More thoughts on Atrophy

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/how-exercise-fuels-the-brain/?src=me&ref=general
According to researach done on mice, exercise can improve brain function. So... maybe the Khan academy isn't the only answer to the atrophy of my brain. Maybe I should take a good run every once in a while. I could definitely use the run physically, and if it can improve my brain function than it's a win-win.

Charlotte Mason has some thoughts on the issue of the decay of the brain. "Most of us have met with a few eccentric and a good many silly persons, concerning whom the question forces itself, Were these people born with less brain power than others? Probably not; but if they were allowed to grow up without the daily habit of appropriate moral and mental work, if they were allowed to dawdle through youth without regular and sustained efforts of thought or will, the result would be the same, and the brain which should have been invigorated by daily exercise has become flabby and feeble as a healthy arm would be after carried for years in a sling." (Excerpt taken from Laying Down the Rails by Sonya Shafer)

Some Questions to Ask about Mental Effort (Instilling mental effort in your children)
  • Do I encourage my child to do daily mental work, whether we have formal lessons or not?
  • Am I alert during lessons?
  • Is my child making progress toward quick comprehension and rapid answers?
  • Do I try to provide pleasing lessons?
  • Do I hold up steady work as an honorable thing?
  • Is my child learning to take satisfaction in exerting mental effort?
  • Do I encourage my child to narrate what he has read or heard?
  • Do I require mental work from girls as well as boys?
  • Am I trying to provide a balance between work and leaisure?

"Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect." Leonardo da Vinci

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