is exactly
Apart from that distinguishing what these fish do.”
characteristic, the stickleback might Within limits, of course. Thanks
at first blush seem inconsequential. to that ineffably complex neuro-
But there’s more to it than meets the logical supercomputer housed in
eye—hidden depths, so to speak. A our skulls, humans are still the
2009 study, published in the journal only species that can learn to, say,
Behavioral Ecology, revealed that sequence genes, bake ziti, write
this diminutive creature displays Ulysses or (perhaps) parallel park.
an uncanny—indeed downright Whether intentionally, by accident,
human—ability to learn. The fish through osmosis or otherwise, we
scrutinizes the feeding behavior hoover up data, ideas, behaviors,
of its fellow sticklebacks, discerns and all manner of stimuli from day
which ones are the best foragers and one through day last. We learn at
mimics them in order to improve its wildly varying rates and levels—
own feeding success. Other species but whatever our personal intel-
are known to engage in this “social lectual capacity, we never really
learning,” as it’s known, typically stop taking in information, however
when young animals imitate adults complicated or quotidian. We
in their group. But the sticklebacks learn consciously and by design—
in the study showed a stunningly through education or study—
sophisticated knack for applying and we learn when we’re not even

4 THE POWER OF LEARNING

5
 INTRODUCTION

aware we’re learning. figuratively, as a kind of rhetorical life. Another unschooled savant,
Deconstruct your daily flourish used for effect, and not to the sculptor Alonzo Clemons, 63,
existence—all that you do, see, hear, suggest that my mom dabbled in can glance at an animal for a few
feel and experience, your cache of medieval mysticism. (Though she seconds, and mold a clay replica
general knowledge. You learned to was kind of magical, at that.) that is essentially exact in every
walk, talk and know right from left. Over time we flesh out our detail, down to the last muscle and
You learned that if you stick your rudimentary baseline knowledge tendon. The late psychiatrist Darold
hand into a flame it burns—and with data and details. By rote, we Treffert, a specialist in autism and
you catalogued that sensation for commit to memory raw numbers savant syndrome who knew both
future reference. You learned how and factoids to regurgitate on men, suggested that such savants
to recognize people and distinguish demand (baseball statistics, in possess “genetic memory,” a kind of
them (when appropriate) from my case). But as we grow into chip in their brains that gives them
barnyard animals. You learned that adolescence and adulthood, if not only natural skills and abili-
dark clouds can bring rain, and all goes well, our learning takes ties but “innate access to the vast
you learned that if you run with on a new depth. We don’t simply syntax and rules of art, mathemat-
scissors “you could put your eye stockpile raw knowledge, we also ics, music and even language, in the
out.” Sometimes you were taught enrich it with understanding. We absence of any formal training and
by elders; other times, like a nine- retrieve memorized material and in the presence of major disability.”
spined stickleback, you learned apply reason to solve problems or For Lemke and Clemons, this chip
through observation. Or, perhaps, adapt to environmental changes of sophisticated knowledge comes
you learned by just doing it. and challenges. We learn to grasp “factory installed.”
shades of meaning, appreciate The vast majority of us don’t
LEARNING IS LAYERING. We collect nuance, recognize subtext, differ- roll off the assembly line with such
and accumulate information like entiate between seriousness and built-in advantages. We have to
the rings of an ancient tree. As sarcasm. We learn to read a room as acquire skills and information the
small children we learn count- well as a book, to develop emotional old-fashioned way, by learning
less elementary skills and lessons, intelligence and empathy. All them. How humans learn—and
and we learn them so completely of this learning unfolds inside how best to teach them—is a vast
that today we can’t remember not the brain and involves an elabo- field of study, comprising a range
knowing them. Before I entered rate biochemical choreography, of theories and approaches. Some
kindergarten, my mother taught performed by neurons, synapses people, for example, may be more
me to read, an experience so vivid and neurotransmitters—a process responsive to didactic, lecture-
I can still see it, all these decades that remains largely mysterious. centered instruction. For others,
later. We’d snuggle up on her bed, How, for example, does one a kinesthetic approach, involving
my cheek pressed against her faintly account for someone such as Leslie hands-on projects, might work best.
freckled arm, one of those Grosset Lemke? The blind Wisconsin A relatively new field called educa-
& Dunlap children’s books open pianist, who has performed all tional neuroscience probes the
on the spread, light streaming in over the world, is what’s known enigmatic brain chemistry of learn-
through the dormer window, a soft as an autistic savant. He has a low ing, in hopes that an understanding
breeze rustling the eyelet curtains. verbal IQ of 58 and suffers from of those biological processes can
Indeed, I remember almost every cerebral palsy. Yet Lemke, now be applied to the classroom. (In a
detail about learning to read— 69, can listen to a piece of music characteristic experiment, research-
except actually learning to read. But once through, and no matter how ers at Carnegie Mellon University
I did learn, as most of us do, so that intricate the work, play it back hooked up students to MRI
one day, by some strange alchemy, I with unerring precision; not only machines throughout a physics
could glance at the phrase “by some that, he can improvise exquisitely course.) Meanwhile, many educators
strange alchemy” and recognize not crafted variations—and, if the mood champion cognitive and behavioral
only each word and its meaning, strikes him, make up compositions psychology as the more useful tools
but also the entire sequence and of his own on the spot. Lemke has to maximize learning potential.
its context—that it was meant never taken a music lesson in his Of course, learning is subject

6 THE POWER OF LEARNING

Once charged with heresy for his teachings, the polymath Galileo is now regarded as the father of modern science.

to a range of socioeconomic and torture or execution, allowing him satisfied, lights up the reward
cultural factors that have nothing to to spend the last nine years of his centers of our brains. Sometimes
do with brain science or pedagogy. life under house arrest. In America that leads to the discovery of a new
Family dynamics, wealth, poverty, less than a century ago Tennessee vaccine. Other times it’s searching
privilege, systemic racism, religious schoolteacher John Scopes was IMDb to find out who played the
doctrine, politics and mass infamously tried, convicted and pickpocket in Casablanca (German
media—all affect the acquisition fined for allegedly discussing actor Curt Bois, if you’re scoring).
and retention of knowledge. And in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolu- “More often than not,” wrote the
many instances, they are a profound tion in his classroom. British psychologist Tom Stafford
hinderance to human enlighten- Nevertheless, we persist. Today of the University of Sheffield on
ment. Throughout history, learn- Galileo is revered as the “father BBC.com, “our curiosity has us
ing has waged a battle against the of modern science.” Learning doing utterly unproductive things
entrenched forces of ignorance, marches on—and evolution, in fact, like reading news about people we
repression, superstition and has much to do with it. Humans will never meet, learning topics we
tradition. Recall Galileo, who was developed into a uniquely curious will never have use for, or exploring
tried by the Inquisition in 1633 for animal, a trait partly rooted in places we will never come back to.
advocating the Copernican theory what’s known as neoteny, or the We just love to know the answers
of heliocentrism—that the Earth retention of juvenile characteris- to things, even if there's no obvious
and planets revolve around the tics. We are more childlike than benefit. . . . And thank goodness—
stationary sun, at the center of what other species, reflected in our otherwise we would have evolved to
was then the known universe. This lifelong, insatiable desire to poke be a deadly-boring species which . . .
heresy flew in the face of biblical into things. If this innate curiosity never tried things to just see what
scripture, which placed Earth at the originated as a survival strategy, happened or did things for the hell
center of all things. Only a report- it evolved into something else: of it.” Learning is not only the most
edly insincere recantation saved a persistent urge just to find stuff important part of life, it can also be
Galileo—then nearly 70—from out, however trivial, that, when the best.

7
 THE WAYS
WE LEARN
We spend our lifetimes
experiencing the world around
us and converting information
into knowledge that we put to
Chapter One

use in our daily lives

8 THE POWER OF LEARNING

ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY CAMPBELL
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

10 THE POWER OF LEARNING

Harnessing
a Universe of
Knowledge
Research shows that a variety of factors—
biological, emotional and environmental—
help drive our ability to learn
BY MARKHAM HEID

I N HIS 1974 best

seller, Zen and the
Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance, the
author Robert M.
himself, on later reflection, views
the experience as a cautionary
tale about the dangers of assump-
tion. The lesson he took from that
day and tries to apply to future
Pirsig describes an occasion when, dilemmas—many of which have
in the middle of a rainstorm, his nothing to do with motorcycles—is
titular bike sputters to a stop and that jumping to conclusions or
won’t restart. working hastily leads to silly
Pirsig rocks the motorcycle from mistakes and unnecessary trials.
side to side and, hearing the sound The blunder that Pirsig
of sloshing liquid, assumes there describes and the knowledge
is gas in the tank. He spends time that he hopes to glean from it
examining the bike’s components— help illustrate the complexity of
its plugs, points and carburetor—in human learning—much of which is
a fruitless effort to identify the experience-based. How can people
issue, which he assumes has to do both lock away useful knowledge
with the rain. Eventually he gives or wisdom and, just as important,
up and hauls his bike home on a summon it at the appropriate
trailer. Weeks later while reexamin- moment? These are the sorts of
ing the bike, he starts to take the questions that challenge experts
engine apart and realizes that the who study the science of learning.
gas tank is empty, which was the “Learning is a very active
problem all along. The sloshing process—not one of ‘ingesting
sound he’d heard was the gas in and retaining’ like a squirrel
the reserve tank, which he’d never ingests nuts or a file drawer stores
switched on. information,” says Mary Helen
What Pirsig describes is a Immordino-Yang, a professor
quintessential learning experience. of education, psychology and
But what’s the lesson? Some might neuroscience at the University
say, “Always double-check the gas of Southern California’s Rossier
tank.” And that’s true. But Pirsig School of Education. Life exposes

11
Games and puzzles can help build an aptitude for finding solutions to complex problems.

the brain to a limitless ocean of mistake—such as the one Pirsig characteristics that facilitate learn-
information. Even if a person describes—that teaches a person to ing in a range of contexts. What
manages to memorize a portion of be patient and deliberate. tools does the brain require to do
it—to squirrel it away—it does them As the saying goes, “Live and the work of learning? While the list
little good unless they can access learn.” But life’s teachings are often is long, experts say some are clearly
it at the right moment and apply it nested inside one another. How more essential than others.
in real-world contexts. “The task of does the brain sort through and “Motivation, or a willingness to
learning is to transform some of that soak up these coincident lessons? learn, is one of the basic elements,”
information into knowledge that can Why do some people thrive in says Eva Kyndt, an associate profes-
be used and acted upon,” she says. certain learning contexts while sor at the University of Antwerp, in
Learning is among the brain’s others flounder? And what are the Belgium, and Swinburne University
fundamental functions. The factors, both internal and external, of Technology, in Melbourne,
question “How does the brain that help people retain and recall Australia. Kyndt says that motiva-
learn?” is roughly analogous to knowledge in ways that will be tion often comes when the brain
“How does the brain work?” There most helpful to them? Researchers takes note of a “discrepancy”—a
is no simple answer. Learning could say some of those questions have disconnect between the knowledge
mean sitting down with a textbook clear answers. Others remain it has and the knowledge it wants.
to study algebra or the law. But the clouded in debate. This discrepancy may be positive
rush of dopamine-fueled pleasure or negative. “It could be, ‘Damn it, I
that the brain experiences when a Learning: The Necessary have a problem to solve and I don’t
person takes a bite of ice cream or Ingredients have the skills to solve it,’” she says.
taps one of the candy-colored icons One of the simplest ways to “Or it could be, ‘That’s really inter-
on a smartphone is also a form of approach the science of learn- esting, and I want to know more
learning. So is the memory of a ing is to examine the skills or about that.’” The brain doesn’t hold

12 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

on to information arbitrarily; it Minimalism. “And that stretch Nelson III, a professor of pediat-
keeps what it believes it can use. requires unbroken concentration.” rics and neuroscience at Harvard
One way to motivate the brain He says that the amount of concen- Medical School and a professor of
is to expose it to something new tration a person requires to learn education at Harvard University.
and unfamiliar. Kyndt’s current something new depends in part on Setting aside the role of genet-
area of research concerns profes- the complexity of the material. The ics, Nelson says that a more useful
sional development and continu- more complex something is, the question—and one that researchers
ing education. She says that when more sustained focus a person will are closer to answering—pertains
people start a new job, their lack likely need to grasp it. to the childhood environments
of knowledge is so apparent to There are other skills or “habits and relationships that set people
them that motivation often arises of mind” that facilitate learning, up for a lifetime of learning. “The
naturally. But as people spend such as curiosity and diligence. home environment seems to
years or decades in a role, their And the published scholarship on matter,” he says. “Children who
motivation to learn often falls. For learning is packed with papers that grow up in cognitively stimulating
companies hoping to encourage explore the ways in which a person and linguistically rich environ-
these less-motivated employees, can cultivate or corrupt these ments tend to be more sophisti-
showing them the holes in their skills. But where do these capabili- cated in their knowledge of the
knowledge can be helpful. “It used ties come from to begin with? Why world and their ability to grasp
to be that you’d train people and do some people seem to possess things.” What does “cognitively
then test them on their knowledge,” a large measure of them innately stimulating” mean in this context?
says Kyndt. “Now some organiza- while others do not? Experts say “Playing games with kids,” he
tions are starting with testing to a person’s experience, age and says. “Interacting with them and
show people the discrepancy that environment help explain why challenging them intellectually.”
exists and the value they’d get out learning comes easily to some and This kind of challenging inter-
of [addressing] it.” not to others. action could be as simple as asking
Another aspect of learning— children thoughtful questions,
one that goes hand in hand with Teaching a Mind to Learn pushing them to solve their
motivation—is opportunity. “If Is an ability to learn written into own problems or teaching them
you’re very highly motivated, a person’s genetic code? Maybe, at numbers and letters. “The contrast
you’ll create your own oppor- least a little bit. Research from the to this,” he says, “would be plopping
tunities,” Kyndt says. “But if the University of Texas at Austin has the kid in front of a screen or a TV
opportunities are there and easy, found evidence that genes play a and not talking to them.” Screens
you may need less motivation.” For part in shaping a person’s charac- are fine in small doses, he adds, but
example, a young person who has ter traits, including some—such human interaction seems to be the
access to private tutoring or other as intellectual curiosity—that best fertilizer for growing a healthy,
educational resources may require are associated with academic inquisitive and capable mind.
less motivation to learn than the achievement. While many parents rightly
student who lacks access to such But researchers have thus far focus on the quality of their
tools and aids. identified more than 800 genes children’s schools, experts say that
Along with motivation and that are associated with cognitive early childhood may matter just
opportunity, sustained attention is functioning. How clusters of these as much—or even more—when
another important learning skill. genes interact with one another it comes to shaping the kinds
“The ability to learn new things— and are expressed and how all that of brains that learn best. “We’ve
whether that’s calculus or hitting promotes or inhibits learning in a known for years that there’s this
a fastball—requires stretching given individual or situation are explosion of brain development
your brain past the point of what’s puzzles that science is unlikely to during the first three years [of
familiar or comfortable,” says Cal solve. “Genes may explain some childhood], but as a society we
Newport, an associate professor of percentage of a person’s ability don’t invest much in these years
computer science at Georgetown to learn, but the work there is in relation to what we spend on
University and the author of Digital very unsatisfying,” says Charles kindergarten through 12th grade,”

13
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

says Doug Knecht, a former teacher engage more of young people’s

and current vice president of mental faculties, rather than just
Bank Street College of Education, their ability to ingest and regurgi-
a higher-education institution tate information.
in New York City. Unlike most There’s the old saw that people
other developed countries, the U.S. never remember what they learn
allocates very little money to the in school. Immordino-Yang says
subsidy of high-quality day-care this mostly misses the point of an
and preschool services—a situation education, which is not primarily
that Knecht calls “shameful” and about hammering facts, procedures
counterproductive. and information into a person’s
There has been—and continues memory; it’s about building mental
to be—a tremendous amount of skills and dispositions that will
attention paid to K–12 education help people learn and succeed
and the different teaching styles, throughout life. A 2020 study
curricula and school environments that she co-authored found that
that best support learning. There children educated in Montessori
is not broad expert consensus on schools—which is one of several
these topics, but some say change is progressive approaches to educa-
needed. “There’s a lot of evidence tion that prioritize independent
that project-based learning has a exploration and problem-solving—
better impact on student learning had different patterns of behavior
and readiness for life after high and brain activity than kids
school,” Knecht says. He’s refer- educated in traditional schools.
ring to a program of education that “Montessori students were more
eschews traditional teach-and-test effective at directing their own
methods in favor of immersive learning, and by adolescence
lessons that challenge students were much faster and more likely
with problems or scenarios that to correct their own mistakes,”
promote self-directed investiga- she says. When they got things
tion, critical thinking, creativity wrong, the Montessori kids also
and teamwork. seemed less distressed and more
Others agree that the ways in curious to figure out why. “They
which traditional schools engage seemed more comfortable with not
young minds are not ideal. “Schools knowing things—with uncertainty
should not be about memorizing and ambiguity,” she says. These says the University of Antwerp’s
information, because that’s really are characteristics that seem to Kyndt. “But it’s not dramatic. It’s
not how people learn,” says USC’s correlate with improved learning at not to the extent that if you were a
Immordino-Yang. Much of her any age, she adds. good learner as a kid, you’re inept
work has focused on the ways that While it’s often said that the as an adult.”
different methods of teaching build older people get, the more they Kyndt says that the bigger
up and strengthen the connections struggle to learn—you can’t teach learning hurdle for adults may be
among the brain networks that are an old dog new tricks—the capacity a lack of what Stanford University
involved in learning. She says that to build new skills and knowledge psychologist Carol Dweck has
her research points to the benefits tends to persist even as a person termed a “growth mindset”—or
of educational programs that ages. “There’s a certain tipping a belief that one’s abilities and
emphasize immersive and interest- point around age 40 and 45 when knowledge are capable of evolving.
driven learning experiences—the some cognitive capacities—like “Learning is often hard, and it takes
kind that present information in working memory and attention time and effort,” Kyndt says. “Those
rich, real-life contexts and that span—slowly start to diminish,” who believe everything is set in

14 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 Even as we age, we can
develop new areas of
expertise, especially with
an open-minded attitude.

stone are less likely to undertake styles of gardening and use, a exercise—affects brain function-
learning activities or to put in that person’s brain develops differently ing and learning. So does the
time and effort.” In other words, depending on age, predisposi- presence or absence of trauma in
the ability to learn is often still tions, priorities, experiences and a person’s life. “The quality of our
there, assuming a person had it as a environment.” social relationships also matters,”
youngster; it’s the self-confidence Development and learning are Immordino-Yang says. “And having
that falters. inextricably knotted, she says. a sense of purpose across the life
And there is not a single formula span matters.”
What’s Next or recipe that produces the sort She and others in her field
In a 2018 report for the Aspen of brain that is optimized for all are identifying what seem to be
Institute, a nonprofit think types of learning in all contexts. some of the core ingredients that,
tank, Immordino-Yang and her In addition to the many variables especially early in life, promote
co-authors write, “Just as a garden mentioned above, a person’s a durable willingness and ability
grows differently in different overall health—a proper diet, as to learn. But there’s a lot left to
climates and with different plants, well as adequate sleep and regular be discovered.

15
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

The Secret
Brainpower of Babies
Almost immediately after birth, infants
have the capacity to begin understanding
the world around them
B Y S TA N I S L A S D E H A E N E

O N THE SURFACE,
who would be
more destitute
of knowledge
than a newborn?
does not show in babies’ primitive
behavior. It therefore took cogni-
tive scientists much ingenuity
and significant methodological
advances in order to expose the
What could be more reasonable vast repertoire of abilities all babies
than to think, as Locke did, that are born with. Objects, numbers,
the infant’s mind is a “blank slate” probabilities, faces, language . . . the
simply waiting for the environ- scope of babies’ prior knowledge
ment to fill its empty pages? is extensive.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78)
strove to drive this point home in The Object Concept
his treatise Emile, or On Education We all have the intuition that the
(1762): “We are born capable of world is made of rigid objects. In
learning, but knowing nothing, reality, it is made up of atoms, but
perceiving nothing.” Almost two at the scale on which we live, these
centuries later, Alan Turing, the atoms are often packed together
father of contemporary computer into coherent entities that move as
science, took up the hypothesis: a single blob and sometimes collide
“Presumably the child brain is without losing their cohesive-
something like a notebook as one ness. These large bundles of atoms
buys it from the stationer’s. Rather are what we call “objects.” The
little mechanism, and lots of existence of objects is a fundamen-
blank sheets.” tal property of our environment.
We now know that this Is this something that we need
view is dead wrong—nothing to learn? No. Millions of years of
could be further from the truth. evolution seem to have engraved
Appearances can be deceiving: this knowledge into the very core of
despite its immaturity, the nascent our brains. As early as a few months
brain already possesses consider- of age, a baby already knows that
able knowledge inherited from its the world is made up of objects that
long evolutionary history. For the move coherently, occupy space,
most part, however, this knowl- do not vanish without reason and
edge remains invisible, because it cannot be in two different places

16 THE POWER OF LEARNING

Babies quickly comprehend
the laws of physics, and
they’re fascinated by
objects that defy those laws
(like floating balloons).

