Trunk Exercises

CULTURAL LITERACY

In the mid-80’s Dr. Ed Hirsch of the University of Virginia concluded that reading comprehension requires not just formal decoding skills but also wide-ranging cultural background knowledge. He concluded that schools should teach a specific fact-based curriculum of all subjects that would enable children to understand things writers tend to take for granted.  He called this “Cultural Literacy,” wrote a best-selling book about it, and compiled a Dictionary of Cultural Literacy covering 23 different subjects.  BrainBuilders subscribes wholeheartedly to this theory, using the Dictionary to 1) heighten a student’s interest in a smorgasbord of subjects, and 2) enhance his cultural literacy through a variety of challenging games.

MEMORY

Students often report that they cram for tests and then quickly forget the material they “learned” as they cram for the next test.  We work to enhance memory by verbally discussing new data and intentionally connecting it to information the student already knows.  The number of terms memorized is not nearly as important as becoming practiced and intentional about actually using our various memorization techniques.  To dimensionalize the memory component of the intellect, BrainBuilder students are always in the process of memorizing a poem, using a unique wordless icon technique that can help them study for tests, too.  By graduation, the typical BrainBuilder student has memorized at least 5 works by such poets as  Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth, Rudyard Kipling, and Shakespeare. 

RHETORIC

Rhetoric often refers to the use of persuasive language.  But in a broader sense, rhetoric refers to a person’s ability to speak succcessfully on any topic, regardless of expertise.  Aside from speech class, most high school students get very little practice or feedback at extemporaneous speaking.  We believe that the ability to speak well from the mind—and heart—is essential for tomorrow’s decision-makers.  So, BrainBuilder students get plenty of opportunity over the years to utilize their growing vocabulary, think extemporaneously, and organize the ideas in an argument. A successful rhetoritician can speak thoughtfully on any topic, regardless of his expertise in the field.

CHARACTER BUILDING

It used to be widely understood that the ultimate purpose of an education was to foster wisdom, integrity, and strength of character.  De Tocqueville theorized that our democracy would fail without an educated electorate.  Today, students and parents have largely forgotten that higher objective in pursuit of the materialistic one: a college degree as a stepping-stone to a high-paying job. BrainBuilders sees the necessity of both, but is intentional about nurturing high character qualities through analytical discussions of literature, scripture, historical and current events and through writing projects.  Each BrainBuilders student also memorizes the 32-line “If” poem by Rudyard Kipling:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating
And yet, don’t look too good nor talk too wise

If you can dream and not make dreams your master
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat these two imposters just the same
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken
And stoop to build them up with worn-out tools

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on the turn of pitch and toss
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will that says to them, “hold on”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk with kings nor lose the common touch
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you
If all men count with you but none too much
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run
Then yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it
And, which is more, you’ll be a man, my son.