Edward Seaga, Contributor
THE SIZE, scope and capability of the brain are the principal features separating man from other living creatures. But it is quite possible that though the brain of lesser creatures are less effective, they are more fully utilised, that is, a greater portion of brain capacity is used. This gives much scope for the unused capacity of human brains to learn far more and to acquire greater knowledge than they already have.
Most humans learn on a need-to-know basis. In fact, the majority of people unlearn much of what they have learned in school within a relatively short while after leaving the formal education system. In those years, new experiences of life come to the forefront bringing information that crowd out, or push into the background, the data that are of lesser consequence and value. Whatever the combination of reasons, the incontrovertible factor is that there remains plenty of unused capacity for learning in the human brain.
PROMOTION OF LEARNING
The idea of a Learning City focuses on the promotion of learning. This raises the question of a fundamental understanding of the brain because it is the limiting factor which determines the modes of learning: how and what.
The brain is the masterpiece of the body. It is not an engine which runs the body. It is the driver, the position from which all decisions are made. It is commonplace thinking to consider infants to be unthinking. They are supposed to be sweet, innocent little creatures who are learning how to think but "don't have sense yet". This is not really the case. Scientific advances are uncovering every day more evidence that the brain is a thinking machine from birth and, some say, even before birth.
Starting from a few cells, or neurons, at the tip of the embryo, brain cells grow at an astonishing rate: 200 billion are created during gestation at a mind-boggling rate of half a million per minute! These are to be linked into a communication network with each other and the central brain mechanism.
The new brain forms synapses, or 'cellphones', at the end of each neuron, as many as 15,000 for each neuron. This is to ensure that there are enough 'cellphones' in place to handle all the messages to be linked with each other through experiences using the five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Those synapses not linked after a while, die. The richer the learning experiences the more these synapses will link with each other and survive for present and future use.
After four years or so, the neurons and synapses that are locked into a network form the brain which each person has to live with for the rest of their lives, although a second chance for some expansion persists up to twelve. This does not mean that learning does not take place after that critical point. It just becomes harder.
Key to the growth of the infant brain and its capacity for the future are a number of factors. The richness of the experiences learned is a defining feature. So, too, is nutrition. But more so, brainpower is very much influenced by the stimulation of the environment. The role of the environment in influencing the power of the brain has been given greater importance in recent years by scientific findings that the future capability of the brain is greatly dependent on the external environment in which it is nurtured.
This is particularly true of a loving and secure environment which the parent offers the child. A deficient or hostile environment strife at home, use of physical violence, abuses, lack of role models, are the most prevalent causes for learning inadequacies and disabilities which impair the capacity of the brain and reduce its capabilities. These leave the child verbally impoverished and given to anger in reacting to stressful situations.
These findings arise out of a wide range of research on animals and humans. Relate them now to the environment in Jamaica:
Is the child abused?
Seventy-two per cent of all households in Jamaica admit to using violence on children as a tool of discipline.
Is that child given the full amount of loving it needs?
Jamaican mothers and caregivers lavish love on infants up to two to three years. After that, the focus of attention is predominantly disciplinary.
Does that child have paternal role models?
Absentee fathers, teenage mothers, over-stressed grandmothers limit the roles that the child can experience over the growing years.
These are basic conditions for a stressful environment for young children. This does not mean that every child from a deficient environment follows this path. Many escape because of the particular combination of circumstances which provide the ability to substitute positive stimulation to master stress. In the final analysis, there are those who overcome and those who succumb to stress.
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES
Let us look at the number of successes and failures. After deducting for infant mortality, some 58,000 births occurred in the birth year, 1989, when today's 16-year-old age group was born. A record of what happened to those 58,000 as they proceeded to age 16 when they would graduate from secondary schools, is instructive. A great many dropped out of school or did not attend any secondary educational institution. They went to post-primary all-age schools, which take students to age 15, one year short of the school graduation exam, set by the CXC.
The numbers from the original 58,000 who succeeded or failed tell a shocking story.
58,000 Births (net after 1000 infant deaths) in 1989.14,000 - Dropped out or never entered any secondary school to take the graduation exam. The latter went to all age schools.44,000 - Were left as eligible to sit the exam.19,000 - These though eligible, were not entered to sit the exam because of weak academic ability.25,000 - Remained to sit the exam. 9,400 - Failed the exam.15,600 -PassedThe 15,600 who passed the CXC set exam are 27 per cent of the 58,000 who originally started in 1989. Hence, 73 per cent failed to make it to graduation after dropping out of the education system, not being enrolled in any secondary school, or for lack of academic ability. An indeterminable number from those 15600 who passed will go on to tertiary education.
Others, among those who succeeded and those who failed, will find jobs, of which many will work then go back to studying. This is an important factor because underlying this second try is evidence of the desire to learn. Indeed, this was the rationale for the development of HEART, to provide this second chance. The considerable success of HEART speaks volumes to the lingering desire to continue to learn and not to give up.
INADEQUATE ACHIEVEMENTS
The profile of the Learning City society in Jamaica in which learning is to be promoted, therefore, is one of inadequate achievements in scholastic learning, on the one hand, and considerable failure, but with a lingering desire among some for a second chance, on the other. These are the parameters which constitute the working platform of a Learning City programme in Jamaica.
Any learning programme, even if non-academic, has to be tailored to these realities caused by limited brain capacity. Too often well-intentioned programmes are designed without the realities being taken into consideration. Sometimes, there is a lack of sustainable interest among those who are induced to participate, others lack time, or lack of ability. A learning programme, to be successful, must take into account what the participants wish to do more so than the intent of the organisers.
Given that type of approach, I can indicate several areas where there are interests which could respond to opportunities for socially or personally gainful experiences useful to Jamaicans, particularly in the inner city.
Part II to be presented next week.
Edward Seaga is a former Prime Minister. He is now a Distinguished Fellow at the University West Indies. Email: odf@uwimona.edu.jm.