17
 As early as a few
months of age, babies
understand that the world
is made up of objects
with predictable behaviors.

18 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

at the same time. In a sense, babies’ other. At first, they don’t know
brains already know the laws of that an object falls when you drop
physics: they expect the trajec- it. Only very gradually do they
tory of an object to be continuous become aware of all the factors
in space as in time, without any that make an object fall or stay put.
sudden jump or disappearance. First, they realize that objects fall
How do we know this? Because when they lose their support, but
babies act surprised in certain they think that any sort of contact
experimental situations that suffices to keep an object still—for
violate the laws of physics. In example, when a toy is placed at the
today’s cognitive-science labora- edge of a table. Progressively, they
tories, experimenters have become realize that the toy must not only
magicians. In small theaters be in contact with the table, but
specially designed for babies, they on top of it, not under or against
play all sorts of tricks: on the stage, it. Finally, it takes them a few more
objects appear, disappear, multi- months to figure out that this rule
ply, pass through walls. Hidden is not enough: in the end, it’s the
cameras monitor the babies’ gazes, center of gravity of the object that
and the results are clear-cut: even must remain above the table.
babies a few weeks old are sensitive Keep this in mind the next time
to magic. They already possess deep your baby drops his or her spoon
intuitions of the physical world from the table for the 10th time, to
and, like all of us, are stunned your great despair: they are only
when their expectations turn out experimenting!
to be false. By zooming in on the This experimental attitude
children’s eyes—to determine continues all the way into adult-
where they look and for how hood. We are all fascinated with
long—cognitive scientists manage gadgets that seem to violate the
to accurately measure their degree usual laws of physics (helium
of surprise and infer what they balloons, mobiles in equilibrium,
expected to see. roly-poly toys with a displaced
Hide an object behind a book, center of gravity), and we all
then suddenly crush it flat, as if enjoy magic shows where rabbits
the hidden object no longer existed disappear in a hat and people are
(in reality, it escaped through a sawed in two. These situations
trapdoor): babies are flabbergasted! entertain us because they violate
They fail to understand that a the intuitions that our brains have
solid object can vanish into thin held since birth and refined in the
air. They appear dumbfounded first year of life. Josh Tenenbaum,
when an object disappears behind a professor of artificial intelligence
one screen and reappears behind and cognitive science at MIT,
another, without ever being seen hypothesizes that babies’ brains
in the empty space between the host a game engine, a mental
two screens. simulation of the typical behavior
Babies therefore possess a vast of objects similar to the ones
knowledge of the world, but they that video games use in order to
don’t know everything from the simulate different virtual reali-
start, far from it. It takes a few ties. By running these simulations
months for babies to understand in their heads and by comparing
how two objects can support each simulations with reality, babies

19
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

discover very early on what is a brief moment. This behavior of continue to exist when they are no
physically possible or probable. “cognitive surprise,” in reaction to longer seen—until the end of the
the violation of a mental calcula- first year of life. He also thought
The Number Sense tion, shows that, as early as a few that the abstract concept of number
Let’s take a second example: months of age, children understand was beyond children’s grasp for the
arithmetic. What could be more that 1 + 1 should make 2. They build first few years of life, and that they
obvious than that babies have an internal model of the hidden slowly learned it by progressively
no understanding of mathemat- scene and know how to manipulate abstracting away from the more
ics? And yet, since the 1980s, it by adding or removing objects. concrete measures of size, length
experiments have shown quite And such experiments work not and density. In reality, the opposite
the opposite. In one experiment, only for 1 + 1 and 2 – 1, but also for is true. Concepts of objects and
babies are repeatedly presented 5 + 5 and 10 – 5. Provided that the numbers are fundamental features
with slides showing two objects. error is big enough, 9-month-old of our thoughts; they are part of
After a while, they get bored . . . babies are surprised whenever a the “core knowledge” with which
until they are shown a picture with concrete display hints at a wrong we come into the world, and when
three objects: suddenly, they stare calculation: they can tell that 5 + 5 combined, they enable us to formu-
longer at this new scene, indicat- cannot be 5, and that 10 – 5 cannot late more complex thoughts.
ing that they detected the change. be 10. Number sense is only one
By manipulating the nature, size Is this really an innate skill? example of what I call infants’
and density of objects, one can Could the first months of life invisible knowledge: the intuitions
prove that children are genuinely suffice for a child to learn the that they possess from birth and
sensitive to the number itself, i.e., behavior of sets of objects? While that guide their subsequent learn-
the cardinal of the whole set, not children undoubtedly refine the ing. Here are more examples of the
another physical parameter. The accuracy with which they perceive skills researchers have demon-
best proof that infants possess an numbers over the first months of strated in babies as young as a few
abstract “number sense” is that life, the data show, equally clearly, weeks old.
they generalize from sounds to that the starting point for children
images: if they hear tu tu tu tu—that is not a blank slate. Newborns The Intuition of
is, four sounds—they are more perceive numbers within a few Probabilities
interested in a picture that has a hours of life—and so do monkeys, Going from numbers to probabili-
matching number of four objects in pigeons, ravens, chicks, fish and ties takes only one step . . . a step
it than in a picture that has 12, and even salamanders. And with that researchers have recently
vice versa. Well-controlled experi- the chicks, the experimenters taken by wondering if babies a
ments of this sort abound and controlled all the sensory inputs, few months old could predict
convincingly show that, at birth, making sure that the baby chicks the outcome of a lottery draw. In
babies already possess the intuitive did not see even a single object this experiment, babies are first
ability to recognize an approximate after they hatched . . . yet the chicks presented with a transparent box
number without counting, regard- recognized numbers. containing balls that move around
less of whether the information is Such experiments show that randomly. There are four balls:
heard or seen. arithmetic is one of the innate three red and one green. At the
Can babies calculate too? skills that evolution bestows unto bottom, there is an exit. At some
Suppose that children see an object us, as well as many other species. point, the container is occluded,
hide behind a screen, followed Incidentally, these results and then either a green ball or a
by a second one. The screen then overturn several tenets of a central red ball comes out the bottom.
lowers—lo and behold, only one theory of child development, Remarkably, the child’s surprise
object is there! Babies manifest that of the great Swiss psycholo- is directly related to the improb-
their surprise in a prolonged inves- gist Jean Piaget (1896–1980). ability of what she sees: if a red ball
tigation of the unexpected scene. If, Piaget thought that young infants comes out—the most likely event,
however, they see the two expected were not endowed with “object since the majority of the balls in
objects, they look at them for only permanence”—the fact that objects the box are red—the baby looks at it

20 THE POWER OF LEARNING

Even just a few hours after birth, a baby can recognize and react to a smiling face.

for only a brief moment . . . whereas number of objects involved. and people have a specific behavior:
if the more improbable outcome From birth on, thus, our brain is they are autonomous and driven by
occurs, that is, a green ball that already endowed with an intuitive their own movements. Therefore,
had only one chance in four to logic. There are now many varia- they do not have to wait for another
come out, the baby looks at it for tions of those basic experiments. object to bump into them, like a
much longer. They all demonstrate the extent pool ball, in order to move around.
Subsequent controls confirm to which children behave like Their movement is motivated
that babies run, in their little heads, budding scientists who reason from within, not caused from
a detailed mental simulation of like good statisticians, eliminating the outside.
the situation and the associated the least likely hypotheses and Babies are therefore not
probabilities. Thus, if we introduce searching for the hidden causes of surprised to see animals move by
a partition that blocks the balls, various phenomena. themselves. In fact, for them, any
or if we move the balls closer to object that moves by itself, even if
or farther away from the exit, or if Knowledge of Animals it is in the shape of a triangle or a
we vary the time before the balls and People square, is immediately labeled as
exit the box, we find that infants While babies have a good model an “animal,” and from that moment
integrate all these parameters of the behavior of inanimate on, everything changes. A small
into their mental calculation of objects, they also know that there child knows that living beings
probability. The duration of their is another category of entities that do not have to move according to
gaze always reflects the improbabil- behave entirely differently: animate the laws of physics but that their
ity of the observed situation, which things. From the first year of life, movements are governed by their
they seem to compute based on the babies understand that animals intentions and beliefs.

21
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

Let us take an example: if we jumping—this is simply the best only the goals and intentions of
show babies a sphere that moves way to attain its goal. On the other those around them, but also their
in a straight line, jumps over a hand, babies open their eyes wide beliefs, abilities and preferences.
wall, then heads to the right, little if the sphere continues to jump in
by little, they will get bored of it. the air for no particular reason, Face Perception
Are they simply getting used to since the wall has vanished! In the One of the earliest manifestations
this peculiar motion? No, in fact, absence of a wall, the same trajec- of infants’ social skills is the
they understand much more. They tory as in the first scenario leaves perception of faces. For adults, the
deduce that this is an animate the babies surprised, because they slightest hint suffices to trigger the
being with a specific intention: do not understand what strange perception of a face: a cartoon, a
it wants to move to the right! intention the sphere might have. smiley, a mask. Some people even
Moreover, they can tell the object Other experiments show that detect the face of Jesus Christ
is highly motivated, because it children routinely infer people’s in the snow or on burnt toast!
jumps over a high wall in order intentions and preferences. In Remarkably, this hypersensitivity
to get there. Now let’s remove the particular, they understand that to faces is already present at birth: a
wall. In this scenario, babies are the higher the wall is, the greater baby a few hours old turns its head
not surprised if they see the sphere the person’s motivation must be in more quickly to a smiley face than
change its motion and move to the order to jump over it. From their to a similar image turned upside
right in a straight line, without observations, babies can infer not down (even if the experimenter
ensures that the newborn has never
had the chance to see a face).
Many researchers believe that
this magnetic attraction to faces
During the third
trimester of pregnancy, plays an essential role in the early
a fetus not only can development of attachment—
hear but can also
recognize language. especially since one of the earliest
symptoms of autism is avoiding
eye contact. By attracting our eyes
to faces, an innate bias would force
us to learn to recognize them—
and indeed, as early as a couple
of months after birth, a region
of the visual cortex of the right
hemisphere begins to respond to
faces more than to other images,
such as places. The specialization
for faces is one of the best examples
of the harmonious collaboration
between nature and nurture. In
this domain, babies exhibit strictly
innate skills (a magnetic attrac-
tion to face-like pictures), but also
an extraordinary instinct to learn
the specifics of face perception.
It is precisely the combination of
these two factors that allows babies,
in a little less than a year, to go
beyond naively reacting to the mere
presence of two eyes and a mouth
and to start preferring human faces

22 THE POWER OF LEARNING

to those of other primates, such as language acquisition does not and so forth. These words become
monkeys and chimpanzees. begin until one or two years of age. engraved in their memory to such
Why? Because—as its Latin name, an extent that, as adults, they
The Language Instinct infans [“one who does not speak”], continue to hold a special status
The social skills of small children suggests—a newborn child does and are processed more effectively
are manifest not only in vision, not speak and therefore hides than other words of comparable
but also in the auditory domain— its talents. And yet, in terms of meaning, sound and frequency
spoken language comes to them language comprehension, a baby’s acquired later in life.
just as easily as face perception. As brain is a true statistical genius. To By the time they blow out their
Steven Pinker famously noted in show this, scientists had to deploy a first candle, they have already laid
his best-selling book The Language whole panoply of original methods, down the foundation for the main
Instinct (1994), “Humans are so including the measurement of rules of their native language at
innately hardwired for language infants’ preferences for speech and several levels, from elementary
that they can no more suppress non-speech stimuli, their responses sounds (phonemes) to melody
their ability to learn and use to change, the recording of their (prosody), vocabulary (lexicon) and
language than they can suppress brain signals. These studies gave grammar rules (syntax).
the instinct to pull a hand back converging results and revealed how No other primate species is
from a hot surface.” This statement much infants already know about capable of such abilities. This very
should not be misunderstood: language. Right at birth, babies can experiment has been attempted
obviously, babies are not born with tell the difference between most many times: several scientists
a full-blown lexicon and grammar, vowels and consonants in every tried adopting baby chimpan-
but they possess a remarkable language in the world. zees, treating them like family
capacity to acquire them in record But that’s not all: babies quickly members, speaking to them in
time. What is hardwired in them is start to learn their first words. English or sign language or with
not so much language itself as the How do they go about identifying visual symbols, only to find out, a
ability to acquire it. them? First, babies rely on prosody, few years later, that none of these
Much evidence now confirms the rhythm and intonation of animals mastered a language
this early insight. Right from birth, speech—the way our voices rise, fall worthy of the name: they knew, at
babies already prefer listening to or stop, thus marking the boundar- most, a few hundred words. The
their native language rather than ies between words and sentences. linguist Noam Chomsky, therefore,
to a foreign one—a truly extraor- Another mechanism identifies was probably right in postulat-
dinary finding which implies that which speech sounds follow each ing that our species is born with
language learning starts in utero. other. Again, babies behave like a “language acquisition device,” a
In fact, by the third trimester of budding statisticians. They realize, specialized system that is automati-
pregnancy, the fetus is already able for example, that the syllable /bo/ cally triggered in the first years of
to hear. The melody of language, is often followed by /t^l/. A quick life. As Darwin said in The Descent
filtered through the uterine wall, calculation of probabilities tells of Man (1871), language “certainly
passes on to babies, and they begin them that this cannot be due to is not a true instinct, for every
to memorize it. “As soon as the chance: /t^l/ follows /bo/ with too language has to be learnt,” but it is
sound of your greeting reached my high a probability; these syllables “an instinctive tendency to acquire
ears, the baby in my womb leaped must form a word, “bottle”—and an art.” What is innate in us is the
for joy,” said the pregnant Elizabeth this is how this word is added to instinct to learn any language—
when Mary visited her (as told in the child’s vocabulary and can later an instinct so irrepressible that
Luke 1:44). The Evangelist was not be related to a specific object or language appears spontane-
mistaken: in the last few months concept. As early as six months of ously within a few generations in
of pregnancy, the growing fetus’s age, children have already extracted humans deprived of it.
brain already recognizes certain the words that recur with a high
EXCERPTED FROM HOW WE LEARN BY STANISLAS
auditory patterns and melodies, frequency in their environment, DEHAENE, PUBLISHED BY VIKING, AN IMPRINT
OF PENGUIN PUBLISHING GROUP, AN IMPRINT OF
probably unconsciously. such as “baby,” “daddy,” “mommy,” PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LLC. COPYRIGHT © 2020
It was long thought that “bottle,” “foot,” “drink,” “diaper” BY STANISLAS DEHAENE.

23
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

Food for
Thought
Sticking to a healthy, nutrient-rich diet
helps give the brain a much-needed boost
for cognitive function and memory
B Y E M I LY J O S H U

A LONG WITH BLUE

books and freshly
sharpened pencils,
a staple often
found at standard-
‘imported’ from the food we eat,”
Mosconi says. “No other organs in
the body have the same strict rules.”
This includes foods that impact
inflammation, brain shrinkage and
ized tests is peppermint candies. oxidative stress. (Oxidative stress is
And that’s not just for their crisp an imbalance between free radicals
taste. Some research has indicated and antioxidants, which fight
that the sweet treats may enhance infection and chronic disease risk;
our ability to retain information. without antioxidants, free radicals
That’s part of a growing emphasis can go haywire and increase the
on using diet to nurture brain risk of disease.) “Those are going to
health. “As a society, we are comfort- be three main things that we look
able with the idea that we feed at in terms of cognitive decline
our bodies and much less aware and mental health,” says Kristin
that we’re feeding our brains too,” Kirkpatrick, a registered dietitian at
says Lisa Mosconi, the director of the Cleveland Clinic and the author
the Weill Cornell Women’s Brain of Skinny Liver. A 2019 study of
Initiative and author of The XX dementia-free elders in the journal
Brain. “Parts of the foods we eat NeuroImage found that distinct
will end up being the very fabric of nutrient biomarker patterns were
our brains. Brain-focused nourish- associated with cognitive health
ment needs to be part of the larger and functional brain network
conversation around cognition and efficiency. Mosconi participated
mental health. What we eat directly in two 2018 studies that found
affects our thoughts, our moods that patients who followed a
and our mental capacities.” Mediterranean diet exhibited fewer
To function best, Mosconi says, Alzheimer’s-related changes to
the brain requires approximately their brains than those who ate
45 distinct nutrients. Though the a Western-style diet, character-
brain produces many of these on ized by high intake of red meat,
its own, others come only from saturated fats and refined carbs.
diet. “Everything in the brain that A so-called brain-healthy diet
isn’t made by the brain itself is includes nutrient-rich foods

24 THE POWER OF LEARNING

25
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

such as arugula, which is packed Cookbook, its origins date as toward reducing dementia and the
with vital nutrients like calcium, far back as the Middle Ages. overall decline in brain health that
potassium, folate and vitamin C (as Prioritizing omega-3 fatty acids, accompanies aging. In addition to
opposed to iceberg lettuce, which whole grains and vitamins found fish, healthy fats and leafy greens,
contains much smaller amounts of historically throughout the region, the MIND diet encourages a high
healthy components). Raspberries the diet is bolstered by an array of intake of fruit. Berries, for example,
are filled with vitamin C and superfoods. These include leafy were associated with significantly
potassium, while spinach is rich in greens such as kale; foods high in lower rates of cognitive decline
antioxidants. “Specific nutrients healthy fats, including olive oil among older women in a recent
impact specific cognitive abili- and avocados; protein-packed fish, study published in Annals of
ties due to their effects on brain like salmon; and nuts. In a 2019 U.S. Neurology. A 2015 Alzheimer’s &
chemistry,” Mosconi says. “For News and World Report evaluation Dementia study found that adher-
example, an amino acid called of 41 of the most renowned diets, ing to the MIND diet was linked to
tryptophan is needed for the brain the Mediterranean diet ranked as lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease.
to make serotonin, the feel-good the healthiest overall. Typically, Another 2015 study in the same
neurotransmitter. If your diet is
too low on tryptophan, that can
negatively impact your brain’s
ability to make serotonin, with
The nutrient choline, which can
negative effects on your mood.” be obtained from foods such as
Leafy greens are also high in eggs, fresh cod, salmon and broccoli, is
vitamin E, which Mosconi calls “an
antioxidant brain essential nutri- crucial to memory formation.
ent.” Half a cup of boiled spinach
contains about 1.9 milligrams
of vitamin E, or 10% of the daily foods found in the diet are a single publication found that the diet
recommended intake. Additionally, ingredient and unprocessed, and correlates with a slower decline in
the nutrient choline, which is the foods have been found to cognitive abilities.
produced in small amounts by improve cognitive functioning, as The Mediterranean and MIND
the liver but is primarily obtained well as lower the risk of diseases diets are also consistent with the
from foods such as eggs, fresh such as type 2 diabetes and heart recommendations of the Dietary
cod, salmon and broccoli, is disease. A study published this Guidelines for Americans from the
crucial to memory formation. The year in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, U.S. Departments of Health and
brain needs choline to make the the journal of the Alzheimer’s Human Services and Agriculture,
neurotransmitter acetylcholine, Association, found that adhering to which call for a diet filled with
which impacts muscle movement, a Mediterranean diet was associ- an array of leafy greens, legumes,
thinking and working memory. ated with a lower risk of cognitive fruits, whole grains, dairy, lean
Low acetylcholine levels have been impairment and higher scores meats, eggs and seafood. Both
linked to learning and memory on tests of cognitive functioning. plans caution against added
impairments, as well as Alzheimer’s However, there was not evidence sugars, refined grains (such as
and dementia. that the diet would slow an already white bread), margarine and red
Brain-healthy nutrients are present decline in cognitive or processed meats. Additionally,
consistent with foods found in function. the MIND diet discourages high
the Mediterranean and MIND The MIND diet—inspired by the consumption of cheese, advising
diets, which focus on colorful, Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary that it should be consumed only
varied plates of whole foods. Approaches to Stop Hypertension) about once per week.
Though the Mediterranean diet diets—stands for Mediterranean- Benefits have also been observed
has been recently popularized by DASH Intervention for Neuro- from specific foods. A 2018 study
mainstream media and books such degenerative Delay. This eating in the Journal of Nutrition, Health
as The Complete Mediterranean pattern is specifically geared & Aging of nearly 5,000 Chinese

