First Lesson of the Year: Your Brain Lies To You

I'm always searching for stories or ideas for my classroom. I came across an interesting article in the New York Times about Brains that might make for a great conversation starter. Research essnetially says that in the memory acquisition and storage process, we tend to suffer from source amnesia and the new information we learn reinforces what we want to remember, as opposed to what the facts might actually say.

Picture the first day of school. Classes full of 18 year olds who have been through years of study. Some remember big ideas, others details and any combination of both.

Should you trust what you know? How do you know? What can/should you do to make sure you have a few reliable pieces of information that might be able to help you sort out the right from wrong?

I think it will be a good spring board for discussion when I am laying out the standards, the curriculum and the varying opinions on how and why individuals, businesses and governments make the decisions they do.