Change often involves loss, so change can be a risky experience.

What you do and learn in life physically changes what your brain looks like—it literally rewires it.

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.

The more senses recruited at the moment of learning, the more likely you are to recall it later.

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

Americans have been good at improvising for a long time, but in the last few decades, we have gotten very sloppy about the rote memorization of facts. That's a discipline issue. You need the rote skill in order to have something to improvise off of, otherwise you are simply playing air guitar.

Human learning is a very aggressive style in its native state. I am not sure why, though it is a very useful trait in an unstable, unpredictable living environment.