If you've been involved in the field of education for any length of time, you've seen many innovations and programs come and go. Teaching machines, Time on Task programs, Epstein's plateaus of adolescent cognition, and Madeline Hunter's Elements of Effective Instruction are just a few of the programs that at one time garnered many adherents only to fade into near obscurity several years later. The pendulum swings are so frequent in schools that many educators have adopted a "sit tight, this too will pass" attitude.

The newest "breakthrough" in education is neuroscience or brain research, a field that until recently has been foreign to educators. While many past programs generated a great deal of interest, rarely has one amassed a following so enthusiastic as this one. In the past few years, numerous national educational conference have been devoted entirely to the brain. Some mention of brain research has become de rigueur in grant proposals and staff development plans.

Hundreds of books tout everything from brain-compatible mathematics instruction to brain-based classroom environment. (I recently saw a book on an educational vendor's rack entitled "Brain-compatible Worksheets”--which may be an oxymoron!) An internet search of links that included "brain" and "education" produced over 400,000 sites.

Our fascination with the brain is not difficult to understand. We seem to have always had an innate curiosity about how our brains function, how we learn, and how we remember. It's not surprising to discover throughout hundreds of years of history, theories have been generated to explain the elusive qualities of the human brain.