On that wonderful resource which is www.badscience.net there most recent article is about “brain gym” – a method for stimulating children in schools. Now without stealing the article’s thunder, in short this methodology suggests teachers in primary schools should get the kids to exercise more and drink more water.

This is a “good thing” about which there is little or no doubt.

However, as always, the people introducing this idea have felt the need to surround it in all manner of mystical hype and then try to pass it off as a “scientific explaination.” Utter crackpottery desquised as science being tought to children – who will for example, grow up thinking you can massage the carotid artery through the rib cage. I am sure most, non-science types, will not really mind about this but imagine if they were teaching the Holocaust never happened, or Rome invaded America etc. Teaching things which are known to be wrong is wrong.

Any way, Ben Goldacre has done a much better deconstruction of the science involved so I will ignore that for now. The best bit (IMHO) are some of the comments made in the defence of the stupid idea.

Take this one for example (post 9 in the list)

Interesting comments made, but as a teacher I have to say that in practise using Brain Gym exercises / activities in class makes a difference to the children’s concentration and performance. It’s a fun, social break from work and it helps them to focus on what’s coming next. I agree that some of the ‘activities’ are a little silly in name and idea but they are well received by the children. I’ve created a Brain Break menu which is available on my website if you want to see some of the Brain Gym that I do with my children.

(Emphasis mine, not the original poster)

The bits i have highlighted identify the crux of my complaints with this post. No one is doubting the idea is fun and sound. Ben certainly doesnt. However, the science is wrong and shouldnt be taught. Is there any response to that? No. Nothing but “handwaving” (my USENET term of the week 🙂 ) about how much the kids like it. Well great. When I was in primary school (more than twenty years ago now) we got lots of water and milk and had lots of activity breaks. No one tried to teach us bunk science.

If the children prefered to be taught that England was in China would he teach that?

Next on the hit list is post 15 from the site: (Another teacher defending the activity) – (again, emphasis mine) – (I will comment after each block because this is long)

I commision brain gym type exercises for inner city kids in year 9 on visits to their local university. The kids absolutlely love it – we consistently get superb feedback from them.

So what? Does that make it valid science? The kids love lots of things which teachers wont teach. Why does this get through the selection process. Why does it have to have pseudoscience to back it up?

As with many things Californian, there will always be some jerk trying to make money out of giving some very basic advice. Avoiding deyhdration while studying isnt a bad message to give kids who will naturally chose to drink fizzy drinks, and the same with telling them that movement can aid learning. This is the sum of what brain gym teaches, and with nowt but an O level in biology, I’m perfectly happy to defend those two propositions.

Three points here which (IMHO) speak volumes.

1 – the teacher is making an assumption. Research shows that moving during study of movement based tasks, enhances learning. If you want to teach mathematics then having the kids run around while you teach is not going to work. (I am aware this is not really the point he wants to make but if this is how he is teaching it, this is what will be learned)

2 – It is not the sum of what brain gym teaches. The complete hash of science is the sum of what it teaches.

3 – Translation – I have no idea about this but I believe it so will defend it. Scary world. Someone who admits to knowing no real science is happy to defend something’s scientific basis. I hope this isnt a real teacher.

But the point is that it’s great fun. Have you visited schools recently? How often do you think that kids actually get to enjoy themselves in the New Labour target driven punishment camps that pass for schools these days? Party pooper.

No the point is teaching the children the wrong thing is wrong. If you want them to have fun, then let them have fun. You dont need to wrap it up in false science.

Anyway, I promote it because the guy who takes the sessions is brilliant at connecting with the kids, he’s local, black and working class like them. It fuses an association of ‘university’ with a positive experience and is a rather sneakily clever way (in my humble opinion) to break down the beliefs that exist in the kids’ minds around whether setting foot in a university is OK for people like them.

I will address each in order

1 – So what? If the guy wanted to teach the children that women were second class citizens, that the holocaust never happened, or that Charles Dickens was born in 1953 would that be OK? The guy may well connect with the children but surely teaching the proper things is the goal. If he cant do that he isnt actually helping.

2 – What a patronising ******** this person is. Reading this made me suspect he was white, middle classed and teaching in an inner city school where he feels a bit of “class guilt” so has gone to all manner of lengths to get “ethnic” crackpots in because it eases his concience about some misdemeanor his ancestors committed many generations ago.

3 – Its a rather sneakily clever way of getting people to learn bad science. It is going to break down their belief in the education system when they get older and people try to teach them the correct things – or worse still they will never study science and grow up thinking the carotid artery can be massaged via the rib cage.

It might be bad science in your opinion, but psychology is a science too and on that score it counts very highly.

It is bad science. It is bad science in ANY one who knows even the basics of science’s opinion. Even in psychology it is bad science. It is lying to the children. It is bad teaching. It is shocking.

Anyway, this rant has gone on long enough.  There are more comments on the thread at BadScience feel free to read them and let me know what you think.

Well, I have never claimed to be a genius (actually I claim it all the time) but today I must admit to having been given a lesson about something I should now very well. 🙁 Trackbacks!

As someone who spends a fair amount of time desiging web pages, creating web applications etc, you would think I had remained at least passably up to speed with the assorted technologies.

Obviously not.

Not only do I humiliate myself on the AJAX front (when I have to finally admit to being in the dark about what it can be used for other than maps), I realised today that the “trackback” bit of a blog meant nothing to me. I have seen it millions of times yet had no idea how to utilise it. The shame will haunt me forever.

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to find a useful website with advice on what I was missing. Sadly I am still not sure of the best way to trackback to them, so they know they are being talked about but I suspect one of these links will do the trick: http://www.walsallschools.org/2006/02/10#a366 or http://www.walsallschools.org/newsItems/trackback/ping$366 or http://www.walsallschools.org/2006/02/10/HowTo-Trackback

If anyone knows the answer – please tell me….