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T H E S T R E A M
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Newsletter of Project Renaissance and Win Wenger
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April 2004
IN THIS ISSUE:
* Quote of the
Month
*
Announcements/Organizational Notes
* Events
* FEATURE
ARTICLE:
“Possible Way
to Prevent Dyslexia" by Win Wenger
* Comments,
Feedback and News Items
Win
Wenger - Prenatal Brain Damage
Win
Wenger - Systems Theory for Kids
Win
Wenger - Feedback Loop Software
Mimi Tandler
- Beyond Barriers
* Links - archives, back issues, homepage
* Question Quest -
Challenge #2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
- Chinese
proverb
...................................................................
ANNOUNCEMENTS / ORGANIZATIONAL NOTES
~~~
WELCOME to all new members who have joined us this month.
We hope
to hear from you and to give you much food for thought.
Back
issues are available upon request. Just add the month to
the
subject line:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=BackIssues
Or see the online archives:
http://www.winwenger.com/strmlist.htm
~~~
TOPICAL INTEREST GROUPS:
Our membership is large and diverse, and many of you have
expressed
an interest in communicating with other members who share
your topic
of concern or research interest. If you'd like us to
share your
email address with other interested members, and to
supply theirs to
you, please email your name, email address and
subject/topic to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=InterestGroups
Your communications will be private. If you'd like to
take a topic
public, just post your discussions on Project
Renaissance's board:
http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
~~~
CO-AUTHORS WANTED:
Active and/or retired professionals in psychology,
economics,
history, biology, physics, sociology, chemistry, etc., to
co-author
with me new kinds of introductory texts (various age
levels) and
methods-of-teaching texts. To become part of an eventual
discovery
curriculum.
...Win Wenger, Ph.D.
mailto:wwenger101@aol.com?subject=Texts
~~~
VOLUNTEER HELPERS...
Project Renaissance needs volunteers to help with certain
aspects
Of its operations. If you'd like to be involved in this
great work,
to whatever extent you are able, please contact Tijl
Koenderink,
Project Renaissance's executive director, for more
information:
mailto:tijl@dare2b.nl?subject=Volunteer
~~~
ADDRESS CHANGE?
If your email address changes or your email box is full
or your
spam filter blocks us, we can't get The Stream to you.
Please,
before that happens, make sure you notify us of any
change and put
winwenger.com on your safe senders list.
Write to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=Address
~~~
SUBSCRIBER OR MEMBER?
If you currently only subscribe to The Stream, you can
upgrade your
participation in Project Renaissance to full membership,
free.
Membership in Project Renaissance entitles members to
additional
benefits. If you're not yet a member, please register
now, here:
http://www.winwenger.com/regmem.htm or from link on the homepage,
http://www.winwenger.com .
~~~
DUPLICATE MAILING?
If you received two (or more?) copies of this issue of
The Stream,
please let us know by replying to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=duplicate
~~~
HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE...
* You can post messages on Project Renaissance's
discussion board
about any Project
Renaissance topic and join any ongoing
discussions. No
log-in required. Please visit our homepage at
http://www.winwenger.com and
click the Discussion Board link. To
post a message
right now, click here:
http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
* The long-established, popular Image-Streaming egroup is
here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imagestream - requires Yahoo sign-in.
* Submit articles, comments or questions for possible
inclusion in
The Stream:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=TotheEditor
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...................................................................
EVENTS
~~~
PROJECT RENAISSANCE SPRING WORKSHOP - May 15-22, 2004
At the famous private facility in Pasadena, Maryland.
Training with Win Wenger and distinguished trainers.
May 15-16 Business
meetings, planning workshops
May 17-19 Advanced
Trainer training
May 20 Private
healing sessions with Chuck Bubar
May 21-22
Beyond-Einstein training for beginners
* For current trainers:
We are still looking to contact some of the current
trainers, to
invite them to the Spring Workshop. You will receive an
update of
the newest Project Renaissance methods, new teaching
techniques,
and other organizational issues. Please let us know in
advance if
you intend to attend. Special time has been scheduled to
place
Project Renaissance techniques in perspective of other AL
and CPS
movements such as NLP, Edward de Bono and Learning
Strategies Corp.
Registration: $95
(includes 4 days)
* For people interested in becoming a trainer:
This is a one-time opportunity to receive Beyond Einstein
Training
(required for becoming a Project Renaissance trainer)
given by Dr.
