When I was a child, the world didn’t make much sense to me.
Despite having a strong auditory memory, I struggled deeply with comprehension, logic, abstract reasoning, and spatial understanding. School was a battleground. I could memorize facts but couldn’t grasp their meaning. My teachers told my parents I was bright, but something was “off.” What no one could tell me back then was that my brain was working differently—and not in a way that made learning possible.
For many years, I believed what I had been told: that these difficulties were permanent. That I simply had to learn to work around them.
But then, everything changed.
As a graduate student, I came across the work of Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Luria and later, neuroscientist Mark Rosenzweig. Their research revealed that specific brain functions could be mapped—and that the brain, under the right conditions, could change itself. These weren’t just theories to me. They were lifelines.
I began designing cognitive exercises—simple, structured tasks aimed at the very areas of my brain that didn’t work. I practiced for hours each day, targeting the functions that had once left me confused, exhausted, and ashamed. Slowly, and then unmistakably, I got better. I could understand concepts. I could read between the lines. I could think in ways I had never thought possible.
I had rewired my own brain.
But that wasn’t enough.
If I could do this for myself, I believed others could too. So in 1980, I opened the first Arrowsmith School—a place where students didn’t just cope with learning difficulties but transformed the very brain functions that made learning difficult. I developed more cognitive exercises—19 in total—each designed to strengthen a specific capacity: memory, reasoning, processing speed, motor planning, and more.
The Arrowsmith Program was, and still is, grounded in one radical idea: that the brain is not fixed, and that education should be designed around that truth.
It has been almost 5 decades since I first began this work. In that time, I’ve seen thousands of students—many of whom had been written off by traditional education systems—begin to thrive once their brains were strengthened at the source. I’ve also seen a shift in the scientific and educational communities: an increasing recognition that learning is not just about content or curriculum, but about cognitive capacity.
Still, we have far to go.
We live in a world that moves quickly. Convenience is prioritized. Struggle is avoided. But the truth is that cognitive transformation is not easy—it is slow, difficult, and deeply human. And it is exactly that kind of struggle that produces resilience, self-efficacy, and independence. As artificial intelligence expands and knowledge becomes increasingly outsourced, our most essential human skill may just be the ability to think well. That starts not with better test prep—but with better brains.
Today, the Arrowsmith Program is offered in schools and centers around the world. Some students come with learning diagnoses. Others come simply because they want to build a stronger cognitive foundation—to think faster, focus longer, and learn more efficiently. What they all have in common is the opportunity to change not just what they learn—but how they learn.
This work has never been just about education. It’s about human potential.
We must challenge the outdated belief that we are born with fixed abilities. We must create learning environments that support transformation at the deepest level of the brain. And we must do so not just for those who struggle, but for all those who want to grow.
Neuroplasticity is not just a scientific fact. It is a call to action—for educators, parents, students, and society. The brain can change. Let’s build an education system that reflects that truth.
Barbara ArrowsmithYoung is the founder of the Arrowsmith Program, a global leader in cognitive capacity development, and author of The Woman Who Changed Her Brain.
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