Scientific & Facts Of Life Evidences You Can Be an A-Student
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- Gardner & everyday experience shows we have multiple abilities to learn and learn in varied ways.
- Neuroscience through McEwan & subsequent researchers have shown our brain is plastic and can change to learn more or less according to demands we make of it. They call it neuroplasticity.
- Special education has proven that even people with severe disability can be taught and can learn.
Btw, God is an equitable God. Why will He make you, His finest creation, a dunce? - Our lousy & clueless educational systems, and some teachers end up making a nonsense of you only to turn round and blame you for failure. They did that to Einstein. But he shone through in spite of them.
We continue our exploration of my book ‘Be an “A” Grade Student or Pass Better Trying’ with evidences to show you were born an A-student. You only need to rise and shine as such.
Here, from the book:
You are an A-student!
You are an A-student or even better!
Yes, you heard me right. You can be an “A” CGPA student or at least pass better. You have to be an “A” student or pass better trying. You were born to be an A student. I know… you are telling yourself already this one is trying to “psyche me up”! Right?
Ok. Hear me out.
Here’s the deal: We were all born with enough brains to get A+. Gardner, the scientist that postulated multiple intelligences put this poignantly thus:
“My theory of multiple intelligences provides a basis for education …. According to this theory, all of us as human beings possess a number of intellectual potentials.” (Gardner, 1999).
So other Psychologists also tell us. They say only a few of us may come with deficiencies, and then another few with exceptional brains. The type that rise beyond the roof – the ‘genius’ type. Remember Einstein or Prof. Hawkins, good ol’ Steve H. Hawkins? The beauty is: even those Science & special education practice has shown that even those with disabilities CAN LEARN. That’s why we have the discipline of SPECIAL EDUCATION! If those with disabilities (mental or otherwise) can be taught and learn, how much more of you with none? See?
Come to think of it. It makes sense whichever way you look at it. Ok. If you were the religious type, remember the good Lord is a merciful and equitable God. Does it not make sense that if He equipped all of us with two hands, two legs, one mouth, one head, then he could have equipped us with one brain with same capabilities? Doesn’t your baby learn to babble, then learn to smile, then learn to talk, learn to walk, go to school and learn to read? Are there babies that don’t do these? I have seen no baby that came fully reading first day. That is ample proof we have the same latent capabilities.
Our circumstances and the school system have a way of contriving to make a rubbish of you. Then they turn around to blame you for what was their bad work! You may not know this. There is this story about Einstein being rejected at first by the school system as incapable of learning! In his early school, his teachers said he was too dull to learn anything in school. They rejected him. His mother took him home. Hired teachers for him. Einstein learnt and became one of the greatest Physicists of all time! See?
We all have potential to learn to the best we desire. What varies is how fast and the circumstances in which we do the learning. Some have enriching environment. Others begin with impoverished environment. Whatever your situation was: you can learn to learn and overcome the initial drag on your being an “A” student.
Yes You Can! Let’s say it loud: YOU ARE AN “A” Grade STUDENT!
It is left to you to actualise this potential. If you will resolve today to be what you are (an “A” student), learn the skills in this book and diligently apply them; sure you’ll be there sooner than you even think. It is to let you see how you can overcome all the obstacles delaying your attaining “A”s in all subjects that I brought this book. Now get into the mindset of an “A” student. YOU ARE! I am shouting it.
The slew of research and evidence from early twentieth century (1940s) to date point to two conclusions:
- That the human organism is a versatile being with boundless capacity
- The versatility stems from possession of a brain that is plastic (malleable and mouldable).
You are versatile with boundless capacity.
We can do many and varied things, and can be what we want to be. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1999) and various scholars have shown we have abilities in different directions and ways. Beyond theoretical research, twentieth century coaching and mentoring practices have proven the truth and viability of our versatility. Psychocybernetics by Professor Maltz (Maltz, 1989), Larson (2009), the works by Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Brian Tracy and many others have confirmed the correctness of our being versatile and boundless (limitless in what we can do or achieve) so long we set our mind to it, believe we can and get on at it unswervingly. Millions of persons worldwide use their books and services to improve themselves and get to their goals.
Your versatility stems from possession of a brain that is plastic (malleable and mouldable).
Beginning from the 1940s when Hebb (1949) articulated the concept of neural plasticity, neuroscience has continuously confirmed the plasticity of our brain. This means our brain changes and is changeable like the plastic. The human brain has capacity to rearrange its nerve connections to adjust to changes in requirements of the human. The old thinking had been when we turn the corner of adulthood our brain acquires a permanent set and is fixed and unchangeable.
Neuroplasticity research has proven this wrong. As Mateos-Aparicio and Rodriguez-Moreno (2019) in their excellent review of the progress of research on neuroplasticity explained:
“Neural plasticity, also known as neuroplasticity or brain plasticity, can be defined as the ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli by reorganizing its structure, functions, or connections. A fundamental property of neurons is their ability to modify the strength and efficacy of synaptic transmission through a diverse number of activity-dependent mechanisms, typically referred as synaptic plasticity. Research in the past century has showed that neural plasticity is a fundamental property of nervous systems in species from insects to humans.”
(Mateos-Aparicio and Rodriguez-Moreno, 2019).
Research into effect of stress on the brain by Bruce S. McEwan in 1988 actually solidified our understanding and new-found interest in neuroplasticity. His study showed stress did cause a change in the brain, a shrinking of the hippocampus area of the brain. However, he found this “damage” was not permanent, and the brain was able to recover and adapt when the stressors no longer persist.
This was the watershed moment in neuroscience, the one that forever established the fact neuroscientist had known and many lay people have speculated on since the 1940s.
Since then many more researches have proven neuroplasticity. An example is one with Buddhist monks showing that regular meditation on compassion and love by the monks caused radiation of gamma waves from the brain. Non-Buddhist volunteers who meditated similarly had increased radiation of gamma waves. When the volunteers stopped meditation, their gamma wave radiation reduced to base levels. You may wish to review the Edublox (2019) article and other sources online for more recent researches.
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Acadamania 