26 THE POWER OF LEARNING

individuals over age 55, for example,
found that the long-term high
consumption of nuts, including
peanuts (which are actually
legumes), was associated with a
lower likelihood of poor cognitive
function. Peanuts are rich in
unsaturated fats, folate, vitamin E,
magnesium and potassium, which
provide anti-inflammatory, antioxi-
dant and lipid-lowering benefits.
These foods and eating patterns
have additional perks beyond
keeping the brain sharp. The
anti-inflammatory properties of
omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D
and folate can positively impact
those with depression and
anxiety, according to Kirkpatrick.
Additionally, following these diets
is associated with reduced risks of
chronic diseases, certain cancers Research suggests that the aroma of peppermint
and type 2 diabetes, since excess can improve cognition and mood.
body fat can increase inflamma-
tion. “Inflammation is the base
of any disease,” Kirkpatrick says, 2008 study in the International healthy eating pattern doesn’t have
adding that the impact is especially Journal of Neuroscience found that to mean immediately replacing all
significant in the brain. participants who were exposed weekly staples with fish and salad,
On the opposite side of the to peppermint oil experienced however. Consider simple swaps
spectrum are foods such as sugary enhanced memory and process- and gradually adding more color
drinks, refined or highly processed ing speeds, Kirkpatrick says that to the plate. “The deeper the hue
grains (including white breads and more research is still needed to of any plant, the more benefits
white pastas), trans fats, sodium determine how effective pepper- you get, because you have more
and highly processed foods, which mint and peppermint oil can be for phytonutrients,” Kirkpatrick says.
contribute to inflammation in the brain health. In a 2017 study from These natural compounds are
brain and connected organs and Chicago’s Rush University Medical produced by plants and have anti-
which are detrimental to long-term Center published in the Journal inflammatory and antioxidant
cognitive health. “It’s foolish for of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, properties. For a simple swap,
us to think that what we choose researchers studied the effect of consider replacing white bread
to put in our body through food cinnamon on mice that had previ- with whole-grain bread to cut back
is not going to have an impact on ously been determined to have on refined grains. Snacking on a
our brain health today but also a lower learning capacity. Mice handful of mixed nuts rather than
tomorrow,” Kirkpatrick says. “This who consumed cinnamon for one potato chips or replacing potatoes
isn’t something that improves month were able to memorize more with sweet potatoes is a mindful,
overnight. This is something to quickly and effectively than before. gradual adjustment. Nurturing
make a lifestyle.” However, similar to peppermint, brain health is a long-term strategy
In this vein, what about the idea more research is still needed to that does not have to take place
that eating peppermint candies examine the potential cognitive overnight. “Start really slow,”
boosts memory and cognitive effects in humans. Kirkpatrick says. “You don’t have to
retention? While a widely cited Getting started on a brain- aim for perfection.”

27
28 THE POWER OF LEARNING
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

Forgetting Can Be a
Friend to Learning
As with muscle-building, some memory
breakdown can help strengthen subsequent
learning. Also, forgetting trivial things may
help us retain key information more clearly
BY BENEDICT CAREY

T HE RELATIONSHIP
between learning
and forgetting is
not so simple and
in certain impor-
forgetting—that passive decay we
so often bemoan—is also helpful
for subsequent learning. I think
of this as the muscle-building
property of forgetting: Some
tant respects is quite the opposite of “breakdown” must occur for us
what people assume,” Robert Bjork, to strengthen learning when we
a psychologist at the University of revisit the material. Without a
California, Los Angeles, told me. little forgetting, you get no benefit
“We assume it’s all bad, a failure of from further study. It is what
the system. But more often, forget- allows learning to build, like an
ting is a friend to learning.” exercised muscle.
For example “losers” in memory This system is far from perfect.
or spelling competitions, research We have instantaneous and
suggests, stumble not because they flawless recall of many isolated
remember too little. They have facts, it’s true: Seoul is the capital of
studied tens or perhaps hundreds South Korea, 3 is the square root
of thousands of words, and often of 9, and J. K. Rowling is the author
they are familiar with the word of the Harry Potter books. Yet
they ultimately misspell. In many no complex memory comes back
cases, they stumble because they exactly the same way twice, in part
remember too much. If recollect- because the forgetting filter blocks
ing is just that—a recollection some relevant details along with
of perceptions, facts, and ideas many irrelevant ones. Features
scattered in intertwining neural that previously were blocked or
networks in the dark storm of the forgotten often reemerge. This drift
brain—then forgetting acts to block in memory is perhaps most obvious
the background noise, the static, so when it comes to the sort of child-
that the right signals stand out. The hood tales we all tell and embellish.
sharpness of the one depends on The time we borrowed the family
the strength of the other. car at age fourteen; the time we
Another large upside of forget- got lost on the metro the first time
ting has nothing to do with its we visited the city. After rolling
active filtering property. Normal out those yarns enough times, it

29
 THE FORGETTING CURVE
100% Okay, now put this aside and
make a cup of coffee, take a walk,
80% listen to the news. Distract yourself
for about five minutes, the same
Retention

amount of time you took to study it.

60%
Then, sit and write down as much
of the poem as you can. Save the
40% result (you’ll need it later if you
want to measure your recall).
This is exactly the test that an
20%
English teacher and researcher
named Philip Boswood Ballard
began administering to school-
children in the early 1900s in
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 London’s working-class East End.
Days The children were thought to be
poor learners, and Ballard was
curious to find out why. Was it a
Though limited and flawed, Ebbinghaus’s curve remains a revelation in the field. deficit of initial learning? Or did
something happen later that inter-
fered with recall? To find out, he
can be tough to tell what’s true deficits, or a faulty character. On had them study various material,
and what’s not. the contrary, it is a sign that the including ballads like Longfellow’s,
The point is not that memory is brain is working as it should. to see if he could pinpoint the
nothing more than a pile of loose source of their learning problems.
facts and a catalog of tall tales. HERE’S A SIMPLE exercise, painless, Only the children had no
It’s that retrieving any memory and full of literary nutrition. Take obvious learning deficits that
alters its accessibility, and often its five minutes and study the verse Ballard could find. On the contrary.
content. below. Read it carefully and try Their scores five minutes after
There is an emerging theory to commit it to memory. It’s from studying were nothing special.
that accounts for these and related Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Some did well and others didn’t.
ideas. It’s called the New Theory “The Wreck of the Hesperus.” Ballard wasn’t finished, however.
of Disuse, to distinguish it from an At daybreak, on the bleak He wanted to know what happened
older, outdated principle stating, sea-beach, to the studied verse over time. Did
simply, that memories evaporate A fisherman stood aghast, memory somehow falter in the days
entirely from the brain over time if To see the form of a maiden fair, after these children studied? To
they’re not used. The new theory is Lashed close to a drifting mast. find out, he gave them another test,
an overhaul, recasting forgetting as The salt sea was frozen on two days later. The students were
the best friend of learning, rather her breast, not expecting to be retested and yet
than its rival. The salt tears in her eyes; their scores improved by an average
A better name for it, then, might And he saw her hair, like the of 10 percent. Ballard tested them
be the Forget to Learn theory. brown sea-weed, once more, again unannounced,
That phrase captures its literal On the billows fall and rise. days later.
implications and its general spirit, Such was the wreck of the “J.T. improved from fifteen to
its reassuring voice. One implica- Hesperus, twenty-one lines in three days,” he
tion, for instance, is that forgetting In the midnight and the wrote of one student. “Imagined
a huge chunk of what we’ve just snow! she saw the lines in front of her.” Of
learned, especially when it’s a Christ save us all from a death another, who improved from three
brand-new topic, is not necessar- like this, to eleven lines in seven days, he
ily evidence of laziness, attention On the reef of Norman’s Woe! remarked: “Pictured the words on

30 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

the blackboard (the poetry in this large these letter trios are meaning- IN THE DECADES after Ballard
case was learnt from the black- less and the brain has no place to published his findings, there
board).” A third, who recalled nine “put” them. They’re not related to was a modest flare of interest in
lines on the first test and, days later, one another or to anything else; “spontaneous improvement.”
thirteen, told Ballard, “as I began they’re not part of a structured The effect should be easy to find,
to write it, I could picture it on the language or pattern. The brain scientists reasoned, in all kinds of
paper before me.” doesn’t hold on to nonsense learning. Yet it wasn’t. Researchers
Ballard ran hundreds of syllables for long, then, because ran scores of experiments, and the
additional tests, with more than they are nonsense. Ebbinghaus results were all over the place. In
10,000 subjects, over the next acknowledged as much himself, one huge 1924 trial, for instance,
several years. The results were the writing that his famous curve people studied a word list and took
same: Memory improved in the might not apply to anything more a test immediately afterward. They
first few days without any further than what he had studied directly. were then given a follow-up test,
study, and only began to taper off Forgetting, remember, is not after varying delays: eight minutes,
after day four or so, on average. only a passive process of decay but sixteen minutes, three days, a
Ballard reported his findings in also an active one, of filtering. It week. They did worse over time, on
1913, in a paper that seems to have works to block distracting informa- average, not better.
caused mostly confusion. Few tion, to clear away useless clutter. In a 1937 experiment, subjects
scientists appreciated what he’d Nonsense syllables are clutter; who studied nonsense syllables
done, and even today he is little Longfellow’s “The Wreck of the showed some spontaneous
more than a footnote in psychology. Hesperus” is not. The poem may improvement after an initial
Still, Ballard knew what he had. or may not become useful in our exam—but only for about five
“We not only tend to forget what daily life, but at least it is nested in minutes, after which their scores
we have once remembered,” he
wrote, “but we also tend to remem-
ber what we have once forgotten.”
Memory does not have just one The brain doesn’t hold on to
tendency over time, toward decay. nonsense syllables for long
It has two.
The other—“reminiscence,”
because they are nonsense—not part
Ballard called it—is a kind of of a structured language or pattern.
growth, a bubbling up of facts or
words that we don’t recall having
learned in the first place. Both a mesh of neural networks repre- plunged. A widely cited 1940 study
tendencies occur in the days after senting words and patterns we found that people’s recall of a set of
we’ve tried to memorize a poem or recognize. That could account for words, a set of brief sentences, and a
a list of words. why there would be a difference paragraph of prose all declined over
What could possibly be going on? in how well we remember a twenty-four-hour period. Even
One clue comes from Hermann nonsense syllables versus a poem, when researchers found improve-
Ebbinghaus, who in the 1880s a short story, or other material ment for one kind of material, like
created the Forgetting Curve, a that makes sense. Yet it does not poetry, they’d find the opposite
representation of how memory explain the increase in clarity after result for something else, like
worsens over time—days and two days without rehearsal, the vocabulary lists. “Experimental
weeks—that remains a seminal “salt tears” and “hair like brown psychologists began to tinker
work in the field. Ebbinghaus had sea-weed” floating up from the with Ballard’s approach and, as if
tested memory using nonsense neural deep. Those “slow” East struggling in quicksand, became
syllables—a series of single sylla- Enders showed Ballard that progressively mired in confusion
bles formed by sticking a vowel remembering and forgetting are and doubt,” wrote Matthew Hugh
between two consonants. RUR, not related to each other in the Erdelyi, of Brooklyn College, in
HAL, MEK, BES, SOK, DUS. By and way everyone assumed. his history of the era, The Recovery

31
 of Unconscious Memories. other words, a phantom. It wasn’t he claimed. It could change lives.
The mixed findings inevitably long before many scientists If those were phantoms, they were
led to questions about Ballard’s followed Buxton’s lead and begged far more lifelike than a heap of
methods. Were the children he off the hunt. There were far better recited poetry.
tested really recalling more over things to do with the tools of Besides, the real juice in learn-
time, or was their improvement psychology than chase phantoms, ing science by the middle of the
due to some flaw in the experimen- and certainly more culturally century was in reinforcement. It
tal design? It wasn’t a rhetorical fashionable ones. was the high summer of behavior-
question. What if, for example, the Freudian therapy was on the ism. The American psychologist
children had rehearsed the poem rise, and its ideas of recovered B. F. Skinner showed how rewards
on their own time, between tests? memories easily trumped Ballard’s and punishments could alter
In that case, Ballard had nothing. scraps of Longfellow for sex appeal. behavior, and accelerate learning
In an influential review of all The two men’s conceptions of in many circumstances. Skinner
published research up through recovery were virtually identical, tested various reward schedules
1943, one British learning theorist, except that Freud was talking against one another and got strik-
C. E. Buxton, concluded that about repressed emotional trauma. ing results: An automatic reward
Ballard’s spontaneous improve- Excavating those memories and for a correct answer leads to little
ment effect was a “now-you-see-it- “working through” them could learning; occasional, periodic
now-you-don’t phenomenon”—in relieve chronic, disabling anxiety, rewards are much more effec-
tive. Skinner’s work, which was
enormously influential among
educators, focused on improv-
ing teaching, rather than on the
peculiarities of memory.
Yet Ballard’s findings didn’t
disappear completely. They
continued to marinate in the minds
of a small group of psychologists
who couldn’t shake the idea that
something consequential might be
slipping through the cracks. In the
1960s and 1970s, these curious few
began to separate the poetry from
the nonsense.
The Ballard effect was, and is,
real. It was not due to an experi-
mental design flaw; the children
in his studies could not have
rehearsed lines that they did not
remember after the first test. You
can’t practice what you don’t
remember. The reason researchers
had had so much trouble isolat-
ing Ballard’s “reminiscence” was
because the strength of this effect is
highly dependent on the material
being used. For nonsense syllables,
and for most lists of vocabulary
words or random sentences, it’s
zero: There’s no spontaneous

32 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

improvement on test scores after presented on slides, improved from our heads in grade school, and
a day or two. By contrast, reminis- twenty-seven to thirty in the first we use it continually throughout
cence is strong for imagery, for ten hours—and no more. Their life, in a wide variety of situations,
photographs, drawings, paintings— scores slipped slightly over the next from balancing the bank account
and poetry, with its word-pictures. several days. Soon it was beyond to calculating tips to helping our
And it takes time to happen. Ballard dispute that memory, as Erdelyi put fourth grader with homework. Its
had identified the “bubbling up” of it in a recent paper, “is a heteroge- storage strength is enormous.
new verse in the first few days after neous, mottled system that both According to the Bjorks’ theory,
study, when it’s strongest. Other improves and declines over time.” storage strength can increase but it
researchers had looked for it too Which left theorists with never decreases.
early, minutes afterward, or too late, a larger riddle. Why does recall of This does not mean that every-
after a week or more. pictures improve while recall of thing we see, hear or say is stored
Matthew Erdelyi was one of word lists does not? forever, until we die. More than
those who was instrumental in Scientists had speculated about 99 percent of experience is fleeting,
clarifying reminiscence, and he the answers all along. Maybe it was here and gone. The brain holds on
began by testing a junior colleague, a matter of having more time to to only what’s relevant, useful, or
Jeff Kleinbard, then at Stanford search memory (two tests versus interesting—or may be so in the
University. Erdelyi gave Kleinbard one). Or perhaps the delay between future. It does mean that every-
a group of forty pictures to study tests relaxed the mind, eased thing we have deliberately commit-
in a single sitting, on the pretext fatigue. Yet it wasn’t until the 1980s ted to memory—the multiplication
that he “should have the experience that psychologists had enough table, a childhood phone number,
of being a subject” before conduct- hard evidence to begin building the combination to our first
ing experiments of his own. In a more complete model that locker—is all there, and for good.
fact, he was a subject, and Erdelyi accounts for the Ballard effect and This seems beyond belief at first,
tested him repeatedly, without other peculiarities of memory. The given the sheer volume of informa-
warning, over the following week. theory that emerged is less a grand tion we absorb and how mundane
The results were so clear and blueprint for how the mind works so much of it is. But biologically
reliable—Kleinbard remembered than a set of principles based on speaking there’s space to burn: In
increasingly more on tests over research, a theory that encom- digital terms, we have storage space
the first two days—that the two of passes Ebbinghaus and Ballard, for three million TV shows. That is
them set up larger studies. In one, as well as many other seemingly more than enough to record every
they had a group of young adults opposed ideas and characters. The second of a long life, cradle to grave.
try to memorize a series of sixty scientists who have shepherded Volume is not an issue.
sketches. The participants saw the the theory along and characterized As for the mundane, it’s impos-
sketches one at a time, projected it most clearly are Robert Bjork sible to prove that it’s all there,
on a screen, five seconds apart: of UCLA and his wife, Elizabeth every meaningless detail. Still,
simple drawings of things like a Ligon Bjork, also at UCLA. The every once in a while the brain
boot, a chair, a television. new theory of disuse (“Forget to sends up a whisper of dumbfound-
The group took a test right after Learn,” as we’re calling it) is largely ing trivia—the recollection of a fact
and tried to recall all sixty, in seven their baby. or detail or event that was at one
minutes, writing down a word to The first principle theory is this: time useful to know. It happens
describe each sketch recalled (the Any memory has two strengths, to everyone throughout life. The
sketches had no accompanying a storage strength and a retrieval Forget to Learn theory says: If I
words). The average score was strength. stored it, it’s in there for good. That
twenty-seven. Ten hours later, Storage strength is just that, is, no memory is ever “lost” in the
however, their average was thirty- a measure of how well learned sense that it’s faded away, that it’s
two; a day later, thirty-four; by something is. It builds up steadily gone. Rather, it is not currently
four days, it was up to thirty-eight, with studying, and more sharply accessible. Its retrieval strength is
where it plateaued. A comparison with use. The multiplication table low, or near zero.
group, who studied sixty words is a good example. It’s drilled into Retrieval strength is a measure

33
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

of how easily a nugget of informa- low). Tomorrow morning, their In its nomadic hominid youth, the
tion comes to mind. It too increases names will be harder to recall. brain was continually refreshing
with studying, and with use. As for the driver’s-ed guy, the its mental map to adapt to chang-
Without reinforcement, however, name’s not coming back, and he ing weather, terrain, and preda-
retrieval strength drops off quickly, wouldn’t be so easy to pick out tors. Retrieval strength evolved
and its capacity is relatively small of a lineup, either. The class was to update information quickly,
(compared to storage). At any given only two months long (retrieval keeping the most relevant details
time, we can pull up only a limited low, storage low). handy. It lives for the day. Storage
number of items in connection The act of finding and naming strength, on the other hand,
with any given cue or reminder. each person increases both evolved so that old tricks could
For example, a quack-quack cell strengths, remember. The first grade be relearned, and fast, if needed.
phone ring overheard on the bus teacher—once she’s reintroduced— Seasons pass, but they repeat; so
might bring to mind the name of is now highly retrievable. This is do weather and terrain. Storage
a friend who has the same ring, due to the passive side of forgetting, strength plans for the future.
as well as several people who are the fading of retrieval strength over This combination of flighty
owed calls. It may also trigger time. The theory says that this drop retrieval and steady storage—the
an older vision of the family dog facilitates deeper learning once tortoise and the hare—is no
belly-flopping into a lake to pursue the fact or memory is found again. less important to modern-day
a flotilla of ducks; or your first Again, think of this aspect of the survival. Kids who grow up in
raincoat, bright yellow with a Forget to Learn theory in terms North American households, for
duckbill on the hood. Thousands of building muscle. Doing pull- example, learn to look people in
of other quack associations, some ups induces tissue breakdown in the eye when speaking, especially a
meaningful at the time they muscles that, after a day’s rest, leads teacher or parent. Kids in Japanese
formed, are entirely off the radar.
Compared to storage, retrieval
strength is fickle. It can build
quickly but also weaken quickly. The harder we have to work to
One way to think of storage and retrieve a memory, the better
retrieval is to picture a huge party
in which everyone you ever met is
we are able to store it and the quicker
in attendance (at the age when you we can retrieve it next time.
last saw them). Mom and Dad; your
first grade teacher; the brand-new
neighbors next door; the guy who to more strength the next time you homes learn the opposite: Keep
taught driver’s-ed in sophomore do the exercise. your gaze down, especially when
year: They’re all here, mingling. That’s not all. The harder we speaking to an authority figure.
Retrieval is a matter of how quickly have to work to retrieve a memory, To move successfully from one
a person’s name comes to mind. the greater the subsequent spike culture to the other, people must
Storage, by contrast, is a matter of in retrieval and storage strength block—or forget—their native
how familiar the person is. Mom (learning). The Bjorks call this customs to quickly absorb and
and Dad, there’s no escaping them principle desirable difficulty. practice the new ones. The native
(retrieval high, storage high). The That driver’s-ed teacher, once he’s ways are hardly forgotten; their
first grade teacher, her name isn’t spotted, is now way more familiar storage strength is high. But
jumping to mind (retrieval low), than he was before, and you may blocking them to transition to a
but that’s definitely her right there remember things about him you new culture drives down their
over by the door (storage high). forgot you knew: not just his name retrieval strength.
The new neighbors, by contrast, and nickname but his crooked Being able to do this can be
just introduced themselves (“Justin smile, his favorite phrases. a matter of life or death. An
and Maria”—retrieval high), but The brain developed this system Australian who moves to the
they’re not familiar yet (storage for a good reason, the Bjorks argue. United States, for instance, must

