Use a child's brain or lose it
A child's mind has been compared to a blank slate, one that the adults around him or her get to write on.
As a metaphor, it should inspire each of us to accept the awesome responsibility we have to pick up a piece of chalk whenever we have the opportunity and make a mark on any child's slate.
In our mind's eye, we can see ourselves adding to a child's knowledge and ability, We write what we know about art, literature, carpentry, life skills, compassion, curiosity, music, math, science and a million other things. We fill the slate with script written with a loving hand.
What's new: Now science has given us new information about those blank slates. They are not only blank, they are magic. The more the adults surrounding a child write on the slate from an early age, the larger the slate becomes. The frightening mirror image of that reality, however, is that the less that is written on the slate, the smaller it becomes -- and that shrinkage cannot be reversed.
And it's not just what adults try to teach a child that counts. It is how that child is nurtured in mind and body. The brain of a well-treated child grows, that of an abused or neglected child doesn't.
A recent Knight-Ridder story from Providence, R.I., told the tale:
"On the projection screen, two brains glowed softly side by side.
"The one on the right, said pediatric psychologist Alyson P. McCain, was a PET scan of a healthy child. She pointed to the areas that were brightest -- the limbic areas in the brain that respond to a friendly greeting, a smile, a hug.
"The other image was a PET scan of a child who had been abused, McCain said. In this image, those areas were dark, undeveloped. Children who were abused (or even those who were basically ignored) suffered physical underdevelopment of their brains."
Timetable: During the first three years of life, the brain of an infant has enormous potential to grow in size and complexity. By the age of 3, a child has twice the number of brain cells of an adult. But unused brain cells will be lost.
This information places a new imperative on the adults who surround a child and on the larger society.
Society has a responsibility to educate every prospective parent on the absolute necessity of nurturing a child. The primary responsibility, of course, falls on the parent. But the burden when a parent fails falls on society as child after child after child doesn't reach his or her potential.
A mind, we have been told many times, is a terrible thing to waste. Now we know that we must start at a very early age to avoid the tragic wastefulness of a child's lost hopes, dreams and abilities.