~ R-TCITM ~ Reading – The Canary In The Mind

~ HBWNBTR-TAOLIOOTMIEAOHS-TOK-NOSEA ~ Human Begins Were Never Born To Read – The Acquisition Of Literacy Is One Of The Most Important Epigenetic Achievements Of Homo Sapiens – To Our Knowledge – No Other Species Ever Acquired

~ THBAUDOEAOYP ~ There Has Begun An Unanticipated Decline Of Empathy Among Our Young People

~ AMNMHBMPTTAFU-TPAFRIR-WWRAPOF-‘C’-WAROTBTAATWTCABFAD ~ Although Mirror Neurons May Have Become More Popular Than They Are Fully Understood – They Play A Fascinating Role In Reading – When We Read A Piece Of Fiction – “Closely” – We Activate Regions Of The Brain That Are Aligned To What The Characters Are Both Feeling And Doing

~ OYWNKWTDNK ~ Our Young Will Not Know What They Do Not Know

~ ATCABPBBOPKCAOAP-WRTRODIWQWTQOPOTIATUIAAFFEMAP ~ Absent The Checks And Balances Provided By Both Our Prior Knowledge Content And Our Analytical Processes – We Run The Risk Of Digesting Information Without Questioning Whether The Quality Or Prioritization Of The Information Available To Us Is Accurate And Free From External Motivations And Prejudices

~ DR-POFVTTOTCOOL ~ Deep Reading – Provides Our Finest Vehicle To Travel Outside The Circumferences Of Our Lives

~ TFOTR-BCIAUEAITIHOOS-WTC-DR-SC-WWP-WWF-A-WWK-A-ISD-A-I-A-E-TCI ~ The Formation Of The Reading-Brain Circuit Is A Unique Epigenetic Achievement In The Intellectual History Of Our Species – Within This Circuit – Deep Reading – Significantly Changes – What We Perceive – What We Feel – And – What We Know – And – In So Doing – Alters – Informs – And – Elaborates – The Circuit Itself

~ QE-QOA ~ Quiet Eye – Quality Of Attention

~ B-WIOCTPIADBWACW-TMI-? ~ But – What If Our Capacity To Perceive Is Actually Decreasing Because We Are Confronted With – Too Much Information – ?

~ TDCH:HMWR-HWR-WWR-HTAW ~ The Digital Chain Hypothesis: How Much We Read – How We Read – What We Read – How Things Are Written

~ SOI-A-MFD-CFTW-WS-ROAS ~ Sequencing Of Information – And – Memory For Detail – Change For The Worse – When Subjects – Read On A Screen

~ TMWKAAW-TMAOBB-A-TMLOMAA ~ The More We Know About A Word – The More Activated Our Brain Becomes – And – The More Levels Of Meaning Are Available

~ OT-TEOCB-I-HWAR-CHB-I-WWRAHIIW ~ Over Time – The Effects Of Changing Behaviors – In – How We Are Reading – Cannot Help But – Influence – What We Read And How It Is Written

~ TFOL-ILBTTSEBWTFTWTDUTTH-WT-A-TTSEBRTRBATBTTWIR ~ The Future Of Language – Is Linked Both To The Sustained Efforts By Writers To Find Those Words That Direct Us To Their Hard-Won Thought – And – To The Sustained Efforts By Readers To Reciprocate By Applying Their Best Thought To What Is Read

~ WCE-O-SR-H-I-G-S-O-L-CLTTEOWI-D-O-‘O’ ~ Whether Cruelly Enforced – Or – Subtly Reinforced – Homogenization – In – Groups – Societies – Or – Language – Can Lead To The Elimination Of Whatever Is – Different – Or – “Other”

~ TCRBTQORATQOTIIHB-CIA-CP ~ The Critical Relationship Between The Quality Of Reading And The Quality Of Thought Is Influenced Heavily By – Changes In Attention – Cognitive Patience

~ DNFYRTSPOAOTUIM?-DYSWYWTYATETCOYTISSOD? ~ Do You Find Yourself Reading The Same Passage Over And Over To Understand Its Meaning? – Do You Suspect When You Write That Your Ability To Express The Crux Of Your Thoughts Is Subtly Slipping Or Diminished?

