Academic Guidance Services (est 1960)

My analysis of great achievement on a very complex task like playing the violin or chess or becoming a Nobel laureate in physics require three things: talent, tremendous amount of deliberate practice, plus an innate drive to practice to be perfect. It is this last thing that my son lacks, and apparently 77% of the very accomplished teenage violinists lack.Is the drive to perfection on a task a born thing? Whether it can be fostered through reinforcement and behavior modification remain to be seen.

My son does not want to practice without being told, coaxed or 'bribed', unlike when I was young. He would practice sloppily if I am not there coaching and guiding and giving feedback, What's startling for me is that one survey show only 23% of the highly accomplished teenage students practice voluntarily. The rest need to be prompted often by parents to practice! So my son has hope:)

Scholars have gravitated, at least in America, the role of nurture. They argue even Mozart needed a very demanding father, who first successfully groomed Mozart's older sister to become a great piano prodigy and when little Mozart came along, the father focused his attention to intensely trained Mozart since young. Professor Ericsson has argued that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is key to be an excellent violinist and that highly accomplished violini performers (presumably the talented ones) actually practice more than the not so accomplished violinists.

How much of high achievement on a complex skill come from talent (nature) and how much from deliberate, smart practice (nurture)? I am still grappling with this question in teaching my son to become excellent on the violin, after seven years of training.

My son 's first public, solo recital. He was selected to play last Friday Nov 7, 2014) at the Colburn School of Music in Los Angeles. The comments were very positive and encouraging. There is something very moving watching a 10-year-old child, your own or somebody else's, being so focused on a task. It was hard work preparing - lots of reinforcers, task analysis, strategic prompts and feedback. Has he 'internalized' the passion to play? the drive of a perfectionist in practicing? My answer is "No", or (wishful thinking) "Not yet", even after seven years of systematic behavior modification. Does he prefer video games to playing the violin? "Yes!" But he does play very well, with feelings. So I am not giving up! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL9se_nGTw8

The currents against vaccination have been rising. Many parents of autistic children are convinced their child's autism was caused or partly caused by vaccination. Some swear by their belief that the mercury in Thimerosal. a preservative used in some vaccines, is the culprit, while others think that the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine is the cause. This belief has led to countless spats between autism parent groups, and caused a public rift between a father who withdrew financial support for his daughter's autism organization and the daughter who was convinced vaccines had caused autism in her child. The belief is not limited to autism. Many parents are afraid that MMR could cause mental retardation and refuse to have their children vaccinated. ....more below

Myths about weight loss 1. realistic goal (a few pounds at a time) is no better than ambitious goal (I want to lose 20 lbs) 2. eating fruits and veggies doesn't make you lose weight, unless you cut down on other foods.... 3. eating breakfast or not has no effect on weight loss 4. average sexual activity (6 minutes) does little to burn off calories (7 kcal each time, peanuts !) 5. educating about weight loss, telling people to diet don't work, reinfocing (rewarding) each pound lost does. See more

Here is a father-and-son's effort on the last day of 2012. Happy and Safe New Year to all. https://www.youtube.com/audio?v=gpeHtAKBtiU&feature=mhsn As usual, my son David plays better when he knows he is being videotaped - the power of social reinforcement.

Still evaluating if intrinsic rewards (points traded for privileges) will foster intrinsic rewards of practicing to make beautiful music on the violin for my 8-year-old son. So far, it's spurts of enthusiasm. He initiates practice more often but quits before it gets to mastery each time, unless I prompt and reinforce. But I am hoping.....

TV, videogames, office work shorten life! 1 hour of sedate sitting=21.8 minutes less of life, even true for people who exercise regularly, according to 2 large-scale studies reported by the NY Times http://well.blogs.nytimes.com//10/17/get-up-get-out-dont-/ So can you imagine watching 4 hours of TV a night, like many American households do? Possible Reason? When you relax your lower limb muscles, surplus fuel (blood sugar) accumulates to contribute to diabetes and other d...isease. The modern man sits tooooo much. So we should stand while doing electronics, having a meeting, or working in the office. And there might be some advantage in hyperactivity - the person who does not sit still might live longer!