An article in the Perspective section about new types of literacy raises an issue that parallels the latest brain research (Jan. 25).

Professor Kist’s statement that “we human beings are going to read in a different manner in the 21st century” is matched by research that tells us that we are going to learn very differently in the future. Nonlinear learning will require nonlinear reading. And that is what, the article says, is being introduced by the Internet.

Brain research is telling us that we are learning all of the time. From birth to death, from waking up to falling asleep, the brain is taking in information from our five senses with no order. The brain sorts that information, but every brain is unique. Every learner is prepared to learn different things, at different times, in different ways.

Forcing 20 or more students into a classroom to learn exactly the same thing, at exactly the same time, in exactly the same way is an exercise in futility.

As the Sun Journal wrote in an editorial (June 17) reporting on the Mitchell Institute/Gates grants, “East Grand High School intends to do away with class structure. It will establish personalized learning plans for each student. Teachers will become learning coaches (or mentors).”

With such innovations and the charter bill now before the Maine Legislature, we can envision Maine as leading the nation toward a radically different learning system for the state. And our State becoming a leader in the intellectual world.

Bill Ellis,

A Coalition for Self-Learning, Rangeley

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