Brain drain ...

Neural plasticity is the media’s latest interest item. The brain is a learning organism to be nurtured, which can recover and rebuild new neural pathways if damaged or ageing. The prevailing scientific view has been of a machine; once broken, staying broken in that area despite intervention. Ironically and significantly I have forgotten the name of the U.S. psychiatrist who warned against complacency in the middle years … reading the newspaper is not an intellectual event, irrespective of the standard of journalism! We are merely coasting on pre-learned skills and leaving brain function to stultify accordingly. Learning new and challenging skills throughout life both extends and repairs brain function. Structured practice of information literacy to promote independent learners and lifelong learning has become a critical educational goal in the context of a lengthening lifespan. Adult learning may be as integral to a healthy population as healthy eating.
'Our ever-changing and challenging world requires students, our future citizens, to go
beyond building their knowledge capacity; they need to develop their higher-order
thinking skills, such as critical system thinking, decision making, and problem-solving'.

Miri B; David B-C and Uri Z. Purposely teaching for the promotion of higher-order thinking skills : a case of critical thinking. [online]. Research in Science Education; v.37 n.4 p.353-369; October 2007.
Interestingly enough, rote learning, now on the bottom of the educational skill set, is as much advocated as development of higher order evaluative skills … each exercises different brain functions and establishes or reestablishes defined neural pathways.