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The future of our planet will one day rest in the hands of our children. How well equipped will they be to carry society forward? Perhaps the surest gauge is the success with which we are educating them for that role. Sadly, from all indications, this responsibility has not been met. At a time when quality education is more important than during any period in history, our schools are failing at an alarming rate.

Typical of the educational problems faced by most Western countries is the tragedy of the United States student. America once had one of the finest educational systems in the world, yet for nearly three decades that system continues to face a formidable crisis.

Over 25 percent of all students leaving or graduating high school lack the reading and writing skills required by the minimum demands of daily living.

The American high-school dropout rate hovers at around 30 percent to 50 percent in less privileged urban areas.

According to the president of one teachers’ association, up to 50 percent of all new teachers quit the profession within the first five years. Another 1996 study put the figure at 30 percent. Regardless, it is a waste of a vital resource. Equally appalling was the report’s finding that in the US more than 40 states hired teachers who were not fully qualified in their classroom subjects.

Little wonder, then, that SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores of American students have sunk to levels considerably lower than those achieved by students in the mid-1960s.

In fact, in the mid-1990s, the College Board (the body that sponsors the SAT) began to grade the SAT scores on a new curve, one that, according to a leading scholar, “has lowered the test’s ‘unchanging standard’ and our country’s educational aspirations.” For years the average score was based on the performance of students in 1941, but the board decreed that the mathematical and verbal tests would be “recentered” and based on the results of students who took the tests in 1990. Considering that the student scores dropped steadily since the early to mid-1960s before leveling off in 1980, this was indeed a white flag on the part of US educators. Meanwhile, news media regularly report on the continuing decline of standardized test scores, on overcrowding in classrooms, on public disenchantment about pouring more tax dollars into what they perceive to be an increasingly poor investment, and growing teacher disillusionment.

Nor is it a coincidence that about three in five of America’s prison inmates are illiterate. The link between illiteracy and crime has been well documented.

It is indeed a grim picture but is no better in most other parts of the world.

A British survey sponsored by the Sunday Times of London, for instance, found 42 percent of those surveyed were unable to add the menu prices of a hamburger, French fries, apple pie and coffee. One out of six British inhabitants could not correctly locate Great Britain on a world map.

From both official and media reports, the pattern of educational decline is evident in almost every Western country—places where excellence in public education was once taken for granted.

These dismal figures translate into an equally depressing economic scene. Internationally, the cost to business in lowered or wasted productivity, unemployment and crime is estimated at $300 billion annually. Businesses are forced to develop their own remedial programs to teach employees the basic reading, writing and computational skills necessary to function on the job.

There seems to be no shortage of ideas and theories on how to accomplish educational reforms. But these programs tend to create as many problems as they solve.

For example, after the crisis in education became headline news, America instituted “get tough” retention policies and added graduation requirements, on the assumption that a greater challenge for students would improve performance. The opposite occurred. The policies raised rather than lowered the dropout rate in some cities. The president of the American Federation of Teachers argued, “It’s ridiculous to raise the hurdle for kids who are unable to jump in the first place.”

A WORKABLE ANSWER: STUDY TECHNOLOGY
Failed attempts in recent decades to improve education raise one important question: With so much attention on improving the quality of education, with billions spent each year to remedy the situation, why has there been so little improvement?

Reading level increase after application of L. Ron Hubbard’s Study Technology
In a project done in Brixton, England (a suburb of London), 8 to 13 year-old students were put through a specially prepared course in reading skills based on the study technology of L. Ron Hubbard. The course focused on finding misunderstood words in their current studies and each student spent 8 to 10 hours over 10 days doing the course. Based on standard reading tests, the students who went through this course gained an average of 1.3 years in reading age. A control group, students who weren’t put through this course, actually dropped slightly in reading skills over the same period of time, losing an average of 0.03 years in reading age, attributable to misunderstood words.

There is an answer. Quite simply, these efforts have been directed at solving the wrong problem.

At the root of educational failures lies a fundamental situation that has been almost universally overlooked: Students have never been taught how to learn.

Students are thrown into their school years and basic subjects without ever first being taught how to go about learning those subjects. As they grow older they are confronted by more and more complex areas of study, still without ever having learned how to learn.

Learning how to learn has been the vital missing ingredient that has hampered all fields of study. It handicaps both children in school and people in life.

Without knowing how to learn what they are studying, a majority of students find education a trying and difficult process. They never master the ability to rapidly learn something with certainty and ease. Others, who apparently have less difficulty studying, find they are unable to apply what they have read.

It is a reality of the modern world that anyone in the work force, whether on the factory floor or in the executive suite, must have an ability to assimilate important information, retain it and then be able to apply it. This process, whether formal or informal, is what is meant by “study.”

L. Ron Hubbard recognized the failings of modern education and training in 1950, many years before educational horror stories began to make headlines.

His extensive investigation into the problems of teaching others led to a breakthrough—the first comprehensive understanding of the real barriers to effective learning. From this, Mr. Hubbard developed a precise technology on how to learn any subject—a technology that ensures a person will not only fully grasp what he is studying, but proficiently apply what he has studied in work or in life.

These breakthroughs came to be known as “study technology,” and provide the first fully workable approach to teaching people exactly how to learn. Study technology helps anyone learn anything. Used throughout Scientology in all churches, missions and groups, it is also widely used outside the Church in schools and businesses. Study technology opens the door to effective training and makes it possible to raise the general quality of education to new heights.

Study technology is based on laws that underlie all learning. It delineates the barriers which block a person’s ability to grasp information and provides precise methodologies to overcome those barriers.

Study technology has been extensively tested and proven to achieve uniform, consistent results wherever it has been applied. Because it is based on fundamentals common to everyone, it cuts across any economic, cultural or racial lines and can be used by all, regardless of age. It is as effective in the executive suites of multinational corporations as it is in elementary school classrooms.

Outstanding improvements have been made by students of all ages in reading level, comprehension, vocabulary and mathematics when they have been instructed in study technology. A Los Angeles study showed an average gain of 1.8 years in vocabulary and comprehension after only 10 hours of tutoring in study technology. One student gained an almost unbelievable 5 years and 9 months in his test scores after 20 hours of instruction. All teachers involved in this study also reported an overall improvement in their students’ ability to learn, ability to read and, an unexpected gain, in the general behavior of students as a direct result of study technology.

An Arizona study tested students after the beginning of a school year and then six months later. Teachers ran the classroom using study technology throughout the duration of the study. Standard reading tests were administered and showed an average gain of two years in comprehension and vocabulary. This is four times the expected gain, a remarkable achievement considering individual tutoring was not part of the study.

In South Africa one class of underprivileged high-school students was trained in study technology, and at the end of the school year achieved a 91 percent pass rate on the country’s Department of Education examination. A control group, not so trained, had a 27 percent pass rate on the same test.

The numbers collected from these and many similar studies translate, really, into effective education for young people and an assurance they will grow to a confident, self-reliant adulthood with learning skills they will use every day of their lives.

Many principles and procedures make up study technology, but it only takes a brief discussion of a few of the most basic to provide an insight into what it is and what it can accomplish.

THE BARRIERS TO STUDY
L. Ron Hubbard discovered three primary barriers which keep one from successfully studying a subject. Despite all that has been written on the subject, these three barriers, simple as they are, were never isolated as paramount to effective education. For want of this data, the toll in poorly educated students, unfulfilled potential and frustration is incalculable.

The First Barrier—Lack of Mass

Attempting to educate someone without the mass (or object) that he is going to be involved with can make study exceedingly difficult. This is the first barrier to study