Win Wenger, assisted by a number of distinguished
trainers from the
US, UK, the Netherlands and other areas. There will be
special
attention given to becoming a Project Renaissance
Trainer, and
personal attention due to the number of trainers present.
You will
also receive a complimentary copy of 'Discovering the
Obvious',
Dr. Win Wenger's latest book. Tuition, $395 (includes 2
days).
Discounts may apply (students, alumni, family members).
Full
details online. Register now:
http://www.winwenger.com/upcoming.htm#May
Questions? Contact Tijl Koenderink, Executive Director of
Project
Renaissance:
mailto:tijl@dare2b.nl
~~~
NATIONAL PRESS CLUB SPEAKER - June 19, 2004
Dr. James H. Austin, M.D., author of "Zen and the
Brain" and
"Chase, Chance and Creativity," will speak at
the National Press
Club at 11 AM on Saturday, June 19, 2004. Please email
Elliot Ryan
to request an invitation to attend: mailto:nppress@sitestar.net
~~~
Fifth International CONFERENCE ON CREATIVE THINKING
and The Edward de Bono Seminar 2004
University of Malta, Malta - June 21-25, 2004
Would you like to be more creative? Would you like to improve your
repertoire of thinking skills and practical
strategies? Creative
Thinking is an important human resource. It is important
to utilise
this resource to become more creative in today's fast-changing
world.
Professor Edward de Bono, who was born in Malta, is the
inventor of
Lateral Thinking.
He will be one of the keynote speakers at the
International Conference on Creative Thinking and he will
conduct
the de Bono Seminar in person. Participants may choose to
attend
either the Conference or the Seminar or both events.
Of course, Project Renaissance will also be present at
this event.
Three trainers (Cora Robinson, Angus Donald and Tijl
Koenderink)
will give presentations on Project Renaissance methods,
and make new
connections and expand our body of knowledge. For more
information,
contact Tijl Koenderink ( mailto:tijl@dare2b.nl )
~~~
CONFERENCE ON CREATIVITY - July 15-18, 2004
Celebrating Individual Creativity: From Inspiration to
Application
15th Annual International Conference on Creativity in
Colleges and
Universities - on the campus of Northwood University,
Midland,
Michigan.
Global assembly of those who value, teach, and practice
Creativity.
The audience will comprise higher-education teachers and
creativity
practitioners in both academia and enterprise. See their
website
for additional information: www.northwood.edu/abd
~~~
PROJECT RENAISSANCE DOUBLE FESTIVAL - November 12-14,
2004
13th Annual Conference on Creativity and Accelerated
Learning
Maryland/Washington, DC area
This year’s theme is the ‘Theory and Practice of
Education’. The
leading experts in the field of learning and education
will share
their practical success stories and secrets to help you
accomplish
the same in your school or classroom. The combination of
a member-
ship with a support environment of ‘Progressive
Educators’ makes
this THE event to attend. Mark your calendar now. More
information
is on the website:
http://www.winwenger.com/upcoming.htm#df
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Feature Article:
POSSIBLE WAY TO PREVENT DYSLEXIA?
by Win Wenger
Will the Susan Wenger Method, of teaching 2-year-olds to
sight-read
and play (keyboard) music, prevent dyslexia?
Please advise if you know of anyone with perfect musical
pitch who
also suffers from the forms of dyslexia studied by Sally
E. Sheyvitz
at Yale Medical. It is very unlikely that anyone will
have both
conditions, because--
1. People with perfect musical pitch enjoy a left plenum
temporales
which is physically double the size of that in most
people. (See
Schlaug et al. at University of Dusseldorf in a series of
articles
in Science beginning Feb. 3, 1996.) This
organ-designation largely
overlaps the Wernicke's Word-Association Area in other
classificatory anatomies.
2. Wernicke's is one of two areas which Sheyvitz found to
be
hypoactive - i.e., underperforming, perhaps defective or
stunted,
in dyslexics.
3. The Susan Wenger Method for teaching 2-year-olds to
sight-read
and play music appears to produce an incidental
side-effect: the
emergence of perfect musical pitch. This presumably would result
in an expanded left plenum temporales similar to that
found in
others in whom perfect musical pitch has emerged.
(This hypothesis is one of several in this topic urgently
in need
of formal measurement and testing.)
Note that the left plenum temporales, our organ for
distinguishing
nuances of word-meaning, is seen by some to be the core
of human
intellect.
Anything which so powerfully strengthened its functions
as to result in a doubling of its physical size is likely
to have
positive consequences elsewhere in behavior and
experience.
