Thoughts on "What do teachers need to know about cognition"

I thought Lindemann made very good points about knowing what types of papers should be assigned to those below grade nine. Teenagers cannot think in abstract. Assigning papers that encourage self-expressive, description, simple stories, and fairly concrete subject matters are more suited to that age group.  Never will I use a phrase such as “My students can’t think”. Yes they can; they just need someone to encourage and open up the pathway. I remember studying Paget’s theories from a psy 101 class way back when.  I believe in order to be the most effective educator one can possibly be, it is crucial to know how the human brain works. One does not need to be a trained psychiatrist, but they should have some knowledge of the cognitive learning process.