Nature or Nurture? Kids brains

[Beavah]

[duplicate post](This message has been edited by Beavah)

[Beavah]

Yah, Eamonn, read the Scientific American article I linked to in the original post, eh? It answers some of your questions and addresses the fMRI studies.

 

Here it is again:

 

http://tinyurl.com/bsbmt4y

 

It downloads a PDF of the article for yeh.

 

Beavah

 

[Eamonn]

OK, I read it all.

While it seems to me that the guy who wrote it has taken great pains to dispel what might be myths that have been taken as true. He hasn't done anything that would explain the cognitive thinking of teenagers and the teenage brain.

Based on my own 100% non scientific findings. I know that kids do have Ages and Stages.

I don't know how things like environment, social pressures, socioeconomic factors and other outside forces change things in the development of young people.

I do tend to think that a lot of the stuff that experts like physiologists come up with can sometimes be nothing more than twaddle. A lot of times experts will dwell and stress on part of what they find while ignoring or paying little attention to other parts.

Again based on my 100% non scientific findings, I have found that by dealing with people as individuals, catering to their own individual wants and needs much of the findings of the experts can be ignored with little or no real consequence.

This isn't always true as there are special cases, but when that happens? The trick is knowing that unqualified people like myself are in over our head and need to get the individual the help that is needed.

Ea.

[Tampa Turtle]

There is a saying in the Tourette community that "when you have had one kid with Tourettes...you have had one kid with Tourette's."

 

That is they are individuals and what strategies that worked with kid A may not at all be helpful with kid B. All you have are some tendencies and strategies that work with *many* such kids.

 

I don't know if it is all twaddle (marvelous word E)but I know a lot of it is not always helpful. And then you get into the psychology issues of "lumpers" and "splitters".

 

So all you can do as a Scouter is learn all you can, gather up a lot of tools, and remember that between nature and nurture they are all individuals.

 

As to the original question: If my sons are brilliant it is nurture; when they are bad it is nature. But then they are adopted.

[Beavah]

Again based on my 100% non scientific findings, I have found that by dealing with people as individuals, catering to their own individual wants and needs much of the findings of the experts can be ignored with little or no real consequence.

 

Yah, I reckon that's about right, eh?

 

Da problem is when pop psychology and such starts supportin' our own natural prejudices and desires for "control", and instead of treatin' each lad as an individual we start thinkin' of 'em as an Age or a Stage or a Brain that isn't ready for real responsibility.

 

Ages and Stages are mostly a cultural phenomenon, and will be different for different boys and families and for kids who aren't in the usual public school elementary - middle - high structure. Middle schools and junior highs in particular have always struck me as a bankrupt notion, done for economic reasons rather than havin' any basis in good practice.

 

I think it's safe to say that by puberty a young lad has all the learning capability and potential mental ability as any adult, which is why for most of mankind through most of history, that was "coming of age" / b'nai mitzvah / confirmation at which point the young person was a full adult in the eyes of God and the community.

 

So, treat all young folks as individuals for sure. But as a general rule, assume most of your scouts can be trusted, achieve, and behave as well as any adult colleague. Odds are they'll live up to that expectation, and you'll have done 'em a very good turn indeed.

 

Beavah

(This message has been edited by Beavah)

[Eamonn]

"Ages and Stages are mostly a cultural phenomenon,"

 

Have a friend who when dealing with someone who is being difficult will say:

"They were frightened by a plumber when they were being potty trained."

I think most of us might agree that adolescence, that time period between puberty and adulthood is a time when people going through it want to experiment and try new things. This need (If it is indeed a need?) Does cause reckless thinking and sometimes lack of consideration for consequences.

I don't know but maybe way way back when humans were developing there might have been a need for this?

I caught part of a Nature program on PBS about raccoons in Toronto, it showed how raccoons are changing from living in the countryside to more of a city setting.

While I don't know that much about raccoons, I'll bet that no t so long back the old Grandfather raccoons warned the younger ones to not go near people or the city because it was just to dangerous, but the young reckless raccoons went ahead and did it anyway.

These young coons must have had to not only disobey everything that they had been told but also fight off primal instincts.

Here in the western world people are living longer. We are a lot more mollycoddled than at any time.

Animals born and raised in captivity don't need to hunt and soon need to be taught to do so before being let loose in the wild.

So why should we be any different?

How often do we hear of a Lad quiting Scouts because he finds that the chores that go along with taking care of himself and maybe others is just too much like hard work? - It's all to easy for older folks like myself to put this all down to the Lad being lazy. But maybe there is more to it than just being lazy.

My sisters two kids have been raised with Nannies and live in help, the boy has never had to even put a plate in the dishwasher. His entire life has been about people catering to him and his needs. The fact is that he has never been in a situation that has needed him to fend or think for himself.

So it is any wonder that his development in some areas is lacking?

I don't know much about development and evolution. I have been told that at one time we humans needed our appendix, that wisdom teeth were used and that our coccyx are whats left of the tail we lost about six million years back when we started walking upright.

Could it be that our brains are heading the same way?

Ea.