Oxytocin Gives

When we feel good, we have loads of oxytocin in our body. Can it be an energy drink?

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Oxytocin is a happy hormone. It is associated with caring, bonding and intimacy (dubbed as “love molecule”). It helps rebuild a wounded relationship. Having more of it will reduce anxiety and social fears. A nasal spray of it can cure shyness and improve social proficiency.

We also know that Oxytocin will make us more generous. In the study of Dr. Paul Zak and his colleagues, 8 OUT OF 10 are more generous when infused with oxytocin compared to those who received a placebo. The more we have this, the more empathetic we feel towards co-humans.

The amount of oxytocin in us can also predict who will donate more. Oxytocin and generosity are directly related where the more oxytocin is released, the more amount of money we will hand out. This means that altering our brain chemistry will change our behaviors.  It’s scary to think that we can be manipulated to give.

The idea of drinking oxytocin has insidious and expedient potentials. It can passively coerce someone to do charity; and it can be prescribed to people who really needed it. If you do not have a health concern in which oxytocin can help, you can’t get it in a non-natural way.

Probably the easiest way to have an oxytocin flowing in you is hugging someone. It’s cheap too.

Do you think it’s okay to make oxytocin more accessible?

Sources:
Oxytocin Increases Generosity in Humans; Plos One
10 Reasons Why Oxytocin Is The Most Amazing Molecule In The World; io9
Oxytocin – the love hormone – could cure shyness; The Telegraph
Oxytocin: energy drink of the future?; beeblu’s blog

Pay the school + Pay the child

Educating a child is more expensive than once thought.

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You pay the tuition, you pay his clothes, and you pay for his food. To get more benefit out of school, you should also pay your child for going to school.

Ambitious study of Harvard economist Roland Fryer Jr. paid $6.3 million to 18,000 students to testify his lead towards the education policy, classified as “one of the more rigorous studies ever”.

Students who are paid to merely attend school, like a day job, significantly fared better in their academics as measured by standardized tests. Money as an incentive is a pliable motivator. For these children, money is sweets, is games, is shoes, is cool stuff.

I’d want that. I wish I was also paid to go to school. If all parents did, all students will be rich! Of course it will make students work for it, especially those that are in their teenage years as money is independence. This may also mean training them for the harsh real world, that you hardly see “free work”, that work is done in exchange of money.

Medley of questions in my head challenged the results, even if I accepted the verity of the study. Couldn’t we see any other motivator other than money? If this was implemented, would they really like to learn, which is a never-dying process; or will they stop trying to learn when there’s no one paying them anymore? And are standardized tests the only measure of intelligence, forcing them to like science and math and disregarding arts or athletics?

Would you pay your child to go to school?

Source:
Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?; Time

 

Digital Education

Can digital education replace the traditional campus?

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Have you received a call, email or seen an ad of a school promoting their online programs? About four universities reached me and informed me about their MBA program that fits my schedule. Education has now boarded on the web.

Let’s say, you can get free courses in Harvard; which you could (Harvard Open Courses) but what about the traditional campus studentship? Is it okay for these professors to record one lecture and just play it to students? You may say that it’s good because now they can focus more on research.  However, the internet is a lonely place.

I earned my undergraduate degree on campus. Benefits of college on campus are social and academic. Digital education took away the social part, where students don’t get the pressure of the presence of co-students. In campus, they get face-to-face experiences with people and situations that are relevant in life after school, isn’t it?

Online college saves time and can coalesce with your present life. Work in the morning, class before sleep. You can save money too. Apart from the fraction of tuition fee, all you need is an internet connection. No gas nor commute allowance. No canteen food. No need for looking good means less gel expenses for guys and makeup budget for girls.

Are your pro-digital or pro-campus?

Children: Robots Are Human

Robots are smart, encouraging, and supportive; like humans.

Photo from stock.xchng

From Forbes’ Technology Is “Almost Human,” Children Say,

Children “imagined robots would be socially successful because they were smart. The children also imagined robots that were better versions of their parents and teachers and offered them limitless time and patience. Conversely, they envisioned robots as being machines that would take on boring tasks so the children have more time for interesting pursuits.

“Robots support and encourage, but don’t judge. They don’t run into scheduling conflicts, and they certainly don’t ostracize kids for wrong answers or unconventional thinking.”

This is how children think of the robots in the future – our replacement. They desired better versions of us. These robots can do all the service that friends and parents give to children, but at the same time eradicate all the impatience, judgment, moral teachings and the negative attributes they think a human person has.

Technology is moving towards a future the children wanted. Digital books and online schooling are already replacing educators. Online but solitary gaming in Tablets and Smartphones replaced games that would’ve been fun played with other children. And with virtual assistance like Siri, they’ll have someone to talk to.

But the good and bad of human interaction helps a child’s personality development. They won’t get sympathy and emotions with machines. If we let the children to rule, they’ll grow up to produce robots that will cater to their offspring.

What makes you better than a robot?

More Moments for you:
Technology of Invisibility
Comment for Same-Sex Schools Study
Life’s Best Things: Disneyland Fireworks

Boys are Better with Girls in Classroom

And same-sex schools are bad for boys.

Photo from Calista Wang’s flickr

Parents decide on which type of classroom their child will study. It could be exclusive for the child’s gender or co-ed. People will have their own sentiment regarding the benefits of one over the other, but we don’t really until a new study came along to testify.

A study shows that single-sex schools are, apparently, detrimental to the academic performance and social health of boys but not for girls. In fact, it is good for girls.

Boys find girls puzzling, which they really are. But Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, claimed that boys learn better around girls. The classroom setting seems to need the presence of girls. A co-ed classroom with more girls than boys benefit all students, says Prof. Analia Schlosser of Tel Aviv University.

Schools are supposed to prepare students for the real world upon reaching the age of independence. Same-sex schools do not resemble nor emulate a real-life setting. Reality is that there are two sexes, male and female. You cannot condition students that the other sex is nonexistent. You cannot also teach students valuable interaction skills by secluding them.

It is rather disturbing that the study’s findings indicate that boys from single-sex schools are more likely end up divorced or separated by their early 40s. The research argues, at best, that these boys find it difficult to handle girls.

Do you agree that boys need girls in classroom?

More Moments for you:
Post Graduation School Attraction
Horsemeat Maltreat
The Undue Expense of Shoes – Nike, Skechers, etc.

Sources:
WhySingle-Sex Schools are Bad for Your Health (if you’re a boy); The Independent
Keep Boys and Girls Together, TAU Research Suggests; aftau.org