34 THE POWER OF LEARNING

learn to drive on the right side of
the road instead of the left, upend-
ing almost every driving instinct
he has. There’s little room for error;
one Melbourne daydream and he
wakes up in a ditch. Here again, the
memory system forgets all the old
instincts to make room for the new
ones. And that’s not all. If twenty
years later he gets homesick and
moves back to Australia, he will
have to switch to driving on the
left again. That change will come
much more easily than the first one
did. The old instincts are still there,
and their storage strength is still
high. The old dog quickly relearns
old tricks.
“Compared to some kind of
system in which out-of-date
memories were to be overwritten
or erased,” Bjork writes, “having
such memories become inacces-
sible but remain in storage has
important advantages. Because
those memories are inaccessible,
they don’t interfere with current
information and procedures. But and quickly—and as a result line or two with each exam. Will it
because they remain in memory their brains had time to scrounge all come back, with enough testing,
they can—at least under certain for more words, using the remem- even if only half was remembered
circumstances—be relearned.” bered verse as a skeleton guide, the first time? Not likely. You get
Thus, forgetting is critical to the a partially completed jigsaw something back, not everything.
learning of new skills and to the puzzle, a packet of cues to shake Using memory changes
preservation and reacquisition of loose extra lines. This is a poem, memory—and for the better.
old ones. after all, swollen with imagery and Forgetting enables and deepens
meaning, precisely the material learning, by filtering out distract-
LET’S RETURN TO our friend Philip that shows the strongest “reminis- ing information and by allow-
Ballard. The first test his students cence” effect of all. ing some breakdown that, after
took not only measured how Voilà! They do better. reuse, drives retrieval and storage
much of the “Hesperus” poem they Yes, the Hesperus poem will strengths higher than they were
remembered. It also increased eventually sink if the brain stops originally. Those are the basic
the storage and retrieval strengths thinking about it, and its retrieval principles that emerge from brain
of the verse they did remember, strength will inch toward zero. But biology and cognitive science, and
making it more firmly anchored a third test, and a fourth, would they underlie—and will help us
in memory and more easily anchor the poem in memory more understand—the various learning
accessible than it was before the richly still, as the brain—now techniques yet to come.
test. Hit unexpectedly with being called on to use the poem
FROM THE BOOK HOW WE LEARN: THE SURPRISING
the same test two days later, most regularly—would continue its TRUTH ABOUT WHEN, WHERE, AND WHY IT HAPPENS
BY BENEDICT CAREY. COPYRIGHT © 2014 BY BENEDICT
of the lines they recalled on search for patterns within the poem, CAREY. PUBLISHED BY RANDOM HOUSE, AN IMPRINT
test number one came back clearly perhaps pulling up another half AND DIVISION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LLC.

35
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

When Learners
Stumble
Researchers know more than ever about the
obstacles to learning, but it’s still not enough
to solve issues that affect millions
B Y D AV I D B J E R K L I E

W E TAKE IT for
granted that
children are born
to learn. Until,
that is, a parent,
resources for children who face
these challenges.
But what exactly is a learning
disorder or disability? Definitions
are also less than straightforward.
doctor or teacher notes that a Learning problems exist across a
child isn’t meeting milestones on wide spectrum. Some affect specific
schedule or seems out of step with competencies, in reading, writing
other children in the classroom. or understanding math; some affect
Suddenly, ordinary expectations are the ability to focus or concentrate;
clouded with fear. and some affect broader measures
Learning disorders cause of cognitive capacity.
distress for millions of children and A correspondingly wide range
their parents. In recent decades, of factors underlies such problems.
however, major advances have been There are learning problems
made in understanding many of influenced by genetics or by
the factors that can make it difficult environment, including exposure to
for children to learn. Problems toxins, lead and other heavy metals.
that complicate typical learning Exposure to alcohol or certain
in children are now recognized as medicines during pregnancy has
being far more common than previ- been linked to learning disorders, as
ously thought. Advocacy groups has anesthesia in infancy. Chronic
cite statistics that suggest learning stress, caused by abuse, racism or
and attention issues could affect as poverty, can also be a factor.
many as one in five. The reality of so many contrib-
Even though such numbers uting factors makes it difficult
are less than straightforward, the to determine single causes.
recognition that learning disorders Nonetheless, there are ongoing
affect huge numbers of children is attempts to define disabilities and
a powerful driver of research and disorders, sometimes by what a
education policy. The sheer number condition is, but also by what it is
of kids affected has provided not. Such categorization of learning
additional momentum for parents problems is necessary in order to
and educators to demand more best determine what sort of support

36 THE POWER OF LEARNING

37
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

to offer students. Not all learning autopsies of adults with dyslexia, as whom people “expect” to be poor
problems are equal, and not all are well as from neural imaging studies, learners are left by the wayside.
amenable to the same treatment. and we can see definite differences The intent of the DSM-5’s distinc-
There are also psychological and in certain brain structures—and tion, however, is to rule out cases
emotional dimensions to the defini- we now know that the structural in which difficulties are better
tions of learning disability, says disruption will lead to different explained by developmental,
Matthew Cruger, the senior director capacity to function.” neurological, sensory or motor
of the Learning and Development But that doesn’t mean the disorders, or by psychosocial
Center at the Child Mind Institute, disorder will have the same impact adversity or a lack of educational
in New York City. “People talk on all individuals. “One person opportunity. And thereby
about learning disorders versus might have tools to overcome it, to more effectively addressed with
learning disabilities. And a third compensate for it, and therefore are other support.
category they talk about is learn- not really disabled by it,” Cruger It is natural to want to know
ing differences. . . . Each catches a notes. “But another individual will which part of a learning problem
different meaning, but most people struggle in a profound way and comes from genes or neurology and
use the terms interchangeably,” he therefore experience a handicap. which arises from nonbiological
says. Which term they use reflects For them, the ‘disorder’ can also be sources. But most experts agree that
a range of issues. “Many people seen, technically, as a ‘disability,’ it is impossible to separate biology
don’t want to think of themselves as a disabling condition.” from environment or experience.
having a disorder. But for research- The bible of psychiatric and It’s always an interaction, always
ers, a learning disorder can carry an psychological diagnoses, the dynamic. There is also an interac-
important scientific distinction. It Diagnostic and Statistical Manual tion between the study of general
captures the fact that we recognize of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), learning in children and the study
there are individuals who struggle emphasizes an even finer point. of learning disorders, says Cruger:
because, in purely a scientific way, According to the DSM-5, to qualify “Part of the beauty of what we do
neural processing is ‘disordered’ as a learning disability, the difficul- is this dynamic between general
compared to typical processing.” ties in learning and underachieve- education models and the subsets
The best example of that may ment must be “unexpected” given of struggling students that special-
be dyslexia, says Cruger: “We the child’s profile. This can appear ists are focused on.” An example of
have a large amount of data, from harsh, suggesting that children this can be seen in the promise of
an ambitious effort spearheaded
by the Child Mind Institute called
the Healthy Brain Network. The
effort will aim to collect data from
a very large sample, 10,000 partici-
pants, and make the data open to
other researchers. It will serve as
a resource for researchers who
are studying patterns in child and
adolescent mental health, as well
as those developing biomarkers to
identify psychiatric and psycho-
logical conditions.
That doesn’t mean, however, that
this project or others like it will
necessarily translate into effective
school policies. Science alone can’t
do that; that has to be driven by our
values and commitment to educa-
tion and opportunity.

38 THE POWER OF LEARNING

ACCOMMODATING
SPECIAL-NEEDS
STUDENTS
Federal and local education
programs help children with learning
disabilities succeed in school
B Y K AT H R Y N S AT T E R F I E L D

THE DIAGNOSIS of a learning

disability is a crucial first step
Pop Its and other fidget toys may help soothe students with ADHD.
toward academic success for a
struggling student. Research has
shown that children with learning
and attention issues are as smart instruction and measurable goals. learning disability in the area of
as their peers and, with the right Educators track how the child reading, such as dyslexia, there
support, can achieve at high levels. is progressing weekly or daily, is science to back up how to go
“Early intervention matters,” says depending on the severity of the about reading instruction. Schools
Kit Savage, a special-education learning problems. have access to different liter-
adviser and executive-functioning According to advocacy groups, acy programs and other teach-
coach at Savage Advocates and 1 in 16 public school students ing tools. Assistive technology,
True North Educational Advisors. have IEPs. Within that group, including alternative keyboards,
“We don’t want a child to be diag- specific learning disabilities such audiobooks, talking calculators
nosed in sixth grade,” because as dyslexia represent the larg- and electronic worksheets, also
they will have fallen so far behind. est disability category, account- address learning issues. “With
While most learning issues are ing for nearly 39%. Other health appropriate intervention,” says
spotted first by parents or care- impairments, a disability category Savage, “all children can learn.”
givers, diagnosis involves com- that covers ADHD and dyspraxia, New research has increased
prehensive testing by learning which affects motor skills and our understanding of the way
specialists. “We see chronic failure sometimes speech, make up 15% learning and attention issues affect
in not identifying students early of students receiving IEPs. brain function. The more we know,
enough,” says Savage. Not all students with a learn- the better we’ve become at iden-
Several laws protect the ing disability will receive special- tifying and supporting children
rights of children with disabili- education services through an IEP. with ADHD, dyslexia, executive-
ties and guarantee support and A child with ADHD, for example, functioning deficits and other dis-
services. One such support is an might not meet all the criteria abilities. But we still have a long
Individualized Education Plan outlined by IDEA. In this case, a way to go. “There are many schools
(IEP), part of the Individuals with 504 Accommodation Plan, under of thought as to what would be the
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation best approach to teach each child,”
which guarantees every child with Act, can be implemented. While says Richard Douglas, a founder of
a disability access to a free appro- a 504 Plan doesn’t allow for spe- Bridge Partnership, an educational
priate public education in the least cialized instruction, it can provide consulting firm that specializes in
restrictive environment. Parents accommodations like frequent developing programs for children
and educators work together to breaks, fidget spinners and modi- with autism and related disorders.
create the plan, which can include fied homework assignments. “What I have found over the years
services such as speech and So what is the right education is that the best programs are ones
occupational therapies, social plan when dealing with diverse that take a multidisciplinary team
work and placement in a resource learners? Instruction needs to approach, one where providers in
room. A student’s IEP addresses be evidence-based and indi- all settings are on board with the
the areas of need with specialized vidualized. For a student with a program in place.”

39
 What We Know DOGS CAN SIT, lie down, roll over

About What
and respond to their own names,
but what else can our canine
companions learn? Chaser the

Animals Know
border collie—known by many as
the smartest dog in the world—
learned to identify more than
It turns out you really can teach an 1,000 nouns throughout her
old (or young) dog new tricks. Not lifetime (she died in 2019,
to mention ducks, chimps, squirrels at age 15). Chaser belonged to
and other creatures John Pilley, a professor emeritus
of psychology at Wofford College
BY COURTNEY MIFSUD
in South Carolina, who sought to
teach her human language and
explore what the canine brain
could learn. When Chaser was
2 months old, Pilley, who died in

40 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 Birds (including ducks)
instinctively imprint on their
mothers but will develop this
attachment to the first living
thing they see after hatching.

2018, began to teach her proper comprehend larger concepts. The as their counterparts in the wild,
nouns, the first being “Blue,” for a pup realized that when Pilley said demonstrate that behavior is
blue ball. “He would name it, show “This is,” he was about to name not fixed and can change based
it to her, say ‘Catch Blue’ and throw something. “She began learning on experience. Through trial and
it to her,” Pilley’s daughter Pilley names in one trial,” Bianchi noted. error, conditioning and social
Bianchi explained to the American “Teaching her concepts was development, animals are able
Kennel Club after Chaser’s death. infinitely greater than teaching her to build on and exceed their
“He’d put it in front of her and say 100 rote behaviors, because once hardwired skills to maximize the
‘Find Blue.’ On the third day, when she learned a concept, she was able chance of survival.
she could retrieve the ball from to use her brain and start to learn
another room, he knew it was time by inference, which is the way BEHAVIOR IS DIVIDED into two
to move on to another object. At children learn.” categories: innate and learned.
the end of the fifth month, she had The animal kingdom includes Innate behaviors are genetically
learned 40 words and kept them in myriad creatures figuring out how hardwired into an animal and
her long-term memory.” to survive and thrive. Even animals can be performed without any
Not only was Chaser able to in captivity, who don’t face the prior knowledge or training.
memorize words, she could also same life-threatening challenges Learned behaviors are developed

41
 T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

from experience—such as LEARNED BEHAVIORS can also include

Chaser’s grasping a new word or conditioned behaviors, in which
command—and range from the animals learn by association. These
simple to the complex, with more behavior styles take two forms:
sophisticated learning happening classical conditioning and operant
through cognitive reasoning. conditioning. Classical condition-
Habituation is a simple form of ing is most famously connected to
learning in which, after repeated Ivan Pavlov’s experiments with dogs.
exposure to a stimulus or cue, During the 1890s, the Russian physi-
the animal stops responding. ologist was researching salivation in
This often occurs in parks when dogs in response to food. No surprise
squirrels encounter human to pet owners, dogs drool at the sight
visitors. At first the animals will or smell of food. This behavior is
scamper away in response to innate and requires no additional
hearing human steps, which may learning. This stimulus and response
be a sign of a large and possibly is known as the unconditioned
dangerous predator. But over time, stimulus (the presence of food) and
as the squirrels are exposed to the unconditioned response (the
more human visitors, the animals drooling). Pavlov paired a second
gradually become habituated to the stimulus with the unconditioned
presence of humans and no longer stimulus. Specifically, he rang a bell
fear them. at the same time the dog was fed.
Imprinting is another simple The ringing of the bell in conjunc-
type of learning, occurring during tion with the food is an example of
the developmental life stage for a conditioning stimulus, in which
certain animals, such as geese and a new stimulus is present with the
ducks. When a duckling hatches already existing unconditioned
from the egg, it imprints on the stimulus (food).
mother, the first adult animal that Over time, Pavlov’s subjects
it sees. The sight of the mother learned to associate the ringing
subsequently cues the duckling bell with food, and they responded
to follow her around and imitate by drooling. Eventually, the dogs
behaviors crucial for the duckling’s would salivate when the bell was
survival. rung, even if no food was present.
Researchers know that imprint- This new stimulus-response pair
ing is a learned process as opposed now included the conditioned
to an innate behavior because if stimulus (the bell ringing) and the
newborn ducklings see a human conditioned response (drooling).
before they see the mother duck, If you’ve ever seen a dog sit to
they will imprint on the human earn a treat, or happily receive a
instead. Researchers are mindful “good dog” comment in response to
of imprinting in their efforts rolling over, then you’ve witnessed
to rehabilitate the endangered operant conditioning in action.
whooping crane through raising This method of learning is the basis
chicks in captivity. The biologists for most animal training, to both
who care for these birds wear crane encourage and discourage types
costumes to prevent the young of behavior. The same method
Chaser could identify
birds from imprinting on them is applied when a dog in a shock more than 1,000
before the cranes are old enough to collar brushes past an electric objects by name.
be taught to fly away. fence. After repeated attempts,

42 THE POWER OF LEARNING

43
The chimpanzee Nim Chimpsky (here with student teacher Joyce Butler) learned sign language.

the dog will learn to avoid that wrote in his 1953 book, Science putting Chaser in scenarios where
area—although this can create a and Human Behavior. “In operant she could not fail. “As we worked
negative emotional response, and conditioning, we ‘strengthen’ an on ‘to Sugar take Decoy’ and ‘to
many behaviorists lean on positive operant in the sense of making Decoy take Sugar’ type sentences,
reinforcement over punishment. a response more probable or, in there was less need to recall Chaser
The psychologist B.F. Skinner actual fact, more frequent.” Skinner and repeat instructions. If she
was an early researcher of operant also tested the result of a negative hesitated, I said, ‘Do it, girl. Do it!’”
conditioning and invented what stimulus. In similar experiments, Pilley wrote in Chaser: Unlocking
became known as the Skinner box, he crafted a metal grid that could the Genius of the Dog Who Knows
a chamber in which lab rats would deliver an electric shock. When the a Thousand Words. “Enthusiastic
encounter a lever. When the lever rat performed a certain action, it encouragement usually embold-
was pushed, food entered the box. would receive a shock and quickly ened her to make a choice, and
At first, the rats moved the lever learn to stop that behavior. usually it was the right one. If
accidentally. But after repeatedly she kept hesitating, I recalled her
pressing the lever and receiving PILLEY STUDIED the work of both without correction and gave her
food, the rats learned that this action Skinner and Pavlov and leaned the ‘to A take B’ instruction again.
led to being fed. “The strengthen- on classical conditioning to teach Her comfort with that gave me the
ing of behavior which results from Chaser a wide vocabulary. He impression that hesitating became
reinforcement is appropriately employed a strategy called error- her way of saying, ‘Could you
called ‘conditioning,’” Skinner less learning, which involved please repeat that sentence?’”

44 THE POWER OF LEARNING

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov experimented to condition dogs.

BUT THERE’S a major difference other physical rewards,” Terrace found that chimpanzees could
between learning words and wrote in his 1979 report, Nim: A solve problems through abstract
learning language, as a decades-old Chimpanzee Who Learned Sign thought, which was contrary to
high-profile experiment clarified. Language. However, when he made the beliefs of theorists like Pavlov.
In 1973 Herbert Terrace, a profes- combinations of two or more signs, In one experiment, Köhler hung a
sor of psychology at Columbia it could not be considered actual banana high in the chimpanzees’
University and the director of sentences. “Nim often got the signs enclosure, too high for them to
the Primate Cognition Lab in the right, but that was because his reach. There were also several
university’s department of psychol- teachers inadvertently prompted boxes and some sticks of varying
ogy, set out to teach a chimpanzee him by making appropriate signs a thickness placed randomly on the
to use simple language elements. fraction of a second before he did. floor of the enclosure. The chimps
Over three years, Terrace worked Nim’s signing wasn’t spontaneous,” had two options to get that banana:
with an infant chimpanzee named Terrace said. “He was unable to use either stack the boxes so that
Nim Chimpsky—an allusion to words conversationally, let alone they could climb high enough, or
Noam Chomsky, the groundbreak- form sentences.” insert a thinner stick into a thicker
ing MIT linguist who posited that Nim’s failure to truly learn stick to create a longer tool that
language is unique to humans—to sign language does not mean that could unhinge the banana. Sultan,
express his thoughts in American animals aren’t capable of sophis- Köhler’s star chimp, took only
Sign Language. “Nim learned to ticated learning. The German an hour to figure out how to put
sign to obtain food, drink, hugs and psychologist Wolfgang Köhler two sticks together to retrieve his

45
 Endangered whooping cranes
are being brought back from the
verge of extinction thanks to
costume-clad biologists. These
researchers donned crane
costumes to prevent the young
hatchlings from imprinting
on humans. If the biologists
don’t take such measures, the
chicks will be unfit to return
to the wild. Not only do they
mask their faces, but as seen
above and at left, they also use
a crane-head puppet with a
movable beak for feeding. Once
the cranes are old enough,
they are taught how to fly by
glider-riding scientists before
being released into the wild.