~ IHBT-R-MT-BI-TT-BI-MLT-BT ~ I Had Begun To – Read – More To – Be Informed – Than To – Be Immersed – Much Less To Be Transported

~ LTCIAEBEMDCIACWDIO ~ Learning To Concentrate Is An Essential But Ever More Difficult Challenge In A Culture Where Distraction Is Omnipresent

~ WLPDOTS-C-ACATMOODAA-A-TQJFO-‘SNS’-TA-TINOCDWA-BLD-MRNO-B-E-D-BA-TCON-FOADIAGODC ~ With Little Prefrontal Development On Their Side – Children – Are Completely At The Mercy Of One Distraction After Another – And – They Quickly Jump From One – “Shiny New Stimulus” – To Another – The Increasing Number Of Children Diagnosed With Attention-Based Learning Deficits – May Reflect Not Only – Better – Earlier – Diagnoses – But Also – The Creation Of New Forms Of Attention Deficit In A Generation Of Distracted Children

~ DMCEPFDR-TPBIPF-ICWTR ~ Despite Most Children’s Expressed Preference For Digital Reading – They Performed Better In Print Form – In Comprehending What They Read

TMBAIDOTUOWMFCDTWTPATIOTTRATITPOASTOMO ~ There May Be An Incremental Diminishment Of The Use Of Working Memory For Children Due To What They Perceive As The Impossibility Of Trying To Remember All The Information Typically Presented On A Screen That Often Moves On

~ TRSWATAGMOTN1BCPUAC-TYAOSAIMSTAETPP ~ The Responsibility Starts With Acknowledging That A Great Many Of The Now 1 Billion Cell Phone Users Are Children – These Youngest Among Our Species Are Intrinsically More Susceptible Than Anyone Else To Persuasion Principles

~ ECFSWYRTYC-TISNEOGIWYACTTVCOTR-BC ~ Everything Counts For Something When You Read To Your Child – There Is Almost No End Of Good In What You Are Contributing To The Various Components Of The Reading-Brain Circuit

~ WYSTYC-YETTWTAAAT-AWT-WYRTYC-YETTWTNHIOPATSNOATU ~ When You Speak To Your Children – You Expose Them To Words That Are All Around Them – A Wonderful Thing – When You Read To Your Children – You Expose Them To Words They Never Hear In Other Places And To Sentences No One Around Them Uses

~ BTAFY:WLATTFT ~ Between Two And Five Years: When Language And Thought Take Flight Together

~ TUMLECPBWS ~ The Universal Moral Laws Every Culture Possesses Begin With Stories

~ S-NURBOCM-HUFSDILAWPSFST ~ Stories – Not Unlike Remembered Bridge Or Chess Moves – Help Us Face Similar Difficulties In Life Armed With Possible Strategies For Solving Them

~ WAANATIAF-BDCWMU ~ We Are All Navigating A Transition Into A Full-Blown Digital Culture With Many Unknowns

~ SAOOHMPVFMLCTPWWNM ~ Stories Are One Of Humanity’s Most Powerful Vehicles For Making Lasting Connections To People We Will Never Meet

~ WCLTWTTBHITEG-TBBWAT ~ When Children Learn To Write Their Thoughts By Hand In The Early Grades – They Become Better Writers And Thinkers

~ A-R-C-I-A/Tl ~ Attend – Remember – Connect – Infer – Analyze / Then Leap

~ IIETFTTCDTRWUINAGARIATTBS

~ It Is Easy To Forget That The Contemplative Dimension That Resides Within Us Is Not A Given And Requires Intention And Time To Be Sustained

~ OMUS-TCNFE:’BT’-WKFWP;DAS-PBTCLBAFODAITWNBK;ATIMASUOKTWNBW ~ Our Milieu’s Unforeseen Sequelae – The Constant Need For Efficiency: “Buying Time” – Without Knowing For What Purpose; Decreasing Attention Spans – Pushed Beyond Their Cognitive Limits By A Flotsam Of Distractions And Information That Will Never Become Knowledge; And The Increasingly Manipulated And Superficial Uses Of Knowledge That Will Never Become Wisdom

~ TFJ ~ Time For Joy

~ WTWKE-TMMS-TLUIAFO-PCC-TPFRAOWTDFOTTFU-TIA-L-KRF-I-S-A-M-N-A-TFOSO ~ We Think We Know Enough – That Misleading Mental State – That Lulls Us Into A Form Of – Passive Cognitive Complacency – That Precludes Further Reflection And Opens Wide The Door For Others To Think For Us – This Is A – Long-Known Recipe For – Intellectual – Social – And – Moral – Neglect – And – The Fraying Of Societal Order

~ T-AAGD-OO-AARCAI-A-TWEOATDS-F-WR-I-WM-I-WA ~ The – Atrophy And Gradual Disuse – Of Our – Analytical And Reflective Capacities As Individuals – Are – The Worst Enemies Of A Truly Democratic Society – For – Whatever Reason – In – Whatever Medium – In – Whatever Age

~ TOTGMOTT-FC:TITOTTC-A-FTEWWHABTCOCAPAIJTOIOIFS ~ Two Of The Greatest Mistakes Of The Twenty-First Century: To Ignore Those Of The Twentieth Century – And – Fail To Evaluate Whether We Have Already Begun To Cede Our Critical Analytical Powers And Independent Judgment To Others In Our Increasingly Fissured Society