Alvermann, Part II--Wilder & Dressman

I actually want to start with something from chapter 15 (Stevens) because it touches on an idea I've been thinking about a lot, and which could provide reasons for why change, such as Wilder and Dressman advocate, is so hard to come by.

"The researchers posit that this gaming generation has experienced a differing construction of neural pathways and cultural practices during their teenage years, largely spent gaming, and that those shifting mindsets are resulting in a youth-led transformation of the business world" (p. 303).

The idea I'm interested in here is the construction of neural pathways. I admit that my first introduction to this was a few years ago in the much criticized (though I got a lot out of it) movie What the Bleep Do We Know?, which basically introduces quantum physics and string theory to lay people. Anyway, one of the ideas presented in the movie is that the situations we're in, the relationships we have, basically, the way we interact in these situations and relationship, are the result of our neural pathways. But of course, these pathways are mapped out by.......the situations we're in, the relationships we have, and the way we interact in them. [In the movie they give the example of battered wives' syndrome, suggesting that over time, the women's pathways were wired in such a way that their discourse pattern was an abused person.]

This has such important implications. It's why, even with laptops, software, and training, things don't change, at least quickly. It also supports the contention that change CAN occur, that we're not doomed to repeat history, because we can rewire our neural pathways; it just takes time and conscious effort. It's also why learning/being apprenticed into a new discourse takes time (and effort).