46 THE POWER OF LEARNING

lunch. Other chimpanzees, after a
few missed attempts, figured out
how to stack the boxes. The behav-
iors of Sultan and the other chimps
showed that the primates were able
to visualize the result of the stack-
ing or the tool creation before they
actually carried out the task.

HUMANS DON’T LEARN in a vacuum.

Unlike the experiments previously
mentioned, which show trial-and-
error learning, humans acquire
knowledge that is passed down or
spread from other humans. The
latest research in animal learning
shows that our furry and feathered
friends are learning in similar
ways. Birds build their nests in
processes unique and adapted to
their species, carefully crafting
a shelter with sticks, droppings,
mud and spiderwebs. But while
many researchers point to this as
being an innate and hardwired
process, other researchers believe Birds learn many behaviors, including nest-building and
that birds learn how to build their singing, through observation.
nests as part of a social practice,
something the birds observed from
other birds. In a 2018 article in the and little learning, but, where it points to research from Frans de
Spanish Journal of Psychology titled happens, assume individual learn- Waal and Denise Johanowicz from
“The Ecology of Social Learning ing,” Van Schaik wrote. “Whereas the Wisconsin National Primate
in Animals and Its Link with those who study humans automati- Research Center at the University
Intelligence,” Carel van Schaik and cally expect cultural processes to of Wisconsin, who had some
his colleagues at the University underlie our cognitive abilities.” young rhesus macaques—a species
of Zurich examined how exist- Fortunately, captive animals of monkey that doesn’t usually
ing conclusions of how animals provide useful information to engage in reconciliation following
learn vary widely by sector of help clarify how animals learn. In a conflict with a fellow monkey—
study. Field biologists regard the his 2018 Psychology Today article spend five months of their juvenile
skill-based accomplishments of “Social Learning in Animals: lives with stump-tailed macaques, a
animals as being largely innate in Implications for the Evolution different species prone to peaceful
nature. Comparative psycholo- of Human Intelligence,” Nathan conflict resolution. The fostered
gists focus on how the individual H. Lents, a professor of molecu- rhesus macaques learned how to
animal learned to do it (e.g., a bird lar biology at John Jay College, reconcile amicably.
builds its nest through a process of the City University of New Animals may lack the sophis-
of trial and error). And anthro- York, noted that “cross-fostering ticated capabilities for learning
pologists think more about how experiments, in which animals that humans have, but through
animals learn behaviors socially. are raised by members of a differ- thousands of years of evolution,
“Those who study animals tend to ent species, have also revealed the they’ve developed their own unique
expect strong genetic foundations effects of social learning.” Lents ways to build knowledge.

47
 SHAPING
EDUCATION
For thousands of years,
formal teaching has guided
the way we learn, evolving
(and sometimes struggling)
Chapter Two

to fit the changing needs

of society

48 THE POWER OF LEARNING

ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY CAMPBELL
 S H A P I N G E D U C AT I O N

The Art and

Science of Teaching
Educational experts from across the country
share their ideas for what works—and
what doesn’t—when preparing instructors
for the classroom
BY RICHARD JEROME

S AMUEL READ HALL

isn’t a household
name, except
perhaps among
a small set of
If these points sound oddly
contemporary, it’s because some
are part of an often-contentious
debate over education and teacher
training that continues to this day.
historians. But he was a pioneer and In the two centuries since Hall
visionary who profoundly shaped opened his academy, competing
education in America. As a newly philosophies have come in and out
ordained minister in 1823, Hall took of vogue, changing the way teach-
a position in Concord, Vt., then still ers are taught to teach and students
a frontier settlement, but only after are expected to learn. Teaching
town fathers satisfied one condition: itself has long been seen as a kind
that he be allowed to start a school of poor relation among professions.
for training teachers. And so Hall “Indeed, for a long time it wasn’t
opened the first institution in the even regarded as a profession,”
U.S. designed to educate educators. says historian Diane Ravitch, a
Hall had definite ideas on the subject, professor at New York University.
outlined in his influential Lectures In Hall’s time, some men (teaching
on School Keeping, published in 1829, was a male province then) were
perhaps the earliest instruction career schoolmasters, but many in
manual for teachers in America. In it, small towns and rural areas were
Hall noted some substantial impedi- farmers, surveyors and innkeepers
ments to education. Among them: who taught as a side gig. For better-
educated teachers, it was often
1. Lack of supplies, including a merely a starter job until they could
globe of the world. (Some credit enter more prestigious professions,
Hall with inventing the iconic say, as lawyers or ministers or in
blackboard and eraser.) burgeoning industries. It’s a trend
2. Political factions within the that persists today.
In addition to
school district, battling at the In the 1830s, Massachusetts understanding subject
expense of educational progress. reformer Horace Mann (1796–1859) matter and educational
philosophies, teachers
3. Poorly qualified teachers. transformed American education must be able to engage
4. Poor remuneration of qualified when he proposed a universal, their students.
teachers. secular—and free—system of

50 THE POWER OF LEARNING

51
Italian educator Maria Montessori (here, in 1946) developed a teaching style that encouraged innate interest in learning.

common schools, the precursors institutions known as normal a variety of pedagogical styles,
to public schools. Mann’s scheme schools—derived from the sometimes used in combination.
broke localities into districts, 16th-century French écoles normales— Among them:
each providing a school open so named because they provided a
to all students, regardless of cohesive curriculum that served as • Didactic, teacher-centered,
faith, income and social status. a norm. Over time, normal schools heavy on lectures
Funded largely by tax dollars, gave way to university depart- • Student-centered, in which
common schools taught the ments of education as pedagogical teachers serve as facilitators,
basics—literature, arithmetic and training grounds. The curricula say, for group projects and
history—but also civic education therein has been influenced by student portfolios
and democratic principles. These various theorists. Among the more • Kinesthetic, which includes
institutions spread as urbaniza- prominent were John Dewey hands-on projects, drawing,
tion, immigration and westward (1859–1952), who advocated against role-playing, sports and other
expansion swelled the nation—and an authoritarian classroom and physical activities
the demand for teachers skyrock- argued for one pragmatically • Differentiated instruction that is
eted. Not coincidentally, the late relevant to students’ lives (see page individually tailored, be it geared
19th century also saw more women 65); Maria Montessori (1870–1952), to gifted and talented, middling
in the teaching profession. Women whose approach stresses the devel- or special-needs students
were viewed as more nurturing, opment of a child’s own initiative • Experiential learning, involving
and, perhaps more important, they and natural abilities, especially internships, public service,
came cheaper—typically garner- through practical play, and allows research, study abroad and other
ing only about one third the salary children to develop at their own activities outside the classroom
paid to men. By the turn of the pace; and the psychologist Jean • Cooperative education, which
20th century, 75% of all teachers Piaget (1896–1980), who identified combines classroom and work
were female. four stages of childhood cogni- experience—such as when
Mann was also instrumental tive development. In real-world students collaborate to run a
in developing teacher-training classrooms, teacher ed has yielded school store

52 THE POWER OF LEARNING

Graduates of the Whitewater Normal School, a teacher-training college in Wisconsin, in the early 1900s.

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES —often Quality, one deficit in teacher of presenting material in both
politicized and controversial—have education is “a reluctance to graphics and words, while linking
also shaped pedagogical training. include well-supported scientific abstract concepts to concrete
Recent programs include the No findings in its canon,” as she wrote representations. Other research
Child Left Behind Act of 2002; Race in a 2016 paper. “We have solid shows that posing probing
to the Top, under President Obama; research going back 50 or 60 years questions such as “Why?” “How?”
and the Common Core State that establishes how a teacher and “What if?” helps kids achieve a
Standards, co-sponsored by the might boost student learning,” she deeper understanding of a subject.
National Governors Association. says. “But many teacher educators Despite the sound science, Walsh
All stress basic-skills standards, and reject out of hand a method that admits, “There is a certain artistry
all have come under criticism for, will work with 95% of kids because to delivering instruction, the
among other things, an overreliance of the 5%—they fervently believe quality that makes people great
on standardized tests and short- in the uniqueness of every child. teachers is hard to put your finger
changing arts and social studies. Some of that attitude is grounded on, but you know it when you see
For all those efforts, as of 2018 in a romanticism dating back it. Somebody you like to listen to,
U.S. students ranked just 38th to [18th-century Swiss philoso- somebody who sparks a great inter-
among developed countries in pher Jean-Jacques] Rousseau, a est in the topic at hand, somebody
math and 24th in science. American distrust of formal education for who doesn’t make you discouraged,
education and teacher education threatening children’s true and who makes you feel like you can
are, fairly or not, viewed as under- good natural state. It’s a kind of grasp what’s being taught.”
achieving. Time magazine spoke to anti-intellectualism that almost About half of teachers quit
six of the nation’s leading educa- disdains knowledge as if it were during their first five years—well
tional experts for some insights Trivial Pursuit and not something before reaching peak potential—
into the current practice of teach- that has engaged the human mind because of relatively low pay
ing—and the teaching of teachers. since the beginning of time.” and status compared with other
For Kate Walsh, president of Walsh cites empirical studies professions, notes David Berliner,
the National Council on Teacher demonstrating the effectiveness dean emeritus of Arizona State

53
 S H A P I N G E D U C AT I O N

University’s Graduate School of techniques, many of which are conservatives on teachers’ unions,
Education. That’s why he’d like often easier to learn on the job or [which are] among the most
to see budding teachers get more from a mentor than in a didactic powerful bases of the Democratic
experience at the front end. “If I preparation program on pedagogy. Party,” says Ravitch, who served
were czar, I’d set up a teacher-ed Third is a human quality, the as an assistant secretary of educa-
program with maybe half the ability to understand, relate to tion under President George H.W.
year in classrooms,” Berliner says. and communicate to kids, and Bush. “It used to be canonical on
“Learn how classrooms actually that probably has more to do the political right that unions
run. What we do now is silly. We with temperament, character and cause low test scores, which is
teach them theory and send them personality than any training.” ridiculous because the highest-
out, and they don’t get to see how Finn believes that teacher train- performing states in the country—
theory and practice are related. ing is hamstrung by “often foolish Massachusetts, Connecticut and
That’s the art part. I was talking to and bureaucratic rules” that govern New Jersey—all have strong teach-
an expert teacher who was cover- district schools because of state ers’ unions. Meanwhile, teachers
ing the solar system. He had kids requirements and that the best are expected to be social workers,
labeled as the planets and moon,
walking around the room as if in
orbit. He explained that at first
when he taught the topic nobody
Students learn best by building
learned anything. So he tried this, on ideas they already know, notes
teaching the solar system in a way Daniel Willingham. That is why a
those kids will never forget. That’s
what a great teacher does.” “well-sequenced curriculum” is crucial.
In far too many cases, Berliner
believes, teacher education fails
to account for the socioeconomic charter and private schools, “freed psychologists and saints, willing
factors that influence test scores from those rules,” can offer more to work for less than other profes-
and classroom performance. “Also flexibility for both teachers and sionals and to pay for supplies out
if I were czar,” he says, “in areas students. “They can feature differ- of their own pockets.”
where students who are poor and ent instructional styles, different Ravitch also decries what she
of color live, I’d have the people of educational philosophies and draw considers a national “obsession”
status in those communities take on different kinds of teachers,” he with standardized tests, both as
teacher candidates around to visit says. “Some teachers can be effec- a measure and shaper of teacher
the churches and political leaders tive in different styles. Some kids and student performance. “The
and allow ordinary parents to bring thrive in an environment where most important determinant of
them in for dinner. Teachers need they’re sitting at a desk, taking it test scores is the child’s home
to understand those communities all in and asking questions; others background,” she says. “A student
and understand that the kids in thrive doing a group project, or who comes from a home where
them are not all doomed to failure.” going outside and learning biology the parents are college graduates
“There are only a few requisites by pulling leaves off trees. There and who has good nutrition and
for a good teacher,” says Chester are going to be some kids who medical care will more likely do
Finn, a noted educational policy forge ahead on their own and some very well. There’s something in
analyst and former assistant kids who need the equivalent of education called Campbell’s law:
secretary of education during one-on-one tutoring.” when a measure becomes the goal,
the Reagan administration. Education historian Ravitch it distorts the measure. It’s absurd
“One is subject-matter mastery. laments what she calls decades of that tests have become the driver of
I wholly subscribe to the maxim “relentless teacher bashing” that everything—while driving out play,
you cannot teach that which you discourages good people from recess, music and art and sucking all
yourself do not know. Second is a entering the field. “Part of that the joy out of teaching and learning.
set of pedagogical and classroom has been a sustained attack by It’s as if you lived your life to have

54 THE POWER OF LEARNING

a 98.6 temperature. That’s just a
measure, not the goal of your life.”
Daniel Willingham, a profes-
sor at the University of Virginia,
has spent 20 years applying the
principles of cognitive psychology
to teacher education. “I’ve worked
on translating what cognitive
psychologists know about learn-
ing, perception, memory, attention,
emotion and motivation in ways
that seem relevant to classrooms,”
he says, adding that when prospec-
tive teachers are exposed to this
material, it’s often in a theoretical
way. Instead, he would zero in on
empirical findings that apply to
real-world situations. “I would
focus on things like ‘This is how
kids perform in a memory test with
this particular type of training,’” he
says. “Or ‘This is the type of circum-
stance in which kids focus their Kinesthetic learning involves art and other physical activities.
attention more effectively.’ These
are experimental phenomena that
we’ve observed many, many times.” thinking. It’s actually a prerequisite physics simultaneously. The auto-
In a paper titled The Science of of critical thinking.” mechanics teacher and the physics
Learning, Willingham lays out some “When it comes to teaching instructor co-teach the class. One
of these principles. For instance, he and learning, the best of every- of them asked a visitor which ones
notes, students learn best by build- thing we’d like to see is already were the AP kids, the special-needs
ing on ideas they already know, in place somewhere in American kids and the vo-tech kids. Guess
which is why a “well-sequenced schools—but it’s just so unevenly what? He couldn’t say.”
curriculum” is crucial. Burdening distributed,” says Barnett Berry, a Learning to teach, Berry argues,
students with too much informa- research professor at the University is about more than conveying infor-
tion at once, meanwhile, can cause a of South Carolina and founder of mation: “What if kids are coming to
kind of cognitive overload. the Center for Teaching Quality, school with trauma in their lives?
Willingham also challenges a which specializes in developing When kids are acting out, most of it
commonly expressed dichotomy and implementing innovative is because they’re in pain. How do
between imparting factual informa- teaching practices. “I visited a you deal with that? It takes train-
tion and developing a child’s critical school in Gulfport, Miss., not a ing and support. We have not done
thinking skills. “A key conclusion place you’d think of as a harbinger enough to create a much more fluid
in teacher education, based on of innovative pedagogical practices. profession of teaching where you
research from the last 25 or 30 They’ve merged a curriculum so have a wide array of credentialed
years, is that critical thinking and that college-bound kids taking professionals, specialists working
knowledge are really intertwined,” advanced-placement tests, special- seamlessly with those in the
he says. “Certainly, we don’t want needs kids and kids you’d think are social service and mental health
kids just to become encyclopedias homing in on vocational-technical and medical sector to bridge the
of fact; we want them to become careers—they all take courses academic needs of kids along with
excellent thinkers. Some people see together combining the learning their social, emotional and physical
knowledge as an enemy of critical of complex auto mechanics and needs. Education is complex stuff.”

55
 S H A P I N G E D U C AT I O N

The School of Athens,

a fresco painted by
Raphael in 1511, depicts
philosophers and

The Lessons
scholars, including Plato
and Aristotle (center).

of History
Tracing the evolution of educational
theory and institutions, from Confucius
and Plato to medieval Europe and
20th-century America
BY COURTNEY MIFSUD

P LATO GREW UP in
a city at war. His
home of Athens
battled Sparta in
the Peloponnesian
(groups) of the state receive.”
Throughout history, humans
have sought to learn in formal and
informal settings, and the type
of education experienced at each
War until he was 23, when the juncture depended on the needs of
war ended with Athens’s defeat society at that time. Education—in
and subsequent turmoil. “Athens both system and theory—has
was no longer administered evolved with changing societies
according to the standards and while in turn shaping the minds of
practices of our fathers,” the famed the times to better fit and improve
philosopher wrote in a letter. those societies.
“Athens desperately needs the
means of improving this particular THOUSANDS OF YEARS before Plato
situation and of reforming the institutionalized learning in
whole constitution.” According Greece, the ancient Sumerians
to Plato, education was the path were hard at work developing
to achieving a just society, so he systems for writing, agriculture
founded the Academy in 387 B.C.E., and mathematics, so much so
Greece’s first higher-learning that the ancient Mesopotamian
institution. The intellectual region—in modern-day Iraq—is
center lasted for more than referred to by many as the cradle of
900 years, until the Byzantine civilization. In the late 19th century,
emperor Justinian the Great fragments of a Sumerian tablet
dissolved it in 529 C.E. Philosophy, dating back to roughly 2000
mathematics, astronomy and B.C.E. were discovered and pieced
geometry were among the subjects together. Over the next four
taught at the Academy. Plato decades researchers worked to
theorized that education had translate the texts, and in 1949
the practical purpose of training scholars revealed that the tablet
society’s citizens and building described the life of a young scribe
its leadership: “The quality of as he learned in school. The text on
the State depends on the kind the tablet begins:
of education that the members “Schoolboy, where did you go

56 THE POWER OF LEARNING

57
A depiction of Chinese philosopher Confucius lecturing students on how to behave toward elders, circa 500 B.C.E.

from earliest days?” late for school and is punished [handwriting] was unsatisfactory.”
“I went to school.” by the schoolmaster when he The system described represents
“What did you do in school?” misbehaves. “It was a bad day for the first-known education system.
“I read my tablet, ate my lunch, our ancient pupil,” wrote Samuel In learning temples known as
prepared my tablet, wrote it, Noah Kramer, who published edubbas (tablet houses), students
finished it; then my prepared the tablet’s translation in the were taught by teachers or priests,
lines were prepared for me [and article “Schooldays: A Sumerian called ummia (experts), for many
in] the afternoon, my hand copies Composition Relating to the years to learn cuneiform, the
were prepared for me. Upon the Education of a Scribe” in the written language, along with the
school’s dismissal, I went home.” Journal of the American Oriental numeric system. Through these
Society in 1949. “He was caned by teachings a scribe learned to write
THE TABLET GOES on to describe the various members of the school books and documents by hand as
the life of the schoolboy, and it’s staff for his indiscretions and three a form of record keeping—which
not unlike the life of a modern times by the teacher himself—once explains why the schoolboy’s
student. He is terrified of being with the reprimand that his ‘hand’ underwhelming handwriting was

58 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 S H A P I N G E D U C AT I O N

The Oxford Handbook of the History

of Education. “Japan, heavily
influenced by Confucianism from
China, nevertheless adapted it to
suit a unique culture and set of
institutions.”
The earliest pieces of evidence
of education in China date back to
2000 B.C.E., in the form of inscrip-
tions on the shoulder blades of
deer and turtle shells. There is
archeological evidence that begin-
ning writers learned to inscribe on
practice bones. “The ancient graphs
evolved into standard characters,
but drawing them continued to
require long practice before the
results were acceptable,” wrote
Schirokauer. “If learning figured
in the very gestation of Chinese
civilization, the same was thought
to hold true for individuals.”
Confucius, born in 551 B.C.E.,
was a philosopher and an educa-
tor who came to be known as “the
teacher of 10,000 generations.”
He founded the Confucian school
of thinking, or Confucianism.
The teacher devoted himself to
education, once writing, “I have
never grown tired of learning, nor
wearied in teaching others what
I have learned.” For Confucius,
the purpose of learning was to
improve one’s character and self,
so bothersome to his teacher. officials were taught alongside the but just because learning began
In ancient Egypt, education sons of the Pharaoh. with oneself did not mean that
flourished in a similar fashion. As it should end there. Confucian
the civilization advanced, the need IN ANCIENT ASIA, education was philosophy emphasized a commit-
for writing was critical. Young designed in line with specific ment to social responsibility and
boys were sent to school at around values for citizens, and both Japan expected students to apply their
8 years old, and they were taught and China developed extensive knowledge and virtue to the rest
mathematics, writing, reading, practices from the earliest of of the world. The opening passage
geometry, astronomy and medicine. times. “China’s major educational of Xueji (Record of Learning), one
There were general village schools thrust was centered on educating of the main texts of Confucianism,
and specialized schools for certain the heart-mind for moral and begins, “If a ruler desires to trans-
positions in society, such as priest proper conduct, a process of total form the people [and] perfect [their]
or scribe. And at the top of the education and self-cultivation,” customs, [the ruler] can only do so
social hierarchy was the Prince’s wrote Conrad Schirokauer, a late through education.”
School, where nobles and court American historian and writer, in Confucian texts dominated the

59
 S H A P I N G E D U C AT I O N

curriculum in premodern China, 1603 to 1867, during which regional Isocrates exalted was known as
and they not only gave guidance leaders, placed in power by the paideia, and it often included
to teachers but also dictated how emperor, oversaw a fragmented subjects such as mathematics,
students were expected to behave. feudal political system. This led to a music, rhetoric, grammar, gymnas-
“Be certain you are respectful and diverse education system through- tics, history and philosophy. Paideia
reverent, keep the expression on out the regions. Schirokauer noted functioned in two ways: it prepared
your face harmonious, examine that samurai were taught to be men to become upstanding citizens,
your language and commands, both warriors and scholars. They capable of shouldering political and
be quick in leaping forward and received martial training, such as military burdens; and it allowed
in jumping back and be certain in swordsmanship and lancing, but children to rise above their baser
you are serious and decorous. also civil learning. human instincts so that they could
This is how one honors teachers,” achieve a high moral character.
Confucius wrote in the Record of IN GREECE during the 5th century But paideia wasn’t for everyone.
Rites. “This is because: Teaching is B.C.E., the country’s greatest Like many cultures that came
the most important of our moral thinkers spent much of their time before and after Greece, this type
duties, and learning is the culmi- pondering the question of how to of education was reserved not only
nation of wisdom. The greatest of raise a child. According to Isocrates, for wealthy elites but also only for
moral duties is to benefit others, a prominent rhetorician who was their sons, not their daughters.
and nothing is of more benefit to influenced by Plato, Greece was However, education in the
others than teaching.” leaps and bounds ahead of the Greek city-state of Sparta, where
Confucianism spread through- rest of the world when it came to children were bred for battle,
out China and across Asia over education: “So far Athens left the disregarded economic and gender
the following millennium, with rest of mankind behind in thought divides. Harsh child-rearing
each country uniquely interpret- and expression that her pupils have practices and a rigid school system
ing the philosophy. In Japan, the become the teachers of the world.” were organized by the state. Boys
Tokugawa shogunate reigned from The education system that were beaten, taught to withstand
cold and hunger and encouraged
to steal, from the age of 7. Girls
were treated less harshly, but they
trained rigorously and competed
beside their male counterparts. As
the Greek biographer and writer
Plutarch put it, they were expected
to “exercise themselves with
wrestling, running, throwing the
quoit [metal ring] and casting the
dart, to the end that the fruit they
conceived might, in strong and
healthy bodies, take firmer root and
better growth.”

