Technology v Education

The U.S. economy is a horse race between education
and technology, and the gap is widening between rich and poor
Americans.

Have you noticed unskilled labor (white, black and Latino)
has lost its bargaining power in the marketplace?

There are no jobs of last resort like ditch digging and pumping
gas because of automation (technology). China has permanently
taken over the manufacturing sector with automation and low-cost
labor.

Age 5 is The Cutting Edge

High school graduation in 1965 was nearly 80%; today it averages about
50%. Human capital is presently downsized because of the lack of advanced
skills, not IQ, economic class or race.

How many graduates are awarded diplomas who cannot read and
comprehend a complex sentence?

James Heckman of the University of Chicago says, by age 5 researchers
can accurately predict who will graduate high school and gain the skills
to survive and thrive in the U.S. economy.

In his book, Schools, Skills And Synapses, Heckman says motivation levels,
emotional stability, self control and sociability are early education traits that
decide the Haves from the Have-Nots in our Knowledge Economy.

These learning skills are absorbed at age three to six. Is half our society
doomed to a life of poverty?

Skills Gap

When General Motors lays off a 40-year-old assembly line employee,
can he/she be retrained to succeed in our high-tech society?

What does it take to spike knowledge-skills for those at the bottom of
the economic ladder?

Politics

Simply put, Obama wants to fund early childhood education, and
McCain wants to continue No Child Left Behind. The choice is
between training students in the personal skills required in the marketplace,
and forcing schools to test students without teaching them the essential problem-solving skills.

Reading, Math And Science.

Students who cannot read and understand complex sentences are also closed out
from Math and Science. The fundamental knowledge to fit into our Knowledge
Economy is based on reading, learning and memory skills.

Speed Reading

The purpose of speed reading is not to read three books, articles and reports
while your peers can hardly finish one, it is to train yourself (auto-didactic)
to absorb ideas and use them creatively in your career.

Testing Your Self

The single most important skill in reading is to read a chapter, and be able
to summarize the key points in your own words. We learn by reading and
continuously testing our knowledge by answering seven questions about the
material.

Who? What? When? Where? Why? Which? and How?

Both children from age five to high school, and adults who want to be
retrained, can become competent in comprehension and long-term memory.

Corny But True

There are four personal traits required for Speedlearning success strategies.

Focus-Awareness-Curiosity- Initiative. We remember them by the easy
acronym – Faci (pronounced face-y). Draw a little picture of a face and associate it
with the four principles. Test yourself, do you remember the four principles?

a) Focus is based on controlling your mental visualizations. You brain is a laser
for separating the relevant information from the dross. Keep the essential facts
to decide what you have to work with to be creative and imaginative.

b) Awareness is having knowledge of facts you are working with, it is mindful
consciousness. Use it to be a problem solver.

c) Curiosity is asking the question – What-If? of each circumstance, and
following it to a useful answer. The use of the six W questions plus the H
is a matrix for solutions.

d) Initiative is from Latin meaning to begin, enter. When you choose to
use initiative, you are exerting leadership and forcefulness.

If you use FACI, you also absorb Motivation-Emotional Stability-Self-Control
and Socialability. Today’s career required teamwork and learning how to
play with others.

Endwords

Our experience is helping train kids and adults in SpeedLearning,
the ability to read and remember three (3) books, articles and reports
in the time others cannot absorb even one.

These principles have been taught to two million, including the White House
staffs of four U.S. Presidents.

These strategies permit SpeedLearners to excel in both school and career.

Ask us how to ace your next promotion.

See ya,

copyright © 2008
H. Bernard Wechsler
www.speedlearning.org
hbw@speedlearning.org
1-877-567-2500
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