The Boy With The Incredible Brain

Why don't we - and school systems in general - do as Anthony Robbins has suggested in his book "Awaken the Giant Within" and COPY exactly the method and steps of this young man's fruitful math education? He seems to be using elongated or exaggerated versions of math and memory techniques already in use. Only he has memorized 10,000 "sensory" memory "pegs" as opposed to the couple hundred that is usually suggested. (These sensory "pegs" are then used best to learn a foreign language or any other task requiring lots of memorization). Also he has somehow - according to his account - already "internalized" abacus and many other math simplifying techniques (not mentioned in the video) - but note ...

Why don't we - and school systems in general - do as Anthony Robbins has suggested in his book "Awaken the Giant Within" and COPY exactly the method and steps of this young man's fruitful math education? He seems to be using elongated or exaggerated versions of math and memory techniques already in use. Only he has memorized 10,000 "sensory" memory "pegs" as opposed to the couple hundred that is usually suggested. (These sensory "pegs" are then used best to learn a foreign language or any other task requiring lots of memorization). Also he has somehow - according to his account - already "internalized" abacus and many other math simplifying techniques (not mentioned in the video) - but note the finger motion in the video. I also noted that he reads the answers off SLOWLY from left to right - just as you would when using abacus or any other math simplification technique. In other words: he displays only extreme abilities of "techniques" already available BUT BADLY UNDER TAUGHT and UNDER UTILIZED. He seems to have simply mastered them AND taken them to a new level. I have been trying to master these learned abilities as an adult to great success. However, we should follow his lead: start teaching ALL these techniques to young children! (The only caveat is too be wary of other skills that children need time to develop as well: social, physical, etc.- and perhaps seek similar perfect models for learning these skills as well! )

The easiest way to remember things: Transform them creatively into a sexy, funny, violent, absurd, unnatural, comic strip like story in which YOU are performing all of the actions (hitting, biting, throwing, etc.) and reactions (laughing, crying, - wild emotional swings). The transformation from items to be remembered to tangible, sensory rich (smelly, noisy, tasty, feely, heavy, gross, ridiculously colored...) physical items is by the SOUNDS of the items spoken aloud: LINUX becomes a huge, talking piece of lint wearing a tuxedo, acetaminophen becomes a "donkey" or "ass" whirling a laso in the shape of an "@" sign - with a "minnow" (or a "Minotaur") riding him holding on to the "fin" - in th...

The easiest way to remember things: Transform them creatively into a sexy, funny, violent, absurd, unnatural, comic strip like story in which YOU are performing all of the actions (hitting, biting, throwing, etc.) and reactions (laughing, crying, - wild emotional swings). The transformation from items to be remembered to tangible, sensory rich (smelly, noisy, tasty, feely, heavy, gross, ridiculously colored...) physical items is by the SOUNDS of the items spoken aloud: LINUX becomes a huge, talking piece of lint wearing a tuxedo, acetaminophen becomes a "donkey" or "ass" whirling a laso in the shape of an "@" sign - with a "minnow" (or a "Minotaur") riding him holding on to the "fin" - in the shape of a "pen" - growing out of his back! The highly imaginative story is the "glue" that gives order to the items on the story's time line. Alternatively, you could imagine walking through any familiar building or space and encountering the "items" as you go - and of course performing a completely absurd, humorous, violent or sexy action with each and then reacting to the eventful encounter with an emotion!! Now teach your story to someone else!!
We are designed to record and remember - and RELATE - unusual things that happen to us in reality which are more likely to effect our survival - scary, strange, sexy,humorous INTERACTIONS!!

Graffjamie, I agree that we should start teaching techniques such as this to young children those with the mental acuity to employ it. Unfortunately, as an ex-teacher, I can tell you that this number is perhaps 30 % or less. Remember, the average IQ is 100, meaning that half of students have an IQ below 100. Now, IQs lie in a standard bell curve, for the most part. There is a certain point below which the comprehension of mathematical concepts really just must be memorized, and repeated over and over with the hope that eventually some of it will stick.

Unfortunately, some years ago, someone decided that the best way to teach kids was to lump them all together in the same classroom. I gue...

Graffjamie, I agree that we should start teaching techniques such as this to young children those with the mental acuity to employ it. Unfortunately, as an ex-teacher, I can tell you that this number is perhaps 30 % or less. Remember, the average IQ is 100, meaning that half of students have an IQ below 100. Now, IQs lie in a standard bell curve, for the most part. There is a certain point below which the comprehension of mathematical concepts really just must be memorized, and repeated over and over with the hope that eventually some of it will stick.

Unfortunately, some years ago, someone decided that the best way to teach kids was to lump them all together in the same classroom. I guess some politician decided this would be more 'fair' and that maybe some of the brilliance of the smarter students would rub off on the slow ones. All it did was embarrass the slow ones and cause them not to participate and hold back the smarter ones.

IMO, each student deserves to learn all they possibly can. The current system makes this impossible. All students just don't have the same natural ability and no amount of teaching is going to allow everyone to understand advanced multi-variable calculus, and they shouldn't all be thrown into a room with people of different abilities. You have to work with what you've got. Some times it's more than you hoped for and sometimes less. The current system makes it harder on the kids and on the teachers and is very frustrating for all the kids more than a few percentage point away from 'average.' Bring back the days when kids were grouped according to their aptitude. It gives almost everyone a better chance to learn.

Sorry, sort-of strayed off topic there. Rant over.