EDUCATION IN EUROPE throughout

the Middle Ages was a fusion of
knowledge derived from ancient
wisdom, often from scholars of
antiquity, such as Aristotle and
Plato, and the various objectives of
the Christian church. The legacy
In the military-obsessed Sparta of the 5th century B.C.E., education of ancient Greek culture brought
emphasized physical and combat skills. with it texts and subjects, as well

60 THE POWER OF LEARNING

A 13th-century image of a theologian and students at the University of Paris, one of Europe’s oldest universities.

as the experts themselves. “The at this time was the tension and regimented curricula for
words of these ‘authorities’ carried between the philosophy of the past various fields of study, marks
weight in medieval explorations of and the Christian voices propelling one of the greatest educational
any topic and were treated as the the church. Scholars picked and achievements of the era. Bologna
basis for further understanding,” chose their battles with religious was one of the most influential
writes Spencer E. Young, an authorities, often bending on larger cities for European education
expert in religion, history and conflicts in order to ease tension during this era, especially when
education in the Middle Ages, in with the church and avoid suppres- Frederick Barbarossa, a Holy
The Oxford Handbook of the History sion. For instance, the framework Roman Emperor, provided support
of Education. “Even when medieval of Aristotelian natural philosophy for higher education throughout
scholars found, through rigorous suggested that the universe could the Italian peninsula. At the Diet
examination, inconsistencies in not have been put in motion by of Roncaglia in 1158, Barbarossa
this tradition or pursued new a single entity. But to appease issued the Authentica Habita,
directions in their thinking, they Christian voices, the scholars put which set some privileges for
retained immense respect for the forward theories that God could those studying law, including the
authorities of the past.” Medieval have put the universe in motion if assurance of safety for those who
educators also leaned on church he wanted to. traveled for education. “Over
fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries, That’s not to say that religion a span of nearly a millennium,
especially Augustine, an early halted the progress of true learn- educational life experiences both
Christian theologian, a doctor ing. The emergence of universi- innovation and stagnation,” Young
of the church and a Neoplatonic ties throughout the late 12th and writes. “Some of these develop-
philosopher. early 13th centuries, including the ments continue to resonate in
The chief struggle of education introduction of degree programs different ways today.”

61
At a Jewish school in London in the early 1900s, girls engaged in exercise, in addition to their studies.

EDUCATION IS OFTEN thought of wrote in his 2008 book Imagining plains hunters. These communi-
in a vacuum, in which one seeks Head-Smashed-In: Aboriginal ties drove herds of bison in the
higher knowledge by learning to, Buffalo Hunting on the Northern autumn and early winter months,
for example, write, read, practice Plains. According to Brink, the and to encourage the cows and
medicine and/or philosophize. story of indigenous groups, such calves to jump, the people lined the
We picture scholars like those as the bison-hunting aboriginal lanes with rock cairns that were
described above as champions people of the Great Plains, has not decorated with scarecrows. Some
of learning—and of course they gotten its due in historic literature: of the hunters would disguise
were. But the ways members of “It needs to be remembered for themselves as bison and wolves
indigenous societies teach and what it was—an astonishing and run alongside the herd,
learn, including the precolonial triumph of intelligent humans which created a false boundary
peoples of the Pacific Rim and over circumstances stacked for the herd to stay within. “The
western hemisphere, before overwhelmingly against them.” knowledge people must have had
widespread European colonization, Buffalo jumps—where herds [of bison habits, strengths and
should not be overlooked as of bison were guided by hunters weaknesses] in order to pull off
valuable systems of education. into stampeding over cliffs the feat of harvesting and process-
Colonizers often characterized and then butchered at the cliff ing over 100 bison at a time was
these societies as primitive and bottom—were commonplace for deep and vast,” writes Andrea
desperately in need of conventional thousands of years in precolonial Lawrence, an associate professor
education. But certainly these North America. The largest and in the department of curriculum
individuals were educated best-preserved buffalo jump is and instruction at the University of
according to their own needs and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Montana, in The Oxford Handbook
standards. “There is practically in the Porcupine Hills of south- of the History of Education. “The
no limit to the depth of creativity western Alberta, Canada. The learning that accumulated over
human beings have brought to archaeological evidence at this site time might now be identified as
bear in order to make their world dates back more than 5,000 years, largely scientific. This knowledge
livable,” archaeologist Jack W. Brink before horses became available to was transmitted by generations of

62 THE POWER OF LEARNING

Students at a New York high school in the mid-1920s listened to a radio.

communities through daily and emphasis on practical information. women who taught at neighbor-
seasonal practices.” In 17th-century America, many hood dame schools were to be
In colonial America, education leaders feared that an educated certified by the selectmen.
developed initially on two tracks: public would lead to a disruption
the upper classes were able to of the status quo. Lord Berkeley, a OPPORTUNITIES FOR education
pursue the classics, such as Latin governor of Virginia, said in 1671, for women in the U.S. did not
grammar and Greek texts; the lower “I thank God that there are no free begin in any meaningful fashion
classes, mostly farmers, received schools . . . and I hope that we shall until the 19th century. The first
limited and inconsistent education, not have these [for a] hundred co-educational colleges were
often simply learning how to read years.” He added that “learning has founded in 1833, and in the coming
and write through the church, in brought disobedience, and heresy decades access to higher education
addition to lessons based on moral and sects into the world.” opened for women. The Morrill
virtues and the Bible. This attitude became less Act of 1862 granted federal land
As communities grew, so did prevalent after the colonies won to each state for the creation of
the need to educate them, and their independence. When John public colleges, and of the 34 public
in 1647 Massachusetts enacted a Adams drafted the Massachusetts institutions founded between 1861
law that required towns of 100 or Constitution in 1780, he included and 1880, 71% accepted women.
more families to establish a formal provisions that guaranteed While some institutions found
school—though students wouldn’t public education to all citizens. co-ed schools in order to be more
be required to attend until the In 1789 Massachusetts passed a cost-effective, the push to accept
following century. Education comprehensive education law that women at public institutions was
was often an avenue to support required all teachers in grammar largely driven by the need to train
the community—children could schools to “provide satisfactory teachers to accommodate the
apprentice to be tradesmen, with an evidence” that they had received spread of schooling. “The schools
employer teaching the skills of the a formal education in a college or are growing so rapidly with this
trade. Children on farms were often university and, equally important, expansion of primary education
educated inside the home, with an were of good moral character. Even and then secondary education in

63
 S H A P I N G E D U C AT I O N

the 19th century that one of the become elementary schoolteach- During this era, Rury notes,
problems is getting teachers to ers, but Rury notes that women America created an education
do all this,” says John L. Rury, a would teach for only a few years, system that rewarded rational
professor emeritus of education while they were unmarried, and thinking. He specifically points
at the University of Kansas. Rury that some districts would not to the methods of certifying and
explains that initially men were even hire married women. When a organizing learning, such as
educators and schoolmasters, teacher became pregnant, it would international testing programs
teaching during four- or five- lead to questions from schoolchil- and research universities, that
month terms while holding other dren curious about reproduction— have flourished in the U.S. and
jobs for the rest of the year. But questions that were tricky for attracted students from all over
once the school term was extended conservative educators to answer. the world. But there’s more work
to eight or nine months, these to be done. As Rury says, “What we
male educators didn’t have the THE TURN OF the 20th century [educators in the U.S.] have done
bandwidth for full-time teach- brought a more expansive poorly is creating a system where
ing. “The school leaders, the education system, largely due to opportunity is really equalized.”
superintendents, were in favor America’s rapid industrialization In the spring of 1966, James
of co-education because this was and subsequent economic growth. Coleman, a Johns Hopkins University
their big supply of teachers,” Rury In the decades between 1890 and sociologist, was charged by
says. Nineteenth-century high 1930, private and public high Congress to investigate the source
schools had teacher-training school enrollment increased of inequality in education. He
programs that taught girls to from 300,000 to nearly 15 million. was specifically called on by the
federal commissioner of education
concerning a single paragraph in
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that
required a survey and to report
to the president and Congress
“concerning the lack of availability
of equal educational opportunities
for individuals by reason of race,
color, religion or national origin in
public educational institutions.”
The Coleman Report, officially
called the Equality of Educational
Opportunity Study, challenged the
existing hypothesis that a school’s
access to funding and resources
dictated the success or failure of
its students. Much to the surprise
of Coleman, the chief source of
variation was not the school but
the home backgrounds of the
students. “Knowing that we live in
a country with enormous dispari-
ties in living conditions, how do we
make the education system operate
in a way that creates more or less
equal opportunity for outcomes?”
asks Rury. “That’s the big challenge
facing American education today.”
And it’s still just as true in 2021.

64 THE POWER OF LEARNING

AMERICA’S
EDUCATION
EVANGELIST
How John Dewey championed
a new education movement that
appealed to the masses
BY COURTNEY MIFSUD

IF YOU WERE an educator in the

19th century, you likely taught
the philosophies of a bygone
era. “Learning accomplishment
at that time was learning the
Dewey worked to prepare students for a role in society.
classics: Greek and Latin. And
the principal argument in favor
of it was that it was hard. The
harder, the better,” says John L. system was that he believed it had published 766 articles in 151
Rury, a professor emeritus of been tailored for the aristocracy, journals throughout his lifetime.
education at the University of with a curriculum that revolved But his way of thinking was not
Kansas. “In fact, the further from around high culture and abstract without controversy, especially in
your immediate experience, the thinking, essentially keeping it out postwar America. Critics assumed
better.” At the time, colleges of reach for most people. “The that under Dewey’s learning
and educators believed that simple facts of the case are that in models, students would fail to
the source of knowledge was the great majority of human beings, acquire the academic skills and
from ancient wisdom, and even the distinctively intellectual interest knowledge needed to advance.
as contemporary sciences is not dominant,” Dewey wrote. Many were concerned that
HIZIPSTIHXLSWIǻIPHW[IVIWXMPP “They have the so-called practical classroom order would disappear
rooted in mastering the classics. impulse and disposition.” And with once a teacher’s authority had
But progressive education more Americans from many walks been challenged. President
reformers of the late 19th and of life enrolling in school, it was up Dwight D. Eisenhower told Life
early 20th centuries questioned XSIHYGEXSVWXSǻRH[E]WXSVIEGL magazine in 1958 that he blamed
these archaic teaching styles. the masses: “The school must America’s educational failings
Chief among the reformers was represent present life,” according to on Dewey’s teachings. However,
Vermont native John Dewey Dewey. )I[I]ƶWPIKEG][EWRSXHIǻRIH
(1859–1952), a philosopher and As an intellectual and an by his critics. In China, he was
educator who pushed for a new activist, Dewey made a string of called “a second Confucius,”
model of schooling. landmark contributions to the and historian Henry Steele
In 1899, Dewey published the educational landscape of the Commager called him “the guide,
pamphlet The School and Society, 20th century. He co-founded the mentor and the conscience
which challenged the existing the American Association of of the American people.” Unlike
learning model, in which students University Professors and worked Eisenhower, President Lyndon
sat in classrooms in rows reciting to organize the New York City B. Johnson—a former teacher—
and memorizing information. Dewey Teachers Union. Dewey also applauded Dewey’s philosophies
proposed that students should take WYTTSVXIHIǺSVXWXLEXLIPTIH and carried them forward in the
an active role in their education found the National Association W/SLRWSRcSRGIVIQEVOIH
and be tasked to complete for the Advancement of Colored that he had found “a deep and
interesting projects that required People and the American Civil PEWXMRKWMKRMǻGERGIMR)V/SLRR]ƶW
problem-solving. One of Dewey’s Liberties Union. belief that the greatest sin of all is
major gripes with the education Dewey wrote 37 books and to lose faith in one’s fellow man.”

65
Educators must
acknowledge the
unconscious prejudices
they hold toward
minority students.

66 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 S H A P I N G E D U C AT I O N

Addressing Bias
in the Classroom
As the conversation over systemic racism
grows louder, educators are working to
change anachronistic attitudes and curricula
in our schools
B Y A A R I C K A WA S H I N G T O N

I N THE 1940S,
Black psycholo-
gists Kenneth and
Mamie Phipps
Clark conducted a
and women are still largely under-
represented in (and frequently
discouraged from pursuing)
science, technology, engineering
and mathematics (STEM) fields.
simple experiment in the hopes of Students read textbooks with a
understanding the effects of racism skewed or minimalized history of
on children. More than 200 Black women, African Americans, Native
kids were shown Black and white Americans, the LGBTQIA+ commu-
dolls and asked which one they nity and other minority groups
wanted to play with. The strik- at the mandate of state boards
ing result found that a majority of education pushing specific
preferred the white doll. The study political agendas. English-language
was later used as a key example learners struggle with the lack of
that segregation was harmful to quality learning materials address-
Black and white children in the ing their specific needs. And then
1954 landmark Supreme Court there’s the metaphoric school-to-
case Brown v. Board of Education prison pipeline, a reference to the
of Topeka, which ruled that racial disproportionately high enforce-
segregation in public schools was ment of zero-tolerance disciplinary
unconstitutional. policies against Black students,
As monumental as that ruling depriving them of opportunities to
was, it really only began the succeed in school.
conversation about bias in educa- The coronavirus pandemic
tion. Seven decades later, the list also exposed ways in which many
of inequities continues to grow. minority students are placed at a
A Black high school student in disadvantage compared with their
Texas is barred from graduation white counterparts. Just two weeks
after refusing to cut his dreadlocks. before graduation at the predomi-
To encourage
Harvard University pushes back nately Hispanic and low-income
learning, parents
against a lawsuit from a group Liberty Middle School in take an active
should
role in fostering a
that claimed Asian Americans Lemoore, Calif., officials suddenly
child’s intellectual
were being discriminated against announced a policy that mandated
curiosity.
because of affirmative action. Girls a minimum attendance record

67
Biases in our education systems create hurdles to learning that students of color constantly face.

of 70% since the start of remote in something that many consider a says. “From the beginning, they
learning in order to participate in rite of passage.” should have been developing
the online graduation ceremony. Why did the requirement matter the students’ capacity to do the
This disproportionately affected in the first place? According to cognitively independent work right
students with fewer technological Zaretta Hammond, a national to be able to have those learning
resources who struggled to keep up education consultant and the behaviors.”
with the curriculum. “The school author of Culturally Responsive In a 2015 article for the Southern
is setting these rules based on the Teaching and the Brain, it fits a Poverty Law Center’s educa-
most privileged of students and pattern of historical and habitual tor resource project Teaching
not really taking into account all biases that have long impacted Tolerance, Hammond shared
the vulnerable student populations students from vulnerable popula- an anecdote of a white teacher
that would likely be harmed by tions. During the pandemic, many expressing her frustrations with
these policies,” says Abre’ Conner, Black and brown students were her classroom full of African
a staff attorney at the American facing the consequences of not American, Mexican American and
Civil Liberties Union of Northern being properly taught how to work Southeast Asian students, who
California, who successfully independently, especially when seemed reluctant to engage in
lobbied the school district and the it comes to literacy. “So, where learning. Hammond emphasized
principal to remove the require- teachers have over-scaffolded that the first step was getting
ment. “The school district was and spoon-fed [during in-person teachers to recognize their assump-
creating even more barriers for teaching], now kids were being left tions about their students and
students to be able to participate without that support,” Hammond their learning capacity. Then

68 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 S H A P I N G E D U C AT I O N

they need to look for inequity school being responsive to what safe spaces for kids to come back
patterns and be aware of accepting the needs of the community are, and heal from whatever traumas
negative stereotypes. The teacher, given what we know in terms of the are happening because of the
Hammond wrote, “was shocked to kind of structural, economic and pandemic and what’s going on
see that many of her interactions social inequities that impact Latino around them,” Hammond says.
were negative—always pointing out communities?” she asks. “Educators have to create spaces
off-task behavior, using sarcasm Along with cultural proficiency, to listen to students and create
to motivate and discounting Hammond says it is key for white mindful healing practices, without
their cultural learning tools and educators to build racial literacy losing the academic rigor.”
strategies. What she thought were and reduce their own “white fragil- Krystal Allen, a national educa-
positive interactions were really ity,” a term coined by anti-racist tion consultant and former school
negative statements sugarcoated educator Robin DiAngelo that leader in New Orleans, says some
with a ‘happy’ tone of voice.” refers to the low tolerance many biases in education originate from
In regards to the Liberty Middle white people have when it comes a lack of shared decision-making
School situation, Hammond says to discussing racism. No school power for parents regarding
school leaders should not lower district is doing an excellent job, polices and agendas. Instead, white
the learning standards for the Hammond says, but many of them officials often feel as if they alone
students, but they must understand are trying to do the work by having know what’s best for minority
the bigger picture of challenges diversity, equity and inclusion students. “When you think about
that families face, especially during offices. all the ways biases creep in and
the crisis. Many minority parents Still, school leaders are not yet operate,” she says, “there is a very
are frontline workers who were hitting the mark when it comes salient sense of white dominance
unable to devote as much time to how they are responding to the and white supremacy at play when
and resources to their children’s needs of parents and children. “We we do not share the voices of
schooling as white parents. “Is the recognize that we need to make families of color.

