In the late 1980s, the Director of Admission at Proctor approached Learning Specialist Donna Jonas (who is now Academic Dean,) and asked, "How shall I describe strategies and methodologies used in the Learning Skills Program to visitors?" Her response was something like this: "Identify students' strengths and weaknesses. Help them understand these. Get them to play off of their strengths, rather than over-dwelling on weaknesses."

On Wednesday, faculty, parents and friends from neighboring schools enjoyed a day with Dr. Mel Levine. A professor of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the Director of the University's Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning, Mel engaged the faculty from 8:30 to 3:30 with his enlighted perspectives on children and the workings of the human mind. Below, he prepares his opening remarks with Mike Henriques.

Speaking with charm and extraordinary mastery, Dr. Levine introduced and clarified concepts that make great sense to Proctor teachers. Indeed, Donna Jonas's prescription from 20 years ago comprise the salient points of Mel's mantra: "Demystification" is the process by which a teacher teaches a students his/her strengths and weaknesses. "Elucidation of strengths" and "asset management" mean "play off of strengths."

This tendency to focus on strengths rather than dwell on weaknesses has been a distinction for Proctor, because we embraced these methods at a time when hundreds of schools were implementing programs designed around remediation. Mel Levine finds terms such as LD, ADD and ADHD to be counter-productive, because they grossly oversimplify highly complex neurodevelopmental constructs (such as temporal-sequential ordering, spatial ordering, higher order cognition) each of which has multiple subsets of cognitive performance. One outcome of this advanced understanding of brain function is that we are suddenly phenomenologists, observers of human behavior without judgment or blame. Effort, he suggests, is easier for some students to manifest than others.

Consider, for example, one of eight major catagories by which we dissect neurodevelopmental processes: memory. Every human being brings a unique set of strengths and weaknesses to learning (a concept called "the universality of dysfunction.") On one's "counterspace" of active working memory are domains that process new data, determine saliency (whether or not the info is worth storing,) recoding (filing it in short term memory by condensing it,) and much more. Active working memory is like the orchestra conductor....

Mel Levine suggests that an ideal learning environment offers a curriculum with such breadth that the student is able to shape his/her own education.... building on strengths, always considering (and tweaking) long-term goals and tackling projects that fascinate. Balance is OK, but why not become the greatest expert on something?! Then there's the matter of nitty-gritty skills. The toughest academic requirement of all? Cursive writing.

Wednesday's lectures by Mel Levine were beneficial and affirming to Proctor faculty. Check out All Kinds of Minds.