The only constant in life is change. Change is everywhere we see. Moths meta-morphing into butterflies. Kids growing. Things running down. Savings depleting. Our income growing.

Think about it for a moment. We do not have a moment where change is not happening in our lives.Take a national obsession - cars. Our cars do not break down for a reason. Usually, it does so after months of neglect or simply due to wear and tear but it always does so with some form of warning. The engine seems nosier, the car accelerates slower, the fuel gets sucked faster and the car becomes better at grating our nerves generally. It breaks down more often and requires more attention.

If change is everywhere, what are we doing about it? Every parent who has a kid will respond that it is quite different bringing a kid now compared to how they were brought up in the past. They think differently. They act differently. It is a battle, albeit one of love, that we have with them everyday to exert influence in their lives.

If change is not understood or even appreciated, what will happen to the child? Frustration will set in.Feelings of disillusionment will result.Comparisons between our own children and that of others will be made. Research shows that the top reasons of marital breakups are caused by lack of and financial matters. If adults struggle consistently to communicate to each other, what more communication children who are less acquainted with the garb and who is often thumbed down by authoritative figures in their lives? These sayings are all-too prevalent in classroom: "Please be quiet and don't move about!" (possibly lost engagement due to slow speed of task, kinesthetic learner);"Why are you not listening?" (possibly a visual learner where auditory leaning is slower to take place.)

If change is treated as something else altogether, what will the cost be? Tuition is now a million-dollar business. More are sprouting like mushrooms in your friendly neighbourhood malls. Even more,in fact, are hailing to instruct learning methodologies,learning techniques, uper memory, and motivationto inspire the genius in all of us, so much so that we are now spoilt for choice. If we are hasty in subscribing to a certain theory because it makes sense and has proven results, does that mean that it will benefit our children?

The Education Ministry is championing our system as a mountain of "many peaks" that we are aspiring not to be a Mount Everest where only the best and the brightest students can aspire to its greatest heights but a Himalayan range where many peaks will be scaled, according to individual abilities.

Low Guat Tin, NIE Dean of Arts and renowned lecturer has once recounted her story to a audience of teachers about her results in primary school. It was covered in red ink! Disastrous!� claimed her teacher. Hopeless! cried her parents. What was a 'hopeless' and 'disastrous' child turned out to be a highly-respected educational professional, training teachers and very much still contributing actively to the educational needs of our young.

If change is something that is not understood, appreciated, mistreated and mis-communicated - by stakeholders who meant the whole world of good to our children, but like you and me, possess imperfect information to a state of the child and whose best opinion is an educated guess - shouldn't we be more careful in branding children? Terms like ADHD, ADD, dyslexic and dysgraphia have increasingly made its mark in our quest for understanding of our children. Increasingly, the tides are turning that these 'disorders' are at most temporary and worst, a misdiagnosed ailment that have far- reaching and long-reaching consequences that robs the self-esteem of a impressionable child.

In his defining moment of rejection and disappointment to a prescribed standard, what will the child think about himself?What about the consequences years down the road?

We are increasing our understanding about our brains daily. Current science dictates that, the brain responds to use and disuse either by growing and remaining vital or decaying, and thus, for the first time, we are learning to see mental weaknesses as physical systems in need of training and practice." In one famous experiment, UC Berkeley's Marian Diamond1 placed rats in a super-stimulating environment, complete with swings, ladders, treadmills, toys of all kinds - and other rats. Those rats which lived in a high-stimulus environment lived longer, surpassing the age of three - the equivalent of ninety in a human. At the same time, their brains increased in size, making millions of synaptic connections.

Here's another case in point. The Sisters of Notre Dame not only lived to a ripe old age of 85, they also seem to be suffering less from the debilitating diseases associated with old age like dementia and Alzheimer's2. Nearly seven hundred of the nuns agreed to donate their brains to medical science for research purposes. University of Kentucky professor of preventive medicine David Snowdon, discovered one intriguing difference. The nuns who earn college degrees, who teach, and who constantly challenge their minds live longer than less educated nuns who do manual work like cleaning of rooms or working in the kitchen. Professor Snowdon, who operates out of the Brown Center for Aging, expects that the better-educated nuns have far more synapses or nerve-cell connections (a topic which we will return later), allowing them to cope better with debilitating brain diseases.

The science is overwhelming that the brain is capable of changing and that the old adage, "use it or lose it" is very much alive at least, in so far the matter between our two ears is concerned. In this book, you will find not only the wisdom offered by the cutting-edge science but also the personal experiences of numerous educational professionals in their field - teachers, professors, psychologists, master trainers and parents who have experiential evidence to offer. Like you, they are stakeholders of the future of our nation our young. Like you, they have a stake in ensuring that the knowledge that they acquire and which is the yardstick they use to mould their children stands the test of time and the best of currently know science and practice. And most importantly, like you, they are coping with changes in their lives.

Welcome to a changing world.