THE HBCU EXPERIENCE

AT WILEY COLLEGE in .XƶWWSQIXLMRK'SPHIR PMOI(STTMRXEXI9RMZIVWMX] MRXLMWGSRXI\XMWRSXEFSYX
Marshall, Texas, Jaylon JIPXLI[EWQMWWMRKEXXLI -S[EVH9RMZIVWMX]ERH8I\EW XLIJSVQEPGPEWWVSSQFYX
'SPHIRǻREPP]JSYRHLMW TVIHSQMREXIP][LMXILMKL SYXLIVR9RMZIVWMX]LEZI EFSYXXLIPMZMRKFVIEXL-
JSSXMRK3SXSRP][EWXLI WGLSSPLIEXXIRHIHƸ.JSYRH TVSHYGIHXLVIIUYEVXIVWSJ MRKHEMP]I\TIVMIRGISJ
22-year-old senior on a ZEPYIMRQ]WIPJERH.HMH EPP'PEGOTIVWSRWLSPHMRK FIMRKSRER-'(9GEQTYW
HIFEXIXIEQ[MXLEWXSVMIH RSXLEZIXSXLMROEFSYX EHSGXSVEXIHIKVIIXLVII FIMRKTEVXSJEGSRXMRYYQƹ
PIKEG]XLEX[EWGETXYVIH FIMRK'PEGOEPPXLIXMQIƹ UYEVXIVWSJ'PEGOSǽGIVWMR EYXLSV;MPPMEQ(7LSHIR
MRXLIǻPQThe Great LIWE]WƸ'IMRK'PEGO[EW XLIEVQIHJSVGIWERHJSYV E2SVKERXEXIEPYQ[VSXI
DebatersWXEVVMRK)IR^IP 40ƴ.HMHRSXLEZIXSJIIP ǻJXLWSJEPP'PEGOJIHIVEP JSVThe UndefeatedMR
;EWLMRKXSRFYXLI[EW JIEVMRXLIWTEGIW.[EPOIH NYHKIW8LIPMWXSJRSXEFPI Ƹ8LIVIEVIXVEHISǺWSJ
also heavily involved in .[EWIQTS[IVIHERHQIR- -'(9EPYQWMRGPYHIW2EVXMR GSYVWIƴKSMRKXSELIEZMP]
LMW3&&(5GLETXIVLMW XSVIHF]WSQER]'PEGO 1YXLIV0MRK/V 2SVILSYWI VIWSYVGIH?TVIHSQMRERXP]
JVEXIVRMX]ERHXLIWXYHIRX [SQIRERHQIRƹ (SPPIKI3&&QEXLIQE- [LMXIAMRWXMXYXMSRFIMRK
KSZIVRQIRX8LI-SYWXSR &QENSVMX]SJXLI-'(9W XMGMER0EXLIVMRI/SLRWSR GPEWWQEXIWERHJVMIRHW
REXMZIIQFVEGIHXLIGEQ- [IVIIWXEFPMWLIHEJXIVXLI ;IWX:MVKMRMEXEXITMOI [MXLWXYHIRXW[LSWIPMJI
TYWGSQQYRMX]ERHKEMRIH (MZMP;EVXSWIVZI'PEGOWXY- 1II 2SVILSYWIERH4TVEL I\TIVMIRGIWEVIHMǺIVIRX
EWIRWISJTVMHIERIEVP] HIRXW[LS[IVIFEVVIHSV ;MRJVI] 8IRRIWWIIXEXI JVSQ]SYVW4RXLISXLIV
YRMZIVWEPI\TIVMIRGIJSV HMWGSYVEKIHJVSQEXXIRHMRK 8LSYKLJI[IVXLER LERHXLIVIMWWSQIXLMRK
WXYHIRXWEXXLITPYW TVIHSQMRERXP][LMXIGSP-  SJ'PEGOGSPPIKIWXY- TS[IVJYPERHWIPJEǽVQMRK
LMWXSVMGEPP]'PEGOGSPPIKIW PIKIW&GGSVHMRKXSXLI9 HIRXWEXXIRH-'(9WXSHE] EFSYXFIMRKMRXLIQENSV-
ERHYRMZIVWMXMIW -'(9MR )ITEVXQIRXSJ*HYGEXMSR -'(9WQEMRXEMRERMQTSV- MX]JSVXLSWITVIGMSYW]IEVW
&QIVMGEMRGPYHMRK;MPI] -'(9WMRGPYHMRKMRWXMXYXMSRW XERXVSPIMRWSGMIX]Ƹ(YPXYVI SJGSPPIKIƹ

69
70 THE POWER OF LEARNING
 S H A P I N G E D U C AT I O N

EDUCATION
AROUND
THE WORLD
The schools and classrooms
may look different, but all
across the planet students from
preschool day-care centers to
high-level graduate programs
receive formal training. Still,
according to the United Nations,
as of 2018, one out of five
children between the ages of
6 and 17 worldwide was not
attending school, with more than
half of them in areas plagued
by war or conflict. As part of
its Sustainable Development
Goals, the U.N. hopes to correct
those numbers by 2030 and
ensure educational access for
all children and improve literacy
and numeracy globally.

Sevare, Mali
;MHIWTVIEHGSRǼMGXMRXLI
;IWX&JVMGERGSYRXV]LEWPIH
XSXLIGVIEXMSRSJGEQTWJSV
MRXIVREPP]HMWTPEGIHTISTPI
-IVIEWXYHIRX[EWXEYKLXMR
EQEOIWLMJXGPEWWVSSQ

71
 S H A P I N G E D U C AT I O N

Lausanne,
Switzerland
At the hospitality-management
school École Hôtelière de
Lausanne, students received
hands-on instruction from a chef.

Bazhou, China
In the province of Hebei,
students practiced dance
at a Peking opera class.

New York City

Future doctors learned about
geriatrics as their professor
interviewed a healthy senior in
a lecture hall at Weill Cornell
Medical School.

73
 Moscow, Russia
The Rumyantsev State School
of Circus and Variety Arts, named
for a famous Soviet-era clown,
trains gymnasts, acrobats and
other aspiring performers.

74 THE POWER OF LEARNING

75
 S H A P I N G E D U C AT I O N

76 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 San Antonio del
Chami, Colombia
Two girls from the Embera-Chami
indigenous tribe of South America
shared a laugh in their village school.

Ibb, Yemen
As an ongoing civil war tears through
the country (located on the Arabian
peninsula), students carried on with
lessons in the wreckage of their school.

Duluth, Minnesota
Toddlers at Aunty’s Child Care
participated in circle time as they
begin to prepare for formal schooling
when they reach kindergarten age.

77
 Portland, Maine
A group of budding musicians
at Riverton Elementary School
TVEGXMGIHTPE]MRKXLIcYOYPIPI

78 THE POWER OF LEARNING

79
 MODERN
LEARNING
From Zoom to artificial intelligence,
technology continues to simplify
Chapter Three

and enhance the ways we learn.

Still, there’s no replacing good
old-fashioned human interaction

80 THE POWER OF LEARNING

ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY CAMPBELL
 MODERN LEARNING

The New
(Virtual) Reality
We’ve gotten a crash course in remote
learning. While there are various drawbacks,
the digital classroom also brings some
significant benefits
B Y I N G E L A R AT L E D G E A M U N D S O N

L ET’S BEGIN by
stating the
obvious: remote
learning is hardly
a novel concept.
material for the web. Students were
introduced to a different kind of
classroom—this time, based in their
bedroom or the family den—where
the daily curriculum was meted out
Online courses have been growing via a series of computer windows
in popularity and availability and clicks.
practically since the dawn of the It was, to put it mildly, a shock to
internet in the mid-1990s. As our the system. “We all had to go online
technological capabilities have really quickly, and we did what
steadily expanded, virtual classes— we could with a lot of Band-Aids
indeed, even virtual diplomas— and laptops,” says Erich Dietrich, a
have become an exceedingly viable clinical professor of higher educa-
and attractive solution for meeting tion and international education at
educational needs across a global New York University’s Steinhardt
landscape. School. But it wasn’t just the swift-
And yet there’s no denying that ness or lack of groundwork that
for the vast majority of us, our first made the transition so difficult:
real exposure to remote learn- there was the issue of our collec-
ing was a stunningly new—and tive mindset. “Sure,” the small
nonelective—experience. In March voices inside our heads whispered,
2020, millions of Americans were “virtual learning is great if you
plunged into the deep end when want to take a MasterClass in
the spread of COVID-19 neces- stand-up comedy or get your
sitated school closures across the law degree at night. But students
country. Suddenly, in the throes belong in school!”
of a pandemic, everybody on the It’s no wonder, really, that we’re
educational spectrum was thrust wired to be wary of a classroom-less
into unfamiliar territory. Parents classroom—we’ve been conditioned
found themselves white-knuckling over centuries to believe that the To command the
it through grammar lessons with prevailing system is the “right” attention of students
online, teachers must
their elementary-school-age kids. way. But wait. “There’s not much amp up the force
Teachers burned the midnight oil evidence to support that having an of their personalities.
trying to figure out how to translate instructor in a room with a lot of

82 THE POWER OF LEARNING

83
 MODERN LEARNING

students is actually a good model,” Without a leader there to galva- The Pros and Cons
Dietrich says. “Yes, it moves a great nize the troops—create those In any dialogue about virtual
amount of people through the “O Captain! My Captain” moments academia, inevitably the first
classroom with the least amount à la Dead Poets Society—it’s concern that crops up is the lack of
of work, but it’s been implemented necessary to find other means of a rich social component—which
because it’s efficient—not because stimulation, whether that’s a well- has an enormous impact on the
it’s the best pedagogy. It’s become crafted instructional video, an overall student experience and, by
our default.” impromptu poll or a cameo from a extension, learning itself. “When
special guest star. I’m physically in my classes, I feel
Virtual vs. Traditional The pupils’ ages will also have like I’m seen and known—like my
For the record: regardless of the a major bearing on how they’re work, my questions and my ideas
delivery device, learning is basically able to take in information online. are significant to the community,”
the same whether it happens in While a smaller, discussion-based Diehl says. “Learning at home by
person or via computer. “We’re seminar-style class might work for myself, I don’t feel that.”
creating sets of links in our long- college or grad students, it would Another major problem is that
term memory and strengthening be a comedy of errors to try to get a the technology gap—the digital
them with practice,” explains pack of first graders to sit still for an divide between affluent students,
Barbara Oakley, a professor of hour-long handwriting workshop. who may have more access to and
engineering at Oakland University “It’s been so hard for elementary familiarity with devices, and their
and an expert in general and online and middle schoolers to go online less-privileged counterparts—
learning. Naturally, the most because their attention spans are puts students on uneven footing.
glaring distinction between the two shorter and they require a lot more “The gap is definitely increasing,”
methods is that traditional learning interaction,” Dietrich says. warns Mary Stephens, a veteran
originates in the classroom while The specific topic being taught educator of kindergarten through
the virtual version exists online. matters too; certain disciplines college-level students and founder
In a traditional setting, a teacher lend themselves better to online of PrepForward, an online prep
is able to take the temperature of treatment. “Writing and a lot of the course for teacher certification.
the room—to interpret cues about human and social sciences are a “Even if students are able to borrow
how the students are faring and natural fit for online,” Dietrich says. machines from the school district,
respond in kind. “There are all “Science is more difficult, because it won’t necessarily bridge the gap.
kinds of cognitive tricks you can you need the space and facilities for They may not have Wi-Fi access, or
use to get attention and keep it,” teamwork, and it’s harder to develop they may need to share the technol-
Oakley says. “Online, that’s a lot soft skills like public speaking when ogy with others in the household.”
tougher—if someone’s texting her you aren’t in person.” According Among the upsides is how
friend off to the side, that’s pretty to Kalyn Diehl, a student who was adaptive and inclusive virtual
hard to catch and address.” Trying midway through her junior year learning can be. In traditional
to compel a group of students to at St. Francis College in Brooklyn classrooms, students are expected
listen for extended periods using when her classes went online in to maintain roughly the same pace,
sheer force of personality is much the wake of the coronavirus, her despite the fact that there are all
more challenging on a screen. French curriculum suffered in kinds of learners. Virtual learning,
“The camera basically subtracts particular. “The professor’s goal of with its utilization of asynchro-
10 charisma points,” Oakley says. full immersion—all of us practicing nous materials, allows individu-
“However engaging you are in the language by having an ongoing als to move at their own speed.
real life, you’d better be a lot more conversation and learning on our (Asynchronous learning is done on
engaging online—and that can be feet—kind of went out the window your own time—watching a video,
hard to keep up.” when we moved online,” Diehl doing a preassigned exercise and
Which explains why you can’t says. “I wasn’t able to adapt well so on—while synchronous learn-
simply take exactly what would to not having that, and it was a lot ing happens live with others, as in
occur in a classroom and put it on more difficult trying to learn from a Zoom lesson.) “It’s easy to miss
Zoom—or at least you shouldn’t. a textbook.” something in a classroom because

84 THE POWER OF LEARNING

Online learning allows for flexibility but should still adhere to standards and requirements.

things are going by so fast,” Oakley time investment, but it will pay off the material itself, but on how to
says. “But if you have a video avail- big-time later.” The reason videos help their children learn,” Stephens
able, you can stop it as many times are such a mainstay: research into says. The teachers will likely benefit
as you want and make sure you’re multimedia learning theory— from the insight and be able to offer
getting it.” pioneered by Richard Mayer, a solutions.
psychologist at the University of And while virtual learning
Improving the Experience California, Santa Barbara—has does allow for greater flexibility,
Now that virtual learning has demonstrated that our brains it shouldn’t be the Wild West.
become part of our repertoire, let’s learn much faster when a subject is “Structure is always helpful,”
roll up our sleeves and get better being presented via a combination Oakley says. Teachers should create
at it. What have we discovered of words, pictures and auditory a syllabus and establish a weekly
so far? For virtual coursework, information. routine: new materials on Mondays,
the most effective curriculum is Communication is another meetings on Wednesdays, quizzes
a hybrid of materials and styles huge key to success and should on Fridays and so on. It’s important
that leverages the advantages of be a cornerstone of the virtual that the routine includes breaks and
asynchronous and synchronous learning process. “The channels social time.
approaches. “Some students are between teachers and students, Although many of us were
really good at thinking on the fly teachers and parents, parents and pushed into homeschooling, it has
and being impromptu; others aren’t. kids, teachers and their peers, and undeniably been, well, a learn-
It’s really good to offer options for students and their peers must be ing experience. “It’s forced us to
both,” Dietrich says. If haphazardly continually open and flexible,” take a step back and say, ‘How are
slapping an offline curriculum Stephens says. Parents must be we really meeting our learning
on Zoom is a surefire recipe for honest with instructors about their objectives, and could we be doing
mediocrity, “then the remedy to own limitations—there’s no shame something more innovative?’”
that is careful preparation,” Oakley in, say, failing to grasp the intrica- Dietrich says. “This is a moment
says. “Like incorporating really cies of middle school math. “They for being creative, and I don’t think
good, watchable video materials need to seek advice from their kids’ we’ll ever go back to the same
into the course. It takes an up-front teachers—not on understanding normal that we had before.”

85
 MODERN LEARNING

How to Raise a
(Successful) Failure
Resilience—not letting setbacks destroy you,
learning from them, trying again—is one of life’s
great skills. This is how you can teach it
BY JENNIFER KING LINDLEY

I T WAS THE EVE of

the sixth-grade
science fair.
Having dawdled
until the deadline,
a “failure-deprived generation”—
famously blamed on helicopter
parents, lawn-mower parents,
snowplow parents and other
heavy-machinery types who swoop
my son, Ethan, had whipped in to bawl out coaches and wheedle
together a seriously lame experi- better grades. Jessica Lahey, the
ment: measuring the weight of a author of The Gift of Failure,
banana before and after it dried has been an English teacher for
out. Every maternal atom in me 20 years and has watched her
thrummed with ideas for making students become increasingly
“Banana Water” less bad. “How uncomfortable with taking risks.
about you test several different Lahey says this avoidance can
fruits and compare? Or maybe a be fostered by parents with even
nice avocado?” I enthused. Ethan the best intentions: “It’s painful
was unmoved: “Just bananas. It’s to watch your child stumble. You
easier.” I watched him blow-dry the want to show your love by making
lone, browning piece of fruit and a problem instantly better. But we
shrugged. On science fair night, need to look beyond the immediate
at tables nearby, atoms were being emergency and take a longer view:
split, obscure diseases cured. Ethan, ‘How can this help my kid grow
looking uncomfortable under the from life’s many setbacks while I’m
glaring gymnasium lights, got only here to help?’”
the thinnest, most polite grand- In fact, failing is essential to a
parent traffic and—surprise!— well-lived life. Being comfortable
earned a deservedly lackluster faltering and getting back up are
grade. “Maybe some grapes would indispensable to building resilience.
have helped,” he admitted on the “We don’t rejoice in easy victories.
subdued car ride home. If you recover from failure, you
I now realize Ethan got to learn something about yourself.
experience something that is You are tougher than you thought.
increasingly rare for kids: what Or more hardworking. That’s how
it’s like to just plain screw up. confidence is built,” says Rachel
Our youngsters have been called Simmons, the author of Enough

86 THE POWER OF LEARNING

87
 As She Is: How to Help Girls Move in low-income high schools who council seat but losing, for example.
Beyond Impossible Standards of learned about the struggles and “Emphasize to them that failures
Success to Live Healthy, Happy, and failed experiments of scientists like are proof you are pushing yourself
Fulfilling Lives. Marie Curie saw their own science to do something hard. If you are not
As a leadership-development grades improve. They learned that making mistakes, you are probably
specialist at Smith College in intelligence is not something you not challenging yourself,” says Amy
Northampton, Mass., Simmons are born with but something you Morin, a psychotherapist and the
helped develop Failing Well, a gain through effort and, yes, error. author of 13 Things Mentally Strong
workshop series that included “Students realize that success Parents Don’t Do.
having professors and students requires a journey with failures Ready to raise your own little
publicly air their rejection letters along the way,” says Lin-Siegler. failures? Here’s where to begin.
and biggest screwups. In 2018, Of course, you don’t want to
Columbia University’s Teachers just throw your kid to the wolves. Step Back
College established the Education (“Good luck with choosing a Allow your kids the chance to
for Persistence and Innovation college! Bye!”) Experts say the (deep breath) fail naturally. Start
Center, dedicated to studying sweet spot of failure often lies just young, when the stakes are low:
the role of failure in learning outside children’s comfort zones, let your 3-year-old lose to you at
and innovation. A 2016 study by where they have the chance to learn Candy Land, suggests Stephanie
the center’s director, Xiaodong something that will serve them well O’Leary, a clinical psychologist
Lin-Siegler, showed that students in the future—running for a student and the author of Parenting in
the Real World: “She might have
a meltdown, but don’t lose your
cool. Say, ‘I know this is hard.’ If
she sees her mom tolerating her
distress, she will realize it is not the
end of the world.” For school-age
kids, sports offer excellent lessons
in taking your lumps (sometimes
literally) and trying another day.
Lahey’s son was tripped at the start
of a cross-country meet. “If I had
been there, I couldn’t have resisted
coming to his rescue and asking
for a do-over,” she says. “Instead,
his teammates ran beside him, he
had a personal best, and he beat
the kid who fouled him. My son
now counts that as one of the best
running days he ever had.”
Stepping back may mean
examining your own attitudes, says
Morin. “You feel guilty if you don’t
run to school with the left-behind
soccer gear. You may see your
child’s failures as a reflection of
your parenting. To cool down, it can
help to write a list: What are three
things my child could learn from
this? Seeing the logic on paper can
bring you back to reality.”

