Parents and School Board Members

Would you like a job for which you were poorly prepared? Would you like to remain in such a job for 12 and more years? Of course not. However, this is the postion that we place our children in. What You Should Understand To succeed in school and college your child must learn-to-learn. Learning-to-learn means acquiring, developing, and transferring the ability to think, read, write, and problem solve. These skills are then used to gain critical understanding and act on that understanding -- in school and in the workplace. Learning-to-learn is concerned more with how your child learns, rather than what they learn. If your son or daughter learns how to learn, they will possess certain analytic/critical thinking, writing/speaking, reading/listening, and problem solving abilities. They must bring these abilities to all learning situations including those at home, school, and the workplace. However, learn-to-learn courses are not part of the school curriculum. Of course, elementary school courses in English teach your child to read and write words. Later on, English courses concentrate on literature. The basis for informed reading, writing, and problem solving is analytic/critical thinking. Yet, how to engage in such thinking is not directly or systematically part of the regular school day. This the major reason why, after 12 years of schooling: "According to national assessments, only about 10% of U.S. 17-year olds can draw conclusions using detailed scientific knowledge; just 7% can solve math problems with more than one step; only 7% can read and understand specialized materials; and a mere 2% can write well-developed material." [What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, report by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, September 1996, p. 5]. So, the major reason that students do not think, read/listen, write/speak, gaining critical understanding of subject matter, and problem solve analytically/critically is that schools do not teach them to do so. The result is that students are expected to learn without having been taught how to learn. This has great implications for student motivation, achievement, persistence, dropout prevention, graduation, and performance in college and the workplace. It also has great implications for the way teachers are prepared in schools of education and in professional development programs. Once again, the question is: How would you like to work at a job for which you were poorly prepared -- and for which you remained poorly prepared -- for 12, and more, years? Here is What You Can Do Parents If you have children in K-12 schools: Print out this web page, bring it to the next PTA meeting or school board meeting, and start a school-wide discussion on learn-to-learn abilities. Obtain a copy of Rosebrooke's The Analytic Middle School Student or The Analytic High School Student for your child. For children attending college, empower them and help protect the large investment in time and money. Provide them with a copy of Rosebrooke's The Analytic College Student. School Board Members Use this site to educate board members on the learn-to-learn issues. Bring your school officials, administrators and teachers into the dialogue. Evaluate and assess current and potential school-wide programs for their learn-to-learn content. Seek to introduce a learn-to-learn program that would involve all faculty and be part of each course. Click here for information on how this may be accomplished.

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