Education system ignores memory training

Nutrition Health Review, Spring, 1993

The brain's fantastic capacity is being discovered. More is now known about memory function than ever before in human history. Yet few people know how to make the best use of their memory.

The principal reason for this inadequacy is that children are not taught about mental function in school. They are told to remember dates, facts, events, and names of warriors and world leaders. They are compelled to study particular books but are not guided to understand how the brain works, or how the eye and memory operate during reading.

Teaching methods urge students to observe but do not explain the processes of attention; note-taking is prized, but no one informs the child that information is more easily assimilated by the brain in unique ways.

Critics of teaching methods declare that the results are poor memory, slow reading, and frustrating inability to concentrate.

The intricate web that is responsible for brain function weighs only three and a half pounds may be among the most complex system in the universe. The storage capacity of the brain is sufficient to record thousands of pieces of information every second from birth to old age. Scientific research indicates that we probably remember, on some level, everything that ever happens to us: the mystery lies in the inability to recall.

With the vast knowledge of neuroscience that is becoming available, the school system on both elementary and higher levels has an obligation to have studies introduced as part of the curriculum.