Nerodiversity

Steve Silberman, author of the book NeuroTribes: the Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity was interviewed yesterday on New Hampshire Public Radio's "Word of Mouth." The interview begins with a statistic from a CDC estimate that today 1 in 68 children has been identified as having fallen somewhere along the autism spectrum. In his book, Silberman is hopeful and looks at autism not as a pathology or disorder but as neurological diversity and calls for it to be recognized and respected as a social category.

Click here to hear "Neurotribes" the excellent and hopeful 14-minute interview.

Optical Illusions Revisited . . . Again

My last post on optical illusions was posted on December 19, 2014.

To those of you — and your students — who appreciate optical illusions, here's one for you. Be sure to watch it all the way to the end.

A Great Minute on Empathy and Bullying

Watch Emily Bazelon's excellent one minute take on empathy and bullying.




For more insights from Bazelon, check out her book

The Power of Habit

If you have not read Duhigg's bestseller yet, find the time to read it or at least see the TEDx Teachers College talk below, which is taken from the appendix of the book. The book is an excellent read.

Here is a good synthesis from the author of the book:

"As a result, this book doesn't contain one prescription. Rather, I hoped to deliver something else: a framework for understanding how habits work and a guide to experimenting with how they might change. Some habits yield easily to analysis and influence. Others are more complex and obstinate, and require prolonged study. And for others, change is a process that never fully concludes." (pgs. 275-76)