The brain doesn't care about change. As the world's most sophisticated survival organ, the brain cares about loss.

Years of research show us that the less control a person feels over an aversive stimuli coming at them, the more likely they are to disengage. Complete loss of control over a sustained period of time can actually lead to depression. It then follows that giving the person a level of control over the situation reduce the stress - and perhaps restore the disengagement.

Most brain scientists have not taught 4th grade, and don't know very much about the classroom, even though they might study learning in some detail. Most education professionals, who often know a tremendous amount about the classroom, don't know much about the brain. That is one of the reasons why I am so skeptical about applying brain findings to the classroom.

Brain scientists and education scientists don't get together very often, and we end up living in our own little silos.

The brain doesn't pay attention to boring things.

Public speaking professionals say that you win or lose the battle to hold your audience in the first 30 seconds of a given presentation.

Any education system that only memorizes things creates robots and will never produce Nobel laureates. Any education system that only emphasizes improvisation will get a bunch of people who may think they are creative, but they are functionally illiterate.