August 2000 - Nr. 8
Child Discipline Problems Solved With New Learning Methods
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in February revealed an alarming rise in such use of powerful mood-altering psychotropic drugs among children ages 2 to 6. Yet, according to Dr. Fred A. Baughman Jr., a child neurologist, "The fundamental flaw here is that ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder, one of the labels given children) has never been proven to be a disease, or anything physical or biological." Dr. Baughman, who has been a neurologist for over 35 years states that these children being drugged are normal and have no disease.
According to a recent survey carried out by Applied Scholastics, a non-profit educational organization, what 83% of parents really want is for their children to be able to think for themselves. So the real problem of child behaviour is not how to control them like a dog, but how to direct your child’s own desires toward constructive learning.
One such person who has been teaching parents to do just this is a professor of education, Caroline Kyhl, Ph.D. Not only a teacher of teachers, she has been providing workshops to parents on the missing ingredient in education - learning how to learn.
Dr. Kyhl expounds a philosophy that if a child is interested in learning and interested in life, then behaviour problems slip away. The real problems with behaviour come when a child hits a barrier to learning, causing a variety of mental and physical phenomena often mistaken for symptoms of learning disorders. Rather than labelling the child, Dr. Kyhl recommends locating the specific barrier to learning and helping the child overcome it. Something she states is easily done with Study Technology, a development made by author and humanitarian, L. Ron Hubbard. As long ago as 1938, L. Ron Hubbard recognized the problems that American education systems were coming up against when he wrote, "It is appalling how education tries to reduce all children to the same level mentally. There are just as many degrees and kinds of intelligence as there are children." He recognized that learning was not a matter of parroting facts and found solutions to the problems of education.
In a new book published by Effective Education Publishing entitled Learning How to Learn based on Mr. Hubbard’s works, the Study Technology is explained at a level that children can easily understand and apply themselves. According to educational author and magazine editor-in-chief, Bernard Percy, "This book teaches the child to think for him or herself. It can literally save a life, not only the child’s but the parent’s as well. I have been a teacher in New York City public schools, I have taught in private schools and I have raised three children of my own. If you know how to learn, you can achieve success in life. It’s as simple as that."
Bruce Flattery, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English at York University in Toronto states, "At the university level, we see far too many students who have not been taught to think for themselves and, recently, more and more who have been labelled in ways that make them believe they never will be able to. Students who know and use the Study Technology, on the other hand, really understand what they are learning, can question information and come up with new solutions. It’s clear to me that Study Technology produces social leaders and labelling produces just more social problems."
One of the major changes as a result of using the book Learning How to Learn according to a survey of 10 teachers who applied Study Technology in a summer program in Louisiana is "no discipline problems." The children stay interested in the subjects they are learning because they now know what to do if they don’t understand or just feel their attention wandering.
Applied Scholastics is now offering a chance for parents to learn how to help their child and resolve any behaviour problems, without the use of drugs or punishment. Call 905-855-7772 for more information.
