 Hi, this is Tracy Takahama Espinosa. Thanks for the opportunity to talk to you a little bit about mind-brain education and getting rid of neuro myths in teacher practice. Humans are born with a blank slate and they will learn if knowledge is simply provided. You know, sort of this empty vessel and we just fill it up with knowledge. Not true. In fact, nobody's born a blank slate. You've already had experiences in the womb so you're born knowing things already, right? And also just exposing somebody information does not mean that they will learn it. So just pure exposure doesn't mean that you'll learn it either, right? Everything important about the brain is determined by the age of three. Not true. It's good that you have low levels of stress and good nutrition in the early years but barring high stress and malnutrition people will learn throughout the lifespan. The earlier the better in most cases, for example in interventions, if you want to change things, that's great. But it doesn't mean that you are doomed if you didn't go to early child stimulation classes from zero to three. It doesn't mean you're doomed forever, okay? Violent video games have no effect on behavior. They actually do have effect on behavior. Using the internet makes you smarter or dumber. The internet is a tool. It's like, you know, a pencil. You know, this doesn't make you smarter or dumber. It's how you use the tool that makes you smarter or dumber. Extra stimulation is needed to improve the brains of preschools children. No, normal stimulation. Talk to the kid. Age appropriate vocabulary. That's what we're looking for in kids. You do not need to take them to those extra classes and memorize flashcards for them to be success later on in life. Learning is independent of the learner's history. Absolutely untrue. All new learning passes through the filter of prior experience. So we know that the learner's history plays a huge role in what you can potentially learn in the future. Learning problems associated with developmental differences and brain function cannot be remedied with education. Yes, they can. Many of them can. You are not doomed to the brain that you were born with. We know that interventions can make a huge difference in learning achievements. Individuals are not responsible for behavior associated with developmental differences in the brain. This means that, oops, sorry, my 18-year-old had a car crash. It's not his fault. His brain hasn't developed yet. That's not on. Why is it then that most 18-year-olds don't have car crashes, right? And certain ones do. So you can't blame your brain and get out of it. That's just not ethically correct. Teens are irresponsible and act out because the prefrontal cortex doesn't develop until the mid-20s. The only longitudinal study that exists on teenage brains is done by Jay Geed in California. Wonderful set of studies. But every couple of years there's this revelation. Wow, the teenage brain is still rearranging itself into the late teens. And then, wow, human brain is still developing into the early 20s. And then, wow, the 25-year-old brain still isn't settled. What we know is that the more you know, the more you can know. And there's always a rearrangement the longer you study. We stop doing these long-term trajectories of brains because basically there is a decline. But it tends to parallel when people leave formal education. So long as you keep thinking and studying, you're always still, you know, rearranging your brain. When you sleep, your brain shuts down. Nothing could be further than truth. That's the time of memory consolidation and also re-energizing to be able to focus and to pay attention. The brain is plastic for certain kinds of information, only during critical periods. For example, you can only learn to speak a foreign language before you are 17 or 7 or whatever. Not true. My grandma learned Spanish, okay? You can learn all the way until you die. There's no critical period for anything that you learn in an academic context. There might be a critical period for gross mortar skills and for your first language, but there is no critical period for any academic subject. Memory is like an objective recording of a situation and reality exists as an abstract form for all to perceive. Not true. This is not a tape recording. We can experience the same things and we can perceive them very differently. Neurons are never replaced. You can't grow new brain cells. Not true. Neurogenesis shows, and this is in the late 1990s. We're able to see this in human brains as well, that there is a certain limited amount of neurogenesis that does occur in the brain. Brain damage is always permanent. Not true. Maybe you've lost that one network in the brain or that one area of the brain, but your brain can rewire itself to recuperate skill sets in different areas of the brain. Neurogenesis, the birth of new brain cells, optimizes learning. Not true and not even predictable. You can't project when you're going to have neurogenesis, meaning you cannot optimize learning by sort of timing moments of learning with neurogenesis. Neuroplasticity is due to good pedagogy. No, good pedagogy can complement neuroplasticity and lead to learning, but it's not only due to good pedagogy.