Our absorbent memories, our infinite learning capacities, the sensitivity of our brains and our bodies, the desire to live meaningful lives are all dampened by mediocre learning and performance. Fortunately, we now have the clues, thanks to research from diverse fields of the last twenty or so years, for transmuting mediocrity into virtuosity for each of us. Scientific research in neurology, psychology and education has etched expanded images of what it means to be human. Breakthroughs in these three fields have also provided insights into the necessary components of new learning and instructional practices. We are likely still in the infancy of understanding how to activate our latent gifts, but at least we have begun to understand.
Several items become immediately apparent.
To develop our human capacities we must use our capacities. This may sound painfully obvious, but such opportunities are rarely offered in traditional academic settings. We now know that it is mandatory to incorporate the body, the mind, the feelings, the social and intuitive dimensions of the individual in the learning process and in every topic area. It is not enough to offer PE as a subject and expect that doing so satisfies the physical component of an educational program. The body and the senses need to be engaged in the learning of all subjects.