Ironically, I forgot to tell Mom the topic for this week the several times I saw her this weekend. I ended up having to call her just minutes after visiting with her in person. I don’t having any delusions of grandeur… I’m forgetful. I often blame Diet Coke because I read articles telling me the Aspartame might be linked to memory issues. I think it more has to do with the amount of activities in which I’m involved. Aging is another possible culprit! Regardless of the reason, more and more I find myself forgetting things… including entire conversations and some actions. While my forgetting makes for some confusion and sometimes some embarrassment, it is nothing like the forgetting I see occurring nowadays with students.
According to Nelson Dorta, Ph.D., a pediatric neuropsychologist answering questions on Understood.org, a site for learning and attention issues, memory occurs in three storage systems in the brain. The first network encodes the information, and that encoding depends upon how closely a person is paying attention. The second network is the long-term storage, and the third network is in charge of recall. It is my theory that many children today have trouble with the very first part of this memory system - the encoding, and the reason I believe they have trouble here is because of the attention requirement.
There is not a teacher alive who would tell you it is easy to keep the attention of students nowadays. If one researches the topic “attention span,” he would be lead to believe that the average attention span has shrunk to below that of a goldfish’s. Deeper research reveals that this research is mythical and that researchers say that attention span is determined by the activity… there is no average.
So why do we teachers have such a harder time holding the attention of students? Because, compared to the plethora of entertaining videos on the Internet, we are amazingly boring! Paying attention to a teacher spouting facts, organizing those facts, and evaluating, synthesizing or analyzing them is higher-order thinking, and students must be taught to do that. And, of course, educators across the world are doing that, right? With the adoption of Common Core and the increasing number of teachers who are evaluated by how well their students test, I guarantee that this is not happening as much as it should be.
The answer doesn’t lie in theatrics, though. We educators, and you parents, have an obligation to teach our students/children how to think. By doing this, we equip our children to not only remember, but to utilize, analyze, and create with the information learned.
Now, if you find that your child does well with memory in school, but he cannot remember to do his chores, then you probably should look at how you are getting him to do those chores. Are you reminding him? Then why does he need to remember? He has you to remind him. My father taught me that back when my son was about ten. I decided it was time I quit reminding him to do his chores. He still forgot, of course, but for two weeks in a row, I “forgot” to pay him allowance. The first time he reminded me, I shook my head and said, “Oh, man! You’re right. I forgot.” And then I walked off. The second week, he declared, “Mom, this is the second week in a row you’ve forgotten to pay me allowance.” I answered, “You’re right! I’m turning into you!” Again, I walked off without paying him. He didn’t forget a third week!
Parents, as you can tell, we adults play a large role in how well our kids remember. This means that we must pay attention to their needs. If we turn off our distractors (gaming, phones, social media), our kids will never forget what they learn from us!
- Michelle