88 THE POWER OF LEARNING

 MODERN LEARNING

Teach Them cut-down skis in our backyard. By court, accepted to the dream
Self-Compassion the time he was 12, he was compet- school and laughing with gaggles
However much it helps them grow, ing against older kids. He would of friends at the best party. “These
messing up hurts. Validate their get so mad at himself if he lost images can make young people
discomfort, say experts. “We need a race, but he was determined. I think that they are the only ones
to sit with them with those difficult would tell him, ‘Just getting pissed who have struggles and bad days,”
emotions. Having parents take off isn’t going to do it. How about says O’Leary. “I repeat to my kids
their feelings seriously is gold for you talk to your coaches about all the time, ‘Understand what
kids—it is often what they want how to fix it?’” She credits his you are seeing on social media is
most. And they will learn that bad early experiences in resilience for not real. Posts leave the tough stuff
feelings are not going to destroy his ability to withstand making out. Everyone has bad days.’ Saying
you,” says Simmons. Use active the Olympic team in 2018, only to that over and over to them creates a
listening by repeating the gist of have to miss competing due to a mental basket for them to put those
what they are saying: “Wow, that last-minute injury. And he’s racing images in.” The parenting resource
is rough! You must feel so angry again: “Tommy has had to claw Common Sense Media advises you
right now.” And encourage them to for everything he’s achieved. His to frequently ask your kids how
practice self-compassion—being setbacks have just made him dig they are feeling about their social
kind to themselves when they deeper,” she says. media feeds. Encourage them to
falter. “If [name a best friend] were take a break if all those perfect
feeling bad, what would you say Share Your Own brows and perfect scores are
to them right now?” you can ask. Screwups making them feel bad about their
When you help them through the You may think being a good role own lives.
emotional sting, they feel capable model means you have to appear
of trying again. perfect. Quite the contrary. Sharing Nudge Them Out of
your own stumbles can show kids the Comfort Zone
Emphasize the Lessons that mistakes are totally normal “My 10-year-old son prefers
Your kids take their cues about and thus helps them take their own activities he is already good at, like
what to think about failure in stride. Says Tish Biesemeyer, music and math,” says O’Leary. “He
from you, says Kyla Haimovitz, “I’m in sales. I would come home recently wanted to start playing
a psychology researcher at the and tell my kids, ‘I didn’t get that basketball. I got real: ‘You might
University of Pennsylvania who sale, and I’m so bummed! Here’s end up sitting on the bench a lot,
has studied how parents react to what I’ll do differently next time.’” but go for it!’ Kids learn lots of
kids’ failures. “Your reaction has Simmons regularly shares her things when they are not the best at
a huge impact on your kids. Talk mistakes with her 6-year-old something—persistence, empathy,
to them in a way that focuses on daughter: “I’ll say, ‘Whoops, I forgot losing gracefully.”
the process: ‘I’m sorry you are to call the plumber. I’ll remem- It’s never too late: out of love,
not happy with how things went. ber next time—my brain just got you may have spent years running
Could you try it a different way? bigger!’” You can also discuss the interference. If you catch yourself
Could you talk to your teacher?’ struggles of their heroes, like a filling out the learner’s permit
What is not helpful is language that favorite athlete who wasn’t picked form for your teen driver, be direct.
suggests their intelligence is fixed: until the final round of the draft or Advises Lahey: “Tell him, ‘I’m sorry
‘That’s OK, honey. I wasn’t good at an actor who had to wait tables for I have not been treating you like the
math either.’ Or ‘Don’t worry. You years before getting a big break. competent person you are. I’m here
are so good at reading!’” for you if you need me. But I think
Tish Biesemeyer, mother of Get Real About you can do it.’”
Olympic skier Tommy Biesemeyer Social Media Consider your parenting lapse
(famous for enduring and Instagram pretty much has a built- just one more chance to model
overcoming serious injuries), took in My Life Is Totally Perfect filter. making mistakes and growing
this approach: “He started skiing Everyone posting on social media from them. After all, it’s a lifelong
when he was 3 years old, using seems to be on the homecoming process.

89
 MODERN LEARNING

Learning in a
Brave New World
From kindergarten (and before) through
college (and beyond) artificial intelligence and
other advanced technologies are transforming
the process and promise of education
BY DANIEL S. LEVY

J USTIN VANHORN’S
working life—
much like the
working lives of
many thousands
have long hoped for computer
systems that are able to not only help
teachers, but also analyze the needs
of students and adapt to those needs.
And in recent years the advanced
of teachers across the country and technologies, including forms of
the world—changed dramatically artificial intelligence (AI), that have
as the pandemic descended in begun to influence many aspects
the spring of 2020. He set up his of our lives have had an increas-
desk in the loft of his home and ing impact on education. Google
connected with his advanced- Classroom, for example, can offer
placement and honors biology insight on each student’s progress
students at Whiteland (Indiana) and review submitted papers to
Community High School. At first gauge their authenticity, while also
VanHorn taught entirely remotely handling crucial clerical tasks such
via Zoom. Then he moved to a as sending out notifications and
hybrid model: partly in school and setting up review pages—chores that
partly remote. VanHorn relied on can save teachers hours each day and
Google Classroom to organize his help them manage multiple classes.
teaching plan and to let his students For them, learning management
know about their assignments, tests systems such as Google Classroom,
and papers. Using artificial intel- Blackboard Learn and Canvas have
ligence programs offered through been a godsend.
Classroom, VanHorn checked on “Grading is not the fun part of
the quality and originality of his teaching,” VanHorn notes. “Having
students’ work as the program that computer system that does
presented him with feedback on his that for you makes everything take
class. “The technology is a great tool less time.” With that and other jobs
to help us get our points across,” he handled by the computer, VanHorn,
says. “It helps students understand 37, is freed up to personally analyze
what we’re trying to do, and helps us tests and papers, write comments,
identify students who are struggling and assess nuances of how his
a lot quicker.” students are progressing and then
Software designers and teachers apply that information to lesson

90 THE POWER OF LEARNING

91
 MODERN LEARNING

plans tailored to the students’ needs. 8 see ROYBI as a friendly toy with for relevant material. As a sign of
Companies making these and interchangeable colored hats, the ever larger changes to come in our
related systems have transformed robot offers hundreds of lessons ability to talk to computers, Google
education for the young and old. in math, science and culture, asks has touted a new AI language
This was evident during the most and answers questions, has weekly platform that the company says
disruptive times of the pandemic reviews and links to an app so that will “engage in a free-flowing way
and will only become more obvious parents and caregivers can track a about a seemingly endless number
as time goes on. Amira Learning child’s progress. of topics, an ability we think could
offers a reading assistant aimed The range of AI enhanced unlock more natural ways of
at kindergartners through third tutoring programs for children interacting with technology and
graders. After listening to a child in later grades includes StepWise, entirely new categories of helpful
read aloud for 15 minutes, Amira which supplies teaching in algebra, applications.”
determines her ability to produce calculus, physics and engineering. While AI can teach Korean,
sounds, learns her vocabulary level, It gives immediate feedback, helps explain the reasons for the
obtains a snapshot of her level of students with individual difficul- Peloponnesian War and show how
comprehension and assesses her ties, analyzes how they perform and to find calculus derivatives, people
for dyslexia. Along with providing reports common mistakes so their are concerned that such systems
a literacy report, Amira prepares teacher can do targeted explana- also might be gathering and
a teaching program. If the child tions. Other tutorial programs such misusing students’ information. In
engages, Amira continues to as Photomath read handwritten China, for instance, some schools
appraise her abilities, reevaluate or printed math equations, answer have handed out headbands with
word usage and understanding, and questions and offer multiple step- electrodes to track brain electri-
then teach new things at an appro- by-step methods so students can cal signals and rate a youngster’s
priate level of difficulty. see how an equation is solved. The level of focus. It doesn’t help that
ROYBI is a robot programmed learning app Socratic lets students many AI manufacturers are far
with voice and facial recognition ask a question verbally or upload an from transparent with what they
and even possesses emotion detec- image of, say, a math problem, and do with the intelligence their
tion. While children ages 2 through then the program searches the web systems glean. Because of this, New
Mexico attorney general Hector
Balderas sued Google, alleging that
the tech giant spies on students
through its cloud-based products.
A federal court dismissed that case
in September 2020. Yet two months
later the White House Office of
Management and Budget issued
guidance to federal agencies on
regulating the private sector’s use
of AI. And though federal legisla-
tion seems unlikely in the near
future, more than a dozen states
are looking into various restric-
tions. And in the spring of 2021,
the European Union drafted rules
on regulating AI for personal and
business uses. Said Margrethe
Vestager, the executive vice-presi-
dent of the E.U. overseeing digital
policy: “On artificial intelligence,
The ROYBI robot uses machine learning to try to appeal to—and teach—children. trust is a must, not a nice to have.”

92 THE POWER OF LEARNING

Educators can use AI to enhance a remote learning environment.

WITH THE MANY pressures students are deluged with bot-generated than 2,000 auto-responses, and
face, systems have emerged to assist texts and emails to see if they have if it can’t answer a question, the
in the often confusing and stress- questions. Georgia State University question gets sent to a person for
inducing college search. The Texas claims that its Pounce chatbot has a follow-up. Student questions
Higher Education Coordinating answered hundreds of thousands of containing red-flag words such as
Board created an AI bot called queries over the past five years and “afraid” and “death” also go straight
ADVi to help students applying to that this successfully reduced the to people overseeing the bot, and
a Texas public college or univer- number of students who accepted they reply directly. In April of 2021,
sity. Once applications are sent in, admittance but then didn’t show up Cal Poly Pomona reported that Billy
schools can use AI to get a sense to enroll in the fall. Chat had handled 22,000 incoming
of a student’s desire to attend. The The University of California messages during the previous half
firm Kira Talent has a program that offers chatbots to assist students year—an average of about 110 a day.
reviews a video a student submits. adjusting to school and dealing Some college students are using
The company says the review with day-to-day problems. Cal speech-recognition software to
will offer “a deeper understand- Poly Pomona’s Billy Chat texts transcribe professor lectures, while
ing of the personality traits and students uplifting notes, as well some professors are using AI to
soft skills your most successful as memes, GIFs and emojis. The grade papers, employing programs
students possess.” Some colleges bot also reminds students of such as Turnitin—a plagiarism
such as New York University use deadlines, lets them know if they detection software. Turnitin also
Element451, which determines how owe work to a professor and gives offers a program that looks at all
well a teenager will do in a univer- them leads to secure financial aid. of the class’s work and flags any
sity setting and how engaged the Billy says things like, “If you need widespread mistakes so that the
student will be, based on how the help making an appointment with professor only needs to address
teenager uses the school’s website an adviser or setting up your CPP the mistake once. Some colleges
and answers its messages. And at Connect Planner, text me.” Billy are investigating systems offering
various schools, accepted students has been programmed with more virtual AI lecturers.

93
 MODERN LEARNING

At medical schools, some artificial appendages are cumber- like CT Speech and the Cognitive
students are using apps such as some and unintuitive. Engineers Therapy app.
Brainscape, which not only offers at the University of Utah recently Such learning tools are not
digital flashcards, but also pinpoints designed a leg that studies how the confined to a single species: some
areas of knowledge that a student user’s remaining leg moves, which systems can speak to and teach
is struggling with and focuses on it. helps determine how to program our pets. Young pups, old dogs
Even bedside manner is being virtu- a more individual and natural and those who didn’t do well in
ally coached. A health care simula- movement for the artificial one. obedience school can turn to an
tion program, Virti, helps teach how For patients who have suffered a autonomous dog-training device
to bring empathy to serious talks. stroke—which can in minutes wipe called Companion. Outfitted with
Virti’s virtual reality headsets let out a lifetime of learning—treat- infrared cameras, image sensors, a
users talk to computer-generated ment apps like Elevate focus on speaker, lights and a Google Edge
patients. It then analyzes the would- a person’s cognitive function. It AI processing unit, the floor-based
be doctor’s tone and the cadence of has educational games to both machine senses when the dog is
their voice, along with their actual ameliorate and exercise the parts in front of it. It then offers basic
answers. The program even tracks of the brain dealing with functions obedience commands such as “Sit”
the amount of eye contact the such as memory, concentration and and “Lie down.” If Companion’s
student makes. problem-solving. As the person sensors determine that the dog
In the practice of medicine AI improves, Elevate increases its has responded correctly, its treat
can assist patients’ learning and difficulty level to make sure the launcher delivers a tasty reward. A
improve their lives. Patients who patient continues to be challenged. Pavlov for modern times—and for
have lost a leg need to learn how And for stroke victims having the dog, a snack sure beats earning
to use a prosthetic. Traditional trouble speaking, there are systems an A on that honors biology test.

“Sit,” said the

autonomous dog-
training device.
And the dog sat.

94 THE POWER OF LEARNING

The Power of Learning
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Kostya Kennedy
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Gary Stewart
EDITOR Kostya Kennedy
DESIGNER Sandra Jurevics
PHOTO EDITOR Sarah Rozen
ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR Steph Durante
WRITERS Ingela Ratledge Amundson, David Bjerklie,
Benedict Carey, Stanislas Dehaene, Markham Heid,
Richard Jerome, Emily Joshu, Daniel S. Levy, Jennifer King
XĜĹÚĬåƼØŅƚųƋĹåƼaĜüŸƚÚØU±ƋĘųƼĹS±ƋƋåųĀåĬÚØ
Aaricka Washington
COPY CHIEF Toni Rumore
COPY EDITOR Joel Van Liew
RESEARCHER Ryan Hatch
PREMEDIA TRAFFICKING SUPERVISOR Taylor Thomas
COLOR QUALITY ANALYST Heidi Parcel

MEREDITH PREMIUM PUBLISHING

VICE PRESIDENT & GROUP PUBLISHERScott Mortimer
VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTORStephen Orr
VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING Jeremy Biloon
DIRECTOR, BRAND MARKETING Jean Kennedy
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, BRAND MARKETING Bryan Christian
SENIOR BRAND MANAGER Katherine Barnet

EDITORIAL DIRECTORKostya Kennedy

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Gary Stewart
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Christina Lieberman Hands-on learning helps the brain make powerful connections.
EDITORIAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Jamie Roth Major
MANAGER, EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Gina Scauzillo

SPECIAL THANKSBrad Beatson, Samantha Lebofsky,

Kate Roncinske, Laura Villano CREDITS
MEREDITH NATIONAL MEDIA GROUP
PRESIDENT Catherine Levene
PRESIDENT, MEREDITH MAGAZINES Doug Olson FRONT COVER Shutterstock; Wild Horizon/UIG/
PRESIDENT, CONSUMER PRODUCTS Tom Witschi Sean Gladwell/Moment/Getty Images Getty Images 47 Anup Shah/Stone/
PRESIDENT, MEREDITH DIGITAL Alysia Borsa
Getty Images
EVP, STRATEGIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Daphne Kwon BACK COVER
(clockwise) Westend61/Getty Images; SHAPING EDUCATION
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENTS
E+/Getty Images; Thomas Barwick/ 49 Harry Campbell/Theispot 50-51
CHIEF REVENUE OFFICERMichael Brownstein
DIGITAL SALESMarla Newman Stone/Getty Images Image Source/Getty Images 52 Kurt
FINANCE Michael Riggs Hutton/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/
TITLE PAGE Getty Images 53 Vintage Images/
MARKETING & INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS Nancy Weber
1 Tim Roberts/Stone/Getty Images Getty Images 55 Alistair Berg/Stone/
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENTS Getty Images 56-57 Universal-Images
Steve Crowe CONTENTS
CONSUMER MARKETING
2 iMrSquid/iStock/Getty Images Group/Getty Images 58-59 Howard
CONSUMER REVENUE Andy Wilson
Sochurek/The LIFE Picture Collection/
CORPORATE SALES Brian Kightlinger 3 (from top) Jim Frazier/Theispost;
Getty Images 60 Historia/Shutterstock
FOUNDRY 360 Matt Petersen Doug McLean/Shutterstock; Media
61 World History Archive/Alamy 62
PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY Justin Law News Group/Getty Images
RESEARCH SOLUTIONS Britta Cleveland
Heritage Images/Hulton Archive/Getty
STRATEGIC PL ANNING Amy Thind INTRODUCTION Images 63 Bettmann/Getty Images
STRATEGIC SOURCING, NEWSSTAND, PRODUCTION Chuck Howell 5 Karen Moskowitz/The Image Bank/ 64 E+/Getty Images 65 JHU Sheridan
Getty Images 7 Hulton Archive/ Libraries/Gado/Getty Images 66 Klaus
VICE PRESIDENTS Getty Images Vedfelt/DigitalVision/Getty Images 68
BRAND LICENSING Toye Cody and Sondra Newkirk Media News Group/Getty Images 70-
BUSINESS PL ANNING & ANALYSIS Rob Silverstone THE WAYS WE LEARN 71 Michele Cattani/AFP/Getty Images
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS Jill Davison 9 Harry Campbell 10-11 Klaus Vedfelt/ 72 (from top) Xinhua/Redux; Bess
FINANCE Chris Susil Digital Vision/Getty Images 12 Marc Adler/The New York Times/Redux 73
STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT Kelsey Andersen Romanelli/Getty Images 15 10’000 Peter Klaunzer/Keystone/Redux 74-75
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Alicia Cervini
Hours/DigitalVision/Getty Images 16- Vyacheslav Prokofyev/TASS/Getty
VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Stephen Orr 171EYVE+VSIWI4ǺWIX18 Jamie Grill/ Images 76 (from top) Anadolu Agency/
CHIEF DIGITAL CONTENT OFFICERAmanda Dameron Photographer’s Choice/Getty Images Getty Images; The Washington Post/
DIRECTOR, EDITORIAL OPERATIONS & FINANCE Greg Kayko 21 Petri Oeschger/Moment/Getty Getty Images 77 Kaveh Kazemi/Getty
Images 22 Tatiana-Dyuvba-nova/ Images 78-79 Brianna Soukup/Portland
MEREDITH CORPORATION
EyeEm/Getty Images 24-25 (clockwise Portland Press Herald/Getty Images
CHAIRMAN & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Tom Harty
from top left) Cathy Scola/Moment/
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Jason Frierott
Getty Images; ArtRachen01/iStock/ MODERN LEARNING
CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER John Zieser
Getty Images; Török-Bognár Renáta/ 81 Harry Campbell/Theispot 82-83
PRESIDENT, MEREDITH LOCAL MEDIA GROUP Patrick McCreery
Moment/Getty Images; Brett Stevens/ Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES Dina Nathanson
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER Cultura/Getty Images 27 Nodar 85 UPI/Alamy 86-87 Mark Lobo/
Erica Jensen Chernishev/iStock/Getty Images 28-29 4ǺWIX88 Richard Drury/DigitalVision/
VICE CHAIRMAN Mell Meredith Frazier Jim Frazier/Theispot 32 Dan Bejar/ Getty Images 90-91 Phonlamai Photo/
Theispot 35 David Plunkert/Theispot iStock/Getty Images Plus 92 Courtesy
36-37 Westend61/Getty Images of Roybi 93 James Estrin/The New
38 Catherine Falls Commercial/ York Times/Redux 94+SXSJVEǻ\\*
Copyright © 2021 Meredith Corporation Moment/Getty Images 39 Lisa-Skvo/ Getty Images
Published by Meredith Corporation Shutterstock 40-41 Doug McLean/ MASTHEAD
225 Liberty Street • New York, NY 10281 Shutterstock 42-43 Sebastien Micke/ 95 Ariel Skelley/DigitalVision/Getty
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or Paris Match/Getty Images 44 Susan Images
by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and
retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except
Kulkin/Science Source 45 Sovfoto/
by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Universal Images Group/Getty Images LEARNED WORDS
For syndication requests or international licensing requests or reprint 46 (from top) Gerald Herbert/AP/ 96 Yuliia Myroniuk/Shutterstock
and reuse permission, email [email protected].
Printed in the USA.

95
LEARNED “Education
is the passport
“Never
let formal
“Live as if you
were to die

WO R D S to the future,
for tomorrow
belongs to those
education
get in the
way of your
tomorrow. Learn
as if you were to
live forever.”
who prepare learning.” —MAHATMA GANDHI
for it today.”
“I cannot ― — MALCOLM X
—MARK TWAIN
“I am always
teach anybody “Learning is
“Anyone who ready to learn
although I do
anything, I can
stops learning is
not attained by old, whether at not always like
only make chance. It must
be sought for
20 or 80. Anyone
who keeps
being taught.”
them think.” with ardor and learning is young.”
—WINSTON CHURCHILL

—SOCRATES
attended with —HENRY FORD “The beautiful
diligence.” thing about
—ABIGAIL ADAMS “I am still learning is nobody
“Try to learn “We cannot learning.” can take it away
something about solve our —MICHELANGELO AT 87
from you.”
everything and problems —B.B. KING
everything about with the same
something.” thinking we “Education is
—THOMAS H. HUXLEY
used when we the ability to
created them.” listen to almost
“Education is —ALBERT EINSTEIN
anything
not the filling without
of a pot, but “That is what losing your
the lighting of learning is. temper or your
a fire.” You suddenly self-confidence.”
—W.B. YEATS
understand —ROBERT FROST
something you’ve
“The whole of life, understood all
from the moment your life, but in a
you are born to new way.”
the moment you —DORIS LESSING
die, is a process
of learning.”
—JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI
 H OW WE LE ARN
Our ability to acquire and access knowledge—from others and
from our environment, remotely and hands-on—develops as we grow,
constantly creating an extraordinary web of information and ideas.