Thanks for this. I'm interested in the reminder that variability has a substantial advantage over uniformity and the suggestion that we create a cultural environment that is designed to select diversity. I appreciate the idea that we need to start with early childhood education but curious about how that might be done in the home even before any formal early childhood education training? And, of course, eager to learn about successful strategies to design to select diversity for the many years beyond early childhood.
Sometimes I make things too complex. It only takes 30 hours one-on-one with an adult for a young child to learn to read. Basically, American children from families in the top 80% in income can read and those in the bottom 20% can't read. We don't have to wait for the system to change. Tutoring a 4-year-old from a low-income family to read transform that child's life forever.
Thank you Katie for such a thoughtful posting. You are right, there are many challenges to the implementation of these principles. It is an evolutionary and behavior-based process that needs to be GUIDED and Measured. Early childhood education is a must and should be a priority. Shaping an environment that shapes parenting skills is a challenge and it has to be within the evolutionary culture change context guided by establishing consequences that reinforce behavior that benefits the culture. Our book Engineering the Upswing addresses some of these issues but in the context of our present culture anything that questions free will and my rights as well let's guide these changes can be heresy. There is a lot of educating to do so that people realize that managing our social environment is as important as managing our physical environment. Maybe there is a need to develop a think tank to shape our culture. We believe that training behavior analyst to become behavior engineers that can work with political scientist and community organizers to facilitate the shaping of the environments of individual communities. As any evolutionary process it will begin with the individual within a small group evolving into larger groups where prosocial behavior can thrive and flourish. Thanks for your input! Francisco Perez
Thanks for this. I'm interested in the reminder that variability has a substantial advantage over uniformity and the suggestion that we create a cultural environment that is designed to select diversity. I appreciate the idea that we need to start with early childhood education but curious about how that might be done in the home even before any formal early childhood education training? And, of course, eager to learn about successful strategies to design to select diversity for the many years beyond early childhood.
Sometimes I make things too complex. It only takes 30 hours one-on-one with an adult for a young child to learn to read. Basically, American children from families in the top 80% in income can read and those in the bottom 20% can't read. We don't have to wait for the system to change. Tutoring a 4-year-old from a low-income family to read transform that child's life forever.
Agree Mike!
Thank you Katie for such a thoughtful posting. You are right, there are many challenges to the implementation of these principles. It is an evolutionary and behavior-based process that needs to be GUIDED and Measured. Early childhood education is a must and should be a priority. Shaping an environment that shapes parenting skills is a challenge and it has to be within the evolutionary culture change context guided by establishing consequences that reinforce behavior that benefits the culture. Our book Engineering the Upswing addresses some of these issues but in the context of our present culture anything that questions free will and my rights as well let's guide these changes can be heresy. There is a lot of educating to do so that people realize that managing our social environment is as important as managing our physical environment. Maybe there is a need to develop a think tank to shape our culture. We believe that training behavior analyst to become behavior engineers that can work with political scientist and community organizers to facilitate the shaping of the environments of individual communities. As any evolutionary process it will begin with the individual within a small group evolving into larger groups where prosocial behavior can thrive and flourish. Thanks for your input! Francisco Perez