"Okay jimmy, I give you a number and you give me a color, pick any which one you like".
Hypothesis: Increased neural connectivism will enhance the contextual learning process, solidifying the capacity for creativity and lateral thinking.
One, blue! Five, red! Truck, yellow! But that's not a... six!-- daseva, May 10 2005 Solresol http://www.forteant.../145_solresol.shtmlMisi mi do? [imaginality, Jan 10 2007] I've got synesthesia and I rarely think laterally. I question the validity of your hypothesis.
Besides, everyone knows that five is yellow.-- Acme, May 10 2005 I always cinnamon mauve tingly ammonia Bee-Gees.-- zen_tom, May 10 2005 this smells funny.-- po, May 10 2005 My point being that you need an underlying structure that underpins the connections, otherwise they become meaningless, mushy drivel.
The problem is the external attribution of meaning - something that has to be done internally as part of the learning process.
Perhaps some hidden structure behind all the books, or greater integration between objects found at school (like the lego being the right size to accomodate crayons, or for all the pictures in the books to be of local landmarks that the children would have seen for real) The idea being that children would grow up in an environment where lots of meaningfull connections existed, and could be found out and investigated.
Children would leave this environment believing that the world contained more connections than it may already, causing them to look more deeply at things, and perhaps encouraging them to think laterally. Or it could breed a generation of paranoid schitsophrenics convinced that THEY are out to get them...-- zen_tom, May 10 2005 Of course, they will not actually be learning the precise symptoms of synesthesia. there is absolutely no evidence that synesthesia is controlled by any environmental factors, whatsoever. They will not see red in the mind's eye when they read over the word five. However, they will have an engrained concept of abstract logic, which we all, even if not admittedly, find invaluable.
[zen_tom], I like your extended ideas, and the bit about drivel is drivel. That is, much of the learning processes that children undergo have nothing to do with memorization or analysis, things that we adults immediatly equate with learning. Instead, they seem to benefit from the quirkiest trial and error situations (I'm talking about very young children, 3-7 years old). There is evidence, for example, that baby talk is paramount in teaching babies how to talk, even though the mother who executes this drivel hardly ever makes sense with it. Give him a few words and let him pick his own connections. This is not memorization, this is improvisation! This is pushing minds out of the dingy dogmas written by all of THEM.-- daseva, May 10 2005 Are THEY and THEM likely to become part of the HB lexicon then?-- hidden truths, May 10 2005 I can't see that this would give the proper effect of synaesthesia, just a connection between the thought of one stimulus with the thought of another, rather than connecting experiences of each - isn't synaesthesia caused by altered physical connections in the brain? A better capacity for creativity may be useful but I would think that actual synaesthesia would be preferable to this. (To any synaesthetics - do you actually enjoy having the condition? I've always wondered.)-- fridge duck, May 10 2005 Kids' minds are approaching mush qualities now, thanks to the individuality and diversity that challenge any speaker to gear a simple presentation to their developing minds. If at our peak we only learn five words a day, in what bizarre universe will youngsters be able to calmly sit and discuss family, friends, leisure activities, culture, or worship? These once normative and consensual areas of discussion now have spalled into synæsthetic connectivism than defies my sincere desire to overlook the faults of individuals central to the practices.
I don't see your construct as beneficial, [daseva], although I've toyed with the premise to a degree. I won't vote against the idea, other than to suggest that there exist solid reasons for the simple and memorable color schemes and étude presentation seen in marketing appeals to the very young.-- reensure, May 11 2005 No, seven is yellow. I got a yellow matchbox car on my seventh birthday. It was a yellow lotus, with a seven on the hood. God I love that car.-- Madcat, Jun 28 2005 This idea brought to mind an article (see link) about Solresol (an early attempt to create a universal language, one where words are composed from musical tones). The article says: "Awareness of Solresol can be disorienting and a little unnerving in a chaotic world that does not actually follow its strictures; one modern Solresolist, Greg Baker, recalls that after a while he started wondering why "the beginning of Beethoven's Fifth seems to talk about 'Wednesday'.""
I imagine the experience might be somewhat similar with this idea. And per [zen_tom]'s anno: "Needless to say, obsessive fans who hear already secret messages in music would not do their mental stability any favors by learning Solresol."
That said, I'm sympathetic to the idea of encouraging creativity and lateral thinking, so I'm neutral on this one overall.-- imaginality, Jan 10 2007 //Are THEY and THEM likely to become part of the HB lexicon then?//
<in black>Only if WE say so.</ib>-- pertinax, Jan 10 2007 random, halfbakery