Neuroscience Blog on Dr. John Ratey

I am doing my Neuroscience blog on Dr. John Ratey M.D.. He is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He has for many years been researching and developing physical activity and it's toll on the brain. He calls it "excernomics" stating that when we are phyically fit and happy, that cognitively and emotionally we are feeling happy as well. He believes that during the hard times (the economic situation we are in now) we need to be at our peak physically. When you are there, your body and mind don't stress as much.

He talks about education in schools and how students most likely go home and play video games and surf the web than exercise. He believes that games like Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution are a step in the right direction. He feels that Physical Education in schools needs to change. He feels there should be more P.E. but the concept should change from a sports-coaching model to a fitness-wellness everyday athlete model. I personally believe in this method. Although in high school I loved my P.E. classes, I believe I would have benefitted much more from a fitness-wellness stand point in the long run than just playing sports everyday.

Being a baseball coach has allowed me to try some things that kind of fall into what Dr. Ratey's philosophy. I love the idea of my players getting better through time, with everything we do. If they don't get better, then I haven't done my job. One idea I have is doing a physical fitness day at the beginning of the term/semester that consists of physical strength activities and endurance activities. Their homework and final test will be the same thing, but will be graded on improvement. I would also want to see a goal for each student. If they don't reach their goal it doesn't matter, my main grade would be on effort.