A Thirst For Learning by Carlynn McCormick

Summary:

A preK through 6th grade school just opened in La Jolla. Small class sizes. Curriculum includes computer skills, earth and space sciences and music.

Message:

La Jolla, CA -- 8/20/08 -- (PressReleasePoint) -- Initiative is the ability to get things started or done without needing to be told what to do. A wonderful ability worthy of fostering in every child!

Yet, many an educator has lamented, “If only my students had more initiative.” Alas! What most contemporary educators do not realize is that when they force a student to memorize information from various texts and expect him to repeat it back on test papers, they are inadvertently killing that student’s initiative. The student becomes half-hypnotized from inflowing streams of data.

To explain this further, educator L. Ron Hubbard pointed out that when education becomes purely the inflowing of ideas, then we are actually talking about hypnotism by definition. He said, “You see, there’s no differentiation there. In other words, simply implanting the recall and then pulling it back out again, while it has been defined as education, is nothing but a black operation, nothing but. To do this to little kids is to do away with their initiative.”

It could be compared to the zombie-like state you might sink to if you were to plop down on a couch for twelve hours and indiscriminately watch whatever showed up on your TV screen. After such a marathon of inflow, it would probably be difficult to get you to do much of anything. I put this to the test by channel surfing for a few hours and allowing the path of least resistance to kick in. At one point I found my eyes glued to a Japanese opera of which I understood nothing. Nevertheless I continued to watch it and had the distinct sensation that my body and the couch were becoming one. If you know a student who is being educated by pure inflow, you might try this experiment to see what he is up against.

Naturally, children should be exposed to the inflow of new ideas, but to develop initiative the emphasis must be on giving children the freedom to actually use the information they are being taught. A teacher should also embrace the idea that students need personal purposes for studying subjects and that it is the teacher’s job to help them find such purposes. The stronger the purpose, the greater the desire to get things accomplished.

The point is we are going for student participation as opposed to student tranquilization. We want the child to have a purpose for learning a particular bit of information so he will be more likely to reason with it, to extrapolate from it, and to draw his own conclusions about it. When students are given the liberty to use and understand ideas, you end up with individuals who can get things started and get things done on their own steam!

Applied Scholastics Academy San Diego is a pre-K through 6th grade private school that helps children improve their learning rate, based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard. For more information, call 1-858-454-1972 or go to www.aps-academy-sandiego.org.

Carlynn McCormick, correspondent for Applied Scholastics Academy San Diego, is a freelance writer and textbook author.

About us:

Applied Scholastics Academy San Diego is an independent, co-educational, non-religious school located in the beautiful seaside community of La Jolla, California.

This La Jolla school offers a Lower and Elementary School program—4 years old through sixth grade.

Applied Scholastics Academies are part of the Applied Scholastics Network, a group of independent schools sharing uniquely developed curriculum and teaching methods. Children may enroll in this school as early as four years old, assuming the student will become five years old sometime during the current school year.

The Applied Scholastics Academy program emphasizes:

* Early education in the 3 Rs
* Hands-on learning, practical application
* Ensuring 100% understanding
* Teaching Study Skills so that the children become self-learners
* Individualized attention
* Self-paced learning
* Advancement based on demonstrated competency
* A rich curriculum, including specialized teachers providing lessons in computers, music, astronomy and science.