Note also that different forms of dyslexia can have
different
causes. However,
the forms studied by Sally E. Sheyvitz can be
reasonably predicted to increase in incidence, as in fact
has the
overall incidence of dyslexia, as a result of stripping
music and
the arts out of most school programs, as has been done
since 1980
for presumed reasons of economy.
Simplest, most direct hypothesis: that anything which strengthens
left plenum temporales function, such as the perfect
pitch effect
wrought by use of the Susan Wenger Method for teaching
pre-schoolers
to sight-read and play keyboard music (see the article
detailing
how, at
http://www.winwenger.com/archives/part14.htm ), can act as
a major preventive and possibly even as a treatment or
cure for the
main, classical, forms of dyslexia.
Please alert us immediately if you know of any classical
dyslexic
who also has perfect pitch.
Also, we seek to make this resource, the instructions for
the Susan
Wenger Method, already freely self-taught, even more
widely
available. We need a computer programmer to help us
develop our
plans for a game-like computer program which might even
develop
perfect pitch in adults.
We really could use help in developing
such a program!
The bases for it are pretty clear.....
Dyslexia, long thought to be an incurable, life-long
condition,
reportedly affects 80% of children who are labeled in one
form or
another as "learning-disabled." Diagnosis of the condition is
rarely made before 3rd grade, long after the main windows
of
opportunity for possible prevention. Think that one through,
please, and respond to any of the links below. Thank you.
----------------------------------
To send feedback privately to the author, email Win
Wenger at
mailto:wwenger101@aol.com?subject=Dyslexia
To send your comments about this article to The Stream,
write to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=Dyslexia
To post your feedback or promote a discussion of this
topic:
http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
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COMMENTS, FEEDBACK, and NEWS ITEMS
~~~
PRENATAL BRAIN DAMAGE - Win Wenger (
mailto:wwenger101@aol.com )
At the time I wrote "The Prenatal Curriculum"
(Winsights No. 45,
http://www.winwenger.com/part45.htm ), it had just
recently become
known that over half the brain cells you had in the
seventh month
in the womb died by the time you are born. More recent
studies put
it at something like seven-eighths of your brain cells
died before
you were born.
So far, researchers have dismissed this as merely a
matter of
"nature pruning down to what's needed," that
somehow it's good for
us to have the vast majority of our brains sheared away.
(Thanks,
but I'd like some of mine back, if you please.)
Many people have shrugged off the premises and
suggestions of "The
Prenatal Curriculum." Here is a tidy bit of information for you,
from New Scientist, p. 9, 2 February 2004, in reference
to studies
performed in 1999 on the mechanism to account for fetal
alcohol
syndrome, main cause of mental retardation throughout
most of the
world. "...John Olner and his colleagues from
Washington State
University in St. Louis discovered that alcohol slows
down neuronal
activity during the second half of pregnancy, a critical
period of
human fetal development.
If the neurons don't form the right
connections during this time, they will die."
That bears repeating. "If the neurons don't form the
right
connections during this time, they will die."
Go back and read "The Prenatal curriculum,"
designed to allow more
neurons during this time to form the right connections -
not by
stimulus, as almost everyone assumes, but as stimulus in
the form
of feedback upon one's own activities - in this instance,
feedback
to the fetus on his or her own activities. Then please print out
and/or otherwise relay to everyone you know who has
cookies in the
oven. This is, I
hesitate to say, a "no-brainer."
- Win Wenger ( mailto:wwenger101@aol.com )
~~~
SYSTEMS THEORY FOR KIDS - Win Wenger (
mailto:wwenger101@aol.com )
I am pleased to advise that one of our intended projects
has been
accomplished - by someone else, without my knowing of it
until now.
I commend to your attention a book by Linda Booth
Sweeney: "When
A Butterfly Sneezes." It provides an excellent way to introduce
young children (4-8 years) to general systems theory and
to
complexity/chaos theory. Thereafter, children have a long
head
start in understanding any other subject they have
occasion to
study.
For a good many reasons I believe early introduction to
general
systems thinking and complexity concepts is absolutely
essential
for optimal intellectual development of children. Those subjects
are also so profoundly convenient for looking at everything
else,
they provide a conceptual frame through which every
specialty or
discipline can talk meaningfully to every other. It's a
long
start toward reintegrating all fields of knowledge.
What Sweeney does is select a number of favorite stories
for
children, stories which illustrate key systems
principles. She has
turned these stories into a curriculum, and mapped out
questions
and discussion points for parents and teachers which will
highlight
and bring such concepts into meaningful focus in the
child's mind.
The book is published by Pegasus Communications, Inc., in
Waltham,
Mass. ( http://www.pegasuscom.com )
- Win Wenger ( mailto:wwenger101@aol.com )
~~~
FEEDBACK LOOP SOFTWARE - FREE ONLINE
For Musicians, Thespians, Performing Artists of all
kinds,
Public Speakers--runs on your computer, no equipment
needed
How useful will it be for YOUR practice sessions and
rehearsals -
for especially difficult passages and phrases that you
are trying
to get exactly so - to have your own sounds fed back to
you
automatically, with adjustable 20-30 second delay?
Without your
having to adjust any controls, just play/perform, pause
& hear,
play/perform, pause & hear, play/perform, etc. -
until you get
that passage exactly as you want it? - With your nuances
perfect?
Make your practice sessions far more comfortable,
effective, and
productive!
Such a system has been created by Brian Theado and is set
forth
free for you on the Project Renaissance website. All you
will
need besides the free download is a microphone and your
computer.
Your information and download are waiting for you right
now, no
strings, no conditions:
http://www.winwenger.com/babble.htm
The program was designed to further the verbal skills and
subsequent intellectual development of infants and
toddlers in
the echolaic stage.
That is why this invention was called "The
BabbleBack Machine." We wanted to get this resource
into service
of as many young children as possible. Only after this
invention
was up into public domain and on the Web did it occur to
us that
this simple invention for enriching babies and toddlers
might have
another and very different - and very obvious! -
application for
musicians and other performers.
In its present form you can download it into your
computer and
use it for either set of purposes. You can easily set your
feedback-loop delay to any interval between one second
and thirty
seconds. For
practicing special passages in music, set the
automatic feedback interval to somewhere between 20 and
30 seconds,
whatever suits you best. Use this "MusicBack"
application of
"BabbleBack" to rehearse particularly difficult
phrases, or to get
intonation and nuance just right. Sing or play into your mike,
pause and your own performance comes right back at you,
then you
play again until you've gotten it exactly as you want it.
- Win Wenger ( mailto:wwenger101@aol.com )
~~~
BEYOND BARRIERS
Mimi Tandler ( mailto:mimitan2@aol.com )
For years, I've used many of the techniques for
improving
intelligence and creativity in "Beyond OK" --
Image-streaming,
etc. and have greatly improved my ability to concentrate
and
write. Diagnosed A.D.D., I try to compensate without drug
dependency (Ritalin). I have a book proposal nearly ready
to
send out, and would like to communicate with others who
are
interested in getting beyond barriers and solving
problems,
either personal or large-scale.
- Mimi Tandler ( mailto:mimitan2@aol.com )
-----------------------------------
To send your comments to The Stream, write to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=Comments
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LINKS
* Back issues of
THE STREAM by email upon request from
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=BackIssues
* Index of feature
articles in The Stream archives:
http://www.winwenger.com/strmlist.htm
* Archived copies
of Capital Ideasmiths are here:
http://www.winwenger.com/Capitalidea/capidea1.htm
* Project
Renaissance homepage:
http://www.winwenger.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UNSUBSCRIBE: If
you do not wish to continue receiving this
newsletter from Project Renaissance, please send an email
to
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=TheStream-unsubscribe
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QUESTION QUEST - Real-world solutions to real-world
problems
CHALLENGE #2
You may use any means for deriving either questions or
answers —
any of the creative problem-solving techniques described
in the
Project Renaissance website, or other techniques you may
know, or
even consulting experts in relevant fields.
This Question Quest is being coordinated by Project
Renaissance as
a public service and as an exploration into practical
applications
of creativity. See http://www.winwenger.com/question.htm
.
.........................................................
Question No. 2:
How can we
persuade scientists to employ creative methods
(specifically
Project Renaissance methods) to see if they'll
make new
discoveries they would otherwise not have made —
even if it
means breaking the rules of their conditioning
and risking
skepticism from their peers?
..........................................................
Email your questions and recommended solutions to: Question Quest
( mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=Quest ).
Please include a note as to what problem-solving methods,
if any,
you used in arriving at your answers. Prizes will be
awarded for
the successful solutions upon implementation. Let's make
a real
difference in the world. New questions will be posted
here and on
the website as they are selected.
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