Teaching is not brain surgery. It's Harder.

After watching Four Corners televison program tonight on unemployment I read this piece "Top Ten Necessities for Education Reform" that Will Richardson twittered . The piece is from a Psychology Today blog by Dr. Judy Willis a neurologist and middle school teacher:

For the first time since the institution of public education in the U.S., students currently in high school are less likely to graduate than their parents. the U.S. is the only industrialized country where that is true. Here are my recommendations to change the appalling dropout rate and prepare students for the 21st century.

1. Collaborate
2. Evaluate Information Accuracy
3. Teach Tolerance
4. Assessing Student Knowledge
5. Beyond Differentiation to Individualization.
6. Inspiration and engagement open the brain's information filters (reticular activating system and amygdala) to accept sensory input.
7. Lower Stress. React or Reflect?
8. Using Learning Beyond the Classroom.
9. Teach students (and educators) the Brain Owner's Manual.
10. Teaching is not brain surgery. It's Harder. When teachers receive the recognition, status, and more of the autonomy I receive as a neurologist, we will attract the best and brightest to teaching and keep professional educators longer than the current five year average.