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| The
secret heart of learning |
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lifelong badges of under-achievement, shame, despair and anger.
But the answer, we're convinced, is
not in more of the same. It is certainly not in a system that is
actually programmed to produce failure.
And it would be a confidence trick of
the worst type to suggest that even brilliant new learning techniques at
school can completely compensate for a society that itself is also
programmed for many of its members to fail. There is no way optimal
learning can take place without physical safety and emotional security.
And even the world's richest country is not providing that security for
millions of its youngsters.
Of the 65 million Americans under 18,
fully 13 million live in poverty - one in five. Around 14.3 million of
them live in single-parent homes. Almost three percent live with no
parents at all.3
Children of single parents are most
at risk. In America three-quarters of them live in poverty during at
least part of the crucial first eight years of their lives. And
single-parent children are, on average, at least twice as likely to have
behavioral and emotional problems, and 50 percent more likely to have
learning disabilities, than two-parent children. They are also twice as
likely to drop out of high school. Fully 3.4 million American school-age
children are left to care for themselves after school each day.4
America has one of the developed
world's highest rates of teenage pregnancy. America and New Zealand also
have a high percentage of children born to unmarried parents. The
proportion soars in minority groups: two-thirds of African-American and
New Zealand Maori babies are born to unmarried parents.5
And most grow up in single-parent families. The self-perpetuating cycle
of deprivation rolls on.
Bulgarian psychiatrist and
accelerated learning pioneer Dr. Georgi Lozanov calls it the
"social suggestive norm" - the total social environment that
conditions us all for success or failure.6
Henry Ford summarized part of the
equation many years ago in simpler terms: "If you think you can, or
think you can't, you're right." Others have restressed the message
regularly: We are what we think we are. We become what we think we'll
become.
And here we're not talking about the
"touchy, feely,
all-you-have-to-do-is-think-and-you'll-grow-rich" brand of fantasy.
In our view, all self-esteem has to be firmly grounded in positive
achievement. And real achievement is grounded in self-esteem. You have
to achieve something specific to achieve full potential. "Feeling
good about yourself" is not enough, although it's part of the
secret. You have to ground your feelings
Contents
Page Preface
Introduction
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