Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Wow, Your Brain looks better at Nighttime!

With the current string of suspension of classes, after the triumvirate of typhoons, the Philippine Congress is again looking at the possibility of having the current June to March duration changed to September all the way to the summer month of May. The main contention of the agreeing party is to lessen the danger and risk of having those students attend the classes despite the rain, and the discontinuity of learning. These have all been looked upon for the past years, and studied with intensity, but has anyone seriously thought of having the classes shifted at nighttime?

This may prove to be stupefying, but according to Herald Journal, just recently, a team of researchers from the University of Adelaide found out that the part of the brain controlling the body's muscles, the motor cortex, learns best in the evening. This discovery may have implications for the traditional school day. According to physiotherapist-turned-scientist Martin Sale , "When you wake up in the morning, your brain is less responsive to learning new skills," he said. "So naturally the potential to revise children's school hours is a popular way of looking at our research and could be investigated down the track."

There is, of course, special logic to this study, especially now that the Philippines is being again touted as the dim-witted capital of the region, apparently because of the low-scores gotten by our students in basic Math and Science. We seem to have lost our gleam as one of the destinations for better education. The discovery would of course be irksome at first, with the thought of study competing with sleep at night, but it wouldn't be tolerable to have this one junked right there and then. It would be good to put this one under a serious review.

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posted by Randyh @ Wednesday, August 22, 2007 Comments: 0