Week 4 reflection

Education and learning were a huge focus during this week. The book explored many factors of learning including environment, parental involvement and culture. The readings went over the various learning disorders the bulk of this concentrated on ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) The podcast along with other articles talked about the various treatment options for these disorders and how the main way to treat these disorders is to prescribe stimulant drugs such as Ritalin. The most disturbing part of the information about these drug prescriptions is that no one knows the long term effects of these drugs. Yet they are being prescribed to thousands if not millions of kids. Is it really a disorder if millions of people have it or is it natural. Or is there a factor of our modern society that causes these behaviors in children.

It also talked about the education system in the U.S. and compared it to other education systems around t this was a particular interest to me because it is interesting the emphasis that other cultures put on education. In the United State kids are in school for 6 hours while kids in asian countries are in school 8 hours and have quite more homework than american kids. It seems that asian cultures are all about education and careers and not living life. Is the United State falling behind or is our system better than theres. Do american student get more satisfaction from their careers or are americans getting lazy. Should america change to longer school days and more homework or is the system that the asian counties have embraced hurting their culture and their child's development.

Lastly, one other topic that interested me was about the children with special gifts. The book talks about how the children all started at a young age but in order for them to become extraordinary their skills need to be nurtured. This is crucial because if a child shows a particular skill at a young age and it is not nurtured it will disappear and the child will not become a prodigy. This brings up yet again nature vs nurture. In this case nature created a special interest in a particular skill but nurture is need to reach natures potential.