Educating Ruby [antikvár]

Foreword by Professor Tanya Byron I struggled at school. It was a highly academic girls' school, and its hot-house atmosphere didn't suit me. At one teachers' meeting, my parents and I were told, "Tanya wiU never be a high-flyer." Jo Malone, the multi-millionaire businesswoman and fragrance queen, was told by a teacher that she was lazy (Jo is dyslexic) and "would never make anything of her life". Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and thousands of others were written off by their teachers - because their way of learning didn't fit that of the school. As a clinical psychologist working in child and adolescent mental health, I often meet children and young people who are struggling at school to such a degree that it has severely compromised their mental health and daily functioning. There are thousands of children today who are showing increasing rates of depression and anxiety disorders, struggling to hold on to a positive sense of self-worth. Some literally give up. And their parents are at their wits' end wondering what to do for the best. While the mental health of our young is a complex, multifaceted issue driven by biological, psychological and social factors, I believe that the current education system is out of date and out of step with the learning needs and habits of young people. Some 50% of all adult mental health problems start at the age of 14, a time of life when the prefrontal cortex undergoes huge changes in function,