If there's a school curriculum that teaches students explicitly how to use our brains, please tell me..
What I'm calling for isn't learning about the brain. I often hear things like: the limbic system does this. The left pial cortex does that. Your reticular system does something else again.
This is about the same as taking you into an operating room just before the patient comes in. I can get a tour of all the tools and devices and acquire a decent idea of what those things do and how the surgeon uses them. Maybe I could take an exam and identify successfully all those tools and devices and when they are applied.
Learning all about an operating room won't make me a surgeon. Learning.. about the brain doesn't teach me how to use it. .
We are taught to do things.
We learn to use our brains implicitly from that learning to do things.
We don't get taught explicitly how to recognize our cognitive forces of attention and energy, and how to tune and apply those forces to our best advantage
Our brains are complex and idiosyncratic. At the same time there are patterns, and there are characteristic ways humans use our brains, and there are characteristic limitations. At this point in our human development, our understandings and skills at applying the optimum cognitive processes at the optimum times are underdeveloped.
The skill is metacognition. It's watching our brains at work and recognizing what forces of attention and energy are in action. Next, are these the optimum forces for the task? Can I apply more force? Should I apply less? What are the cycles of work and rest? What catches my attention? What misses my attention? What raises my energy? What depletes it?
I've been studying, practicing, and teaching metacognition my entire adult life. The most common response I get when I teach is "I wish I had learned this twenty years ago." You get to start today.
It's twenty years before 2046. You're getting a great head start.
Metacognition 101: Watching Our Brains at Work
Lesson one: our reflexive and often misguided responses to opportunities and threats Preparation: this coming week, the first three days, catch 3 to 5 instances of your making an instantaneous response to avoid a potential threat. The next three days, catch 3 to 5 instances of your reflexively grabbing an opportunity.
Stay tuned!
Warm regards,
Francis Sopper