The Newman Resident by Charles Swift Read Free Book Online

you to make with me. Then we’ll decide.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    R ichard, Carol, and Hunter stood in a dark room, looking through a one-way mirror at a Newman laboratory that was also fairly dark. Hunter had made it clear that no parents had ever been to this room before, that he could get in trouble if the superintendent found out, that if it hadn’t been for his friendship with Carol he never would have considered doing this. Carol kept nodding and thanking him; Richard tried his best to ignore him.
    Two scientists were in the room with them, and several others were on the other side of the mirror, connecting electrodes to eleven children calmly seated at their individual desks.
    “Neuroplasticity,” Hunter said. “That’s what this is all about. It’s how we live up to our motto: Developing minds for the future. We’ve known for years the brain changes when a person learns—that it forms and develops throughout life. When people practice an activity, their neural networks reshape themselves in response. The same goes for when they access memories. People aren’t born with a brain they’re stuck with for their whole lives. They can develop what they’re born with. They can become smarter.”
    “But there’s nothing really new about that,” Richard said. “Like you said, we’ve known this for years.”
    “True, but Dr. Newman has discovered how to observe and measure these neural changes. Any school can test how students do on exams, measuring how well they recall information or even,if we’re lucky, how they can synthesize it. But the Newman Home can literally measure the changes in the brain and see what can be done to stimulate more such changes.”
    No one had said anything about this when they’d enrolled Christopher, and Richard was bothered by all of it. He didn’t like the idea that scientists at the school were scanning the children’s minds and trying to manipulate the natural process of learning. What ever happened to learning being about exploration and personal growth? Wasn’t a good school supposed to be instilling a love for learning rather than an experiment for it?
    But this was just the sort of information that would bolster Carol’s enthusiasm for the school. What could be better than teachers actually being able to know if students are learning and how to help them learn more? In fact, the more he thought about it from her perspective, the more he began to wonder if he was the one mistaken. Was this something to be concerned about, or not?
    “Why aren’t the kids nervous about being hooked up?” Richard asked.
    “We do this type of research with all the residents,” Hunter said. “They’re used to it.”
    “That’s not very comforting.”
    “Richard, there’s absolutely no risk to them. They’re being prepared for the electroencephalography portion of the research. You know, EEG. What we’ve actually developed here is an ftEEG, for Functional Transference Electroencephalography. Nothing you’ll find anywhere else, but it’s still quite safe.”
    “I don’t remember approving this for our son.”
    “All Newman parents give their approval when they sign the enrollment papers. They agree to let their residents participate in research in improving education.”
    “I remember that part of the contract,” Carol said.
    “I do, too,” Richard said, looking at his wife. “But I never dreamed it was anything like this.”
    “The only risk is the tiniest bit of skin irritation underneath the electrodes,” Hunter said. “Perfectly safe.”
    The eleven children were arranged in a semi-circle in the lab. The center desk was empty. There was nothing on their desks, nothing on the walls, nothing on the ceiling. The lab was dark enough that it was impossible to see any detail in the children’s faces.
    “It’s such a sterile environment,” Richard said.
    “This is one of the most advanced classrooms at the Newman Home,” Hunter said. “In the world, to be honest.