So what does this mysterious looking diagram have to do with understanding human development? What does it tell us about our roles as parents? What does it tell us about school? Can it tell us something about literacy - about obesity - about behavior about whether your children will cope well with life or not.
Will it make a difference to your lives, to the lives of your children and to society - I hope so.
It's going to tell you a lot about all of these things - more than I can fit into one post - so I will keep the science in the background (Follow the link for the support for all I am going to talk about here) and I will focus on the essential here. I will also split this up into a number of posts.
Here is the big idea - Complex Systems are exceptionally sensitive to what are described as Initial Conditions. Raising a child is a complex project because there are so many variables. As every parent knows - there is no job out there more challenging or hence more complex than raising our kids.
This implies that what happens to our children when they are very very young will have the greatest impact on how they turn out. But this is not how we behave or spend our resources and money. In fact we spend most on things that have little or no impact while ignoring what is essential to meet the challenge of Initial Conditions. We don't even know what are the few best things that we can do to meet these needs. This is what I hope to help you see more clearly.
To understand the importance of Initial Conditions, let's go back to the rocket going to the moon for a minute.
Imagine what would happen if at launch the speed was too low to get into orbit. The rocket would fall back to Earth. Imagine if the speed had been too high? The Rocket would have gone directly out into space and never would have ben able to retrurn. There is no course correction for these two failures. Once you are falling out of orbit - you cannot get back. Once you are on track to leave the system there is no coming back.
Later however there are more and more course correction that will work PROVIDED YOU HAVE GOT THE FIRST BIT OF THE TRIP CORRECT. We saw that with Apollo 13.
Well this is true for all complex systems that ALL USE THIS TRAJECTORY.

Here is a close up of the early years for humans. The Trusted Space, where the greatest leverage and sensitivity to Intial Conditions is located in the boxes have have the curve labelled 1 1 2 3 5 and 8. These periods drive the curve for our entire life. It is here that we decide what kind of world we we live in - is it a safe one or not? We decide who we are. Are we worthy or not? It is here that we go safely into orbit ready for life's mission, or where we fall back or become lost in space. What do I mean fall back or become lost in space?
What this slide shows us is that in spite of billions spent in trying to help kids read in school, that we are making no progress. It is too late!
What this shows is that what appears to be a tiny gap in ability at 6 widens out in spite of every attempt to close it by the school system.
Here is another more linear view of the trajectory. There are two two year olds here. One can understand 300 words and the other 150. By the age of 15 (Grade 10) the one who understood 300 words is at a second year of university level in ability to comprehend and act in the world. The one who understood 150 has plateaued at grade 5. (I will explain this all in more detail later.)
Does this trajectory apply only to learning and literacy? No the development of our worldview by 3 not only affects how our brain is wired up, it also sets the norms for our chemical reactions to stress. This is when we are wired or not to act out and or to have addictions. This is where we will find the key to the obesity epidemic and to the fact that 30% of our kids arrive in school unable to behave in social settings.
We know that there is a problem. On PEI we know that we have a literacy crisis and we know that we have an obesity/diabetes crisis. Good for us - we know that we have a problem at last. But the deeper problem is that we think that we can find a solution by investing more too late.
As we start to understand how Development really works, we will find that adding more T/A's at school is a waste. We will discover that adding more Gym to school will not help a jot in confronting obesity.
In my next posts I will go deeper into what is happening in the first 6 years. I will also describe the simple things that we can all do that will make a difference. The solutions are I promise very simple.
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