Are We Teaching Our Children to be Stupid?
Did you know that a test in a Swiss Kindergarten (Basel) showed that 50 percent of the children were not able to do a simple somersault anymore
? Did you know that by learning targeted and controlled movements as an infant, important structures are established in the brain? Did you also know that these structures then establish important connections between individual nerve cells? Did you further know that only this makes it possible for different areas of our brain to communicate? Did you know that this communication is the prerequisite for thinking? Did you know that the performance of the communication channels between the different cells basically creates the difference between "stupid" and "intelligent" children? Just to give you an example:
When children are able to perform targeted movements they are able to create an inner image of the outer space through their varied movement experiences. As soon as the child learns to categorize directions in relation to its own body (What is before, behind, right or left of me? What is above and what is below?), the experience of space is created. The child perceives itself within space and estimates the limits and the character of the space by moving through it in various different body positions and then stores these impressions as perceptions and experiences. Mathematical and geometrical thinking result from this. This is basically nothing else than rearranging, arranging and correlating values within an imaginative inner space. The layout of our body with its internalized perception of space is the basis for this.
All too often parents confuse conditioning with intelligence. Parents are often proud when three-year old children are able to operate a Gameboy or zap through the TV channels on their own. The trained offspring is then presented to friends and acquaintances while exclaiming: "Look how intelligent he/she is already!" Well, pressing a button does not qualify as an academic achievement. Any lab rat can do this after a few days of training and will then train the professor, who runs and gets a piece of cheese as soon as the button is pressed. Children that spend a lot of time in front of electronic devices or are "pacified" by the television are missing important steps in their development that can never be made up for again.
Acquiring basic skills for our movement opportunities and developing a broad repertoire of movements is crucial. As soon as children focus on one sport too early or are forced by ambitious parents to do so, they acquire what we call partial skills. Children may then be able to play excellent ping pong with one half of their body. The other half of their body, however, will not be capable of anything. The same goes for walking, standing or sitting properly. When physical movements are new to the brain it is activated and needs to work. When the movements become a routine the brain is deactivated and of no use. Therefore, a physical exercise needs to fulfill two aspects: a) the physcial movement of the body and limbs (cardio) and b) the mental aspects of involving the brain. This can be done in several ways, for instance by frequently mixing up physical movements and therefore confusing the mind. Running during a game of football is very different as running on a treadmill or by the lake. During football the brain is activated because it needs to monitor other team players, the opposing players, the field and of course the location of the ball. You can't play the game without using the brain. Jogging is different because you don't need your brain. In fact, many people use the time to listen to music and "motivate" the body to continue with an exercise that is boring to the brain.
Of course, the same applies in
martial arts. If all you do is kicking, punching, blocking and rolling on the floor then you don't have much brain left anyways. But if you do, you realize that this is boring. It doesn't give you any "Food For Thought" and you only operate on the physical level of martial arts, the beginner levels. You need to dig deeper and move up to the next level, the mental level. This is where you learn about the principles, reasons and philosophies of martial arts. This is also where you really learn how to fight and apply the movements from the physical level. Granted the majority of martial artists prefers to operate only on the physical level because it is the easiest, hence the lowest level. But the real benefits are in the higher levels (mental and spiritual). Understanding these levels also make you a better fighter. This is where you can watch a Master perform a particular technique yet you still cannot do it for some reason. That's the reason.
In order for your child to have all the chances for its personal development and to fully develop its predispositions it needs to have a broad base of possible movement options. The basis for the infrastructure of our central nervous system can only be secured through an extensive ability to move. The more different kinds of movement your child can perform, the broader and more pronounced this basis will be and the surer it is to develop its intellectual possibilities later on.
Of course what is written here is also valid for adults. An adult brain learns throughout its entire lifetime and, to follow this logic, you would have to have reached the highest point in the development of your motor skills at the end of your life and therefore have an excellent movement capability. Unfortunately, most people are back where they started many decades ago at this point in their lives. They are now washed, fed and have their diapers changed like babies. Therefore my advice is seize the day and learn new ways to move your limbs and you might get a little smarter too.
Are We Teaching Our Children to be Stupid?
By: Ingo Weigel
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