Comments on: Brain Gym, Anyone? I Need Teachers…

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By: Paxo Stuffs Brain Gym « Education Watch

Paxo Stuffs Brain Gym « Education Watch — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:34:43 +0000

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By: ithasgonetotheopera

ithasgonetotheopera — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:57:25 +0000

I went to Rainhill High School in Merseyside, they sent me on a brain gym day course four years ago, they sent my younger sister on it two years ago, just to add to your list!

By: dkny0007

dkny0007 — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 17:49:43 +0000

Really, are you all happy to hear yourselves? Because you would like to bash the science of “brain Gym” and you havent even noted that there is peer review literature out there on this work and presently a neuroscientist is doing a world tour teaching the physiology of Brain Gym…..why dont you people do your damn research!!!!

But hey…whatever…let your kids rot and suffer in school….what do I know.

By: trondhjem

trondhjem — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 23:06:16 +0000

Have you ever drawn a right triangle of 3cm x 4 cm x 5cm, then drawn 3 squares using the original sides of the triangle, and finally added up the resulting areas of the squares ( 9 + 16 =25) ? Nobody needs a calculator to do this!

On the Barin Gym front, it sounds like “Amway” in disguise.
At the start of a lesson or solo study session, settling in, having regular breaks, and not becoming dehydrated- which CAN cause headaches- helps all learners, but to apply remedial cognitive therapy as a “one-size-fits-all” classroom /learning practice is pedagogically bankrupt!

By: DK

DK — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 17:33:00 +0000

#130

Yes – dehydration causes problems but the body is designed (oops, evolved with only moderate divine intervention) to cope for long periods without water providing you’re not running round madly.

So – the water they want you to drink is good, but probably not desperately necessary.

What would worry me is a classroom full of kids with full bladders – doesn’t seem like an incentive to concentrate on learning to me!!

Just a thought

By: Em

Em — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 13:20:09 +0000

Partially scientific stuff – on water – I would think that many primary age children are, to a measurable amount, dehydrated part way through the school day. Why? Unless they bring their own bottle of water/juice, the only sources of water are at drinking fountains – hygenically placed in toilets! or if they take school dinners – warmish water from a plastic jug.
If the body is dehydrated, difficulties can develop – varying from headaches to urinary tract infections.
Clean cold water should be readily available, on demand, in all classrooms.
I’m sure the brain works at its optimum when the bodies hydration level is also at its optimum. No evidence, but sounds reasonable.
Brain Gym. mmmmmm! As from previous comments, ‘tea breaks’ or any form of moving around rather than sitting still for long periods of time ( remember double maths!!) must do the child some good. Children I have taught have appreciated 5/10 minutes on the yard/field for a run about before going back to class and settling down to work.
None of this is rocket science and needs no expensive training.

By: Nick Humphris

Nick Humphris — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 09:13:07 +0000

In today’s Guardian (18 March 2006) it points to this website for a list of schools using Brain Gym.

I have searched for this list and cannot find it. It was said to be a long list.

How can I view this list?

By: Christine Lowe

Christine Lowe — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 17:27:10 +0000

Post number 125 – Melinda, are you sure you are a teacher? I know we don’t have the biggest brains on the planet but the whole point of the argument is not whether using “actions” in teaching works- it seems to – but whether there is any good evidence to support the brain gym stuff. I’ve been along to a course and it certainly energised me, but only because I was furious (and needing to go to the loo after drinking so much water!) Thanks, everyone, for an entertaining read.

By: Lindsy

Lindsy — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 16:31:21 +0000

I was enjoying reading these responses very much. I only made it to 50 and had to comment, so I don’t know what was said after that.

For the last three years I’ve worked with freshman college students in a remedial reading class, where we are required by the director to lead a particular brain gym exercise at the beginning of each day. We do PACE. We drink water, rub our collarbone, touch our opposite knees with hands, and do “hookups,” which are basically breathing.

The students hate it because they are 18-40 years old (adults!), and don’t take it as just a ‘fun’ break from class. It keeps them from taking the rest of the class seriously. If we could stop peddling this as “magic” and simply tell them it helps you relax (which it does) it would be a lot more useful.

By: Naadir

Naadir — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 22:31:54 +0000

Thanks for the heads up on Brain Gym.

As a dyspraxic, BG seems to be really popular on the Yahoo mailing lists for Autistic Spectrum Disorders.

By: Melinda

Melinda — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:12:59 +0000

After reading the majority of your comments I’m wondering if you all have some experience with implementing the components of ‘Brain Gym’ with your own class of children? I have spent a lot of my life immeshed in some form of educating children. My Grandmother, my Mother and myself are, and have been all teachers, ranging across a vast number of years. Each generation of educators obviously have their own way of relaying what they want to their students. Yet myself , my mother and grandmother all have found the use of actions, involving using different sides of the body, following actions with eyes, listening to music and many of the other elements that are involved in the ‘brain gym’ method. The results that I have had with my own implementation , and that which have been relayed to me by my family, is notibly marked. A.D.H.D, aspergers and special needs, as well as with our fourtunate unchallenged children. My opinion is that maybe people get bogged done in the rather ‘airy-fairy’ talk of ‘openings and realignings’ and the like, but if you take the chance you find that these methodologies do seem to work on the level it needs to, with the outcomes for the children. More power to children who may not need to learn these offered tools, yet lets not limit what others may flourish in. Methods of Educating have changed dramaticly over years of helpng people learn. We must remeber we have gone from strict guide lines where we were all percieved as one. This moved thankfully in to achieving outcomes for individuals that as in line with their cognitive and physical abilities. Scaffolding allowed us to make every learner an individual. We teach Jolly Phonix, which would never have happened before, we teach THRASS, do the children laugh..yes they do…and they learn…yes. Learning through fun….Gosh No, would have been the cry from yester year. Lets not get caught up in the box….let’s see if the tool works.

By: The Rev. Schmitt.

The Rev. Schmitt. — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 02:37:18 +0000

Not sure if you wanted our wee stories here or through your contact page and I’m not sure how helpful this will be – but I was a precocious British schoolkid not too long ago myself, and my geography teacher at secondary school wasted five or ten minutes of every lesson doing brain gym. One of the exercises was to massage the area of the skull just behind the zygomatic arch with one’s fingers, the idea being that it would induce yawning and thereby ‘get more oxygen to the brain’, making us more creative and awake. Similar exercises intended to get the brain more ‘active’ included standing on one leg, with the knee of the other lifted up to one’s chest, running on the spot, the aforementioned holding water in our mouths before swallowing it, and rubbing our stomachs while patting our heads. I’m not entirely sure the wasted time was worth the entertainment of seeing a 40+ year old man act very, very silly.

By: subbuteo

subbuteo — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 09:34:44 +0000

I am a primary school teacher. Imagine my surprise and delight at finding this page on Brain Gym. I had a near Brain Gym experience last year but didn’t get to go on the course- I was genuinely disappointed. This year we had a taster session. I had to turn my bullshit filter up to full and sit rocking quietly at the back humming to myself. I was polite and didn’t ask difficult questions. It didn’t seem fair, she really believed in what she was saying. Eight of my colleagues are paying their own money and doing the course on eight Saturday mornings following this.

I am firmly of the opinion that too much science (or at least the wrong sort) is taught in primary schools. It should be left to those who know what they are doing in secondary school. My favourite primary school teacher science gem was goes something as follows (and this is genuine- I work with this person)

Child: What is atmosphere?
Teacher: It’s a bit like a feeling you get at a good party or restaurant.

I hold yellow belts in several martial arts and would be honoured to join your posse.

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 03:56:22 +0000

Help! My local school district is looking at starting a pilot program of Brain Gym. I need help to debunk the pseudoscience of this crap. Please let me know of any publications or links I can use to discredit the Brain Gym before it becomes official policy.
Thank you for your help.

By: pv

pv — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 16:53:05 +0000

Allies come dressed in all manner of guises!