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This is an introduction that
explains my research and experience with young people. It
touches on three thousand years of wisdom from writers
concerned with education of our youth. It expands on the
thinking of
Carl R. Rogers, a great teacher of teachers who wrote
"FREEDOM TO LEARN." Years ago his thinking went through an
experimental stage that failed because of one simple mistake.
They thought that students could be given a full day of
freedom to learn, at what they thought would be an exciting
pace. As it turned out students cannot make use of that much
free time. They became students lost in space; the world was
too big for them. Teenagers like to participate in Mental
Toughness activities with specific goals. Learning to listen is
also important.
I believe, If your claim
to fame is not;
"I am The Worlds Best Listener,"
then you are--in the eyes of a teenager--not famous.
You have not become a role model. Every healthy teenager looks
up too the famous.
They expect to be famous.
You can,
if you like, be famous in your own home.
"Nothing worth learning can be
taught, it must be learned," was a Rogers theory. He also said,
"a student who has been taught will forget what they have been
taught almost immediately. But a student who learns with it’s
own interest and enthusiasm will keep what they have learned
forever." Rogers believed the intensity and the speed of
learning would be dramatic if students focused on learning the
things they love. Also, if teachers help students learn what
they want to learn, (Rogers called it facilitation.) the
momentum established would accelerate learning.
Our teenagers feel like they are welfare
recipients. They have no control, no credibility, and no way
to add their thinking to the education process. They need to
feel at least, partially in control of their own learning.
Where is the respect all teenagers deserve a chance to prove,
they deserve?
" I feel
smaller, weaker and less
a person, learning what
others think I should learn.
I am only obedient; driven by fear."
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