When Albert Einstein was four, his father gave him a simple magnetic compass for his birthday.  Later on, in adulthood, Einstein wrote that this simple toy served to unlock his feelings of curiosity and wonder about the world   He said that from that time on he was filled with a desire to ferret out the...Read More

A report in the journal Neuropsychology suggests that hypertension (high blood pressure) contributes to age-related declines in the brain and cognition.  They looked at two groups of adults:  one group remained healthy for 5 years; the other group either had hypertension at the start of the study, or developed it sometime during the 5 year...Read More

In ancient times (and still today in many parts of the world) people consulted fortune tellers or astrologers to predict their future.  In the modern scientific era, however, people have stopped consulting the stars in the heavens, and instead are beginning to consult the genes in their bodies as a way of predicting their future...Read More

I’ve written a book for educators called The Best Schools: How Human Development Research Should Inform Educational Practice (publisher:  The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, December, 2006).  In this book I suggest that our educational climate has become totally overwhelmed by what I call an “academic achievement discourse.”  This discourse concentrates on accountability, rubrics,...Read More

The River of Life by Thomas Campbell (1777-1824) The more we live, more brief appear Our life’s succeeding stages; A day to childhood seems a year, And years like passing ages. The gladsome current of our youth, Ere passion yet disorders, Steals lingering like a river smooth Along its grassy borders. But as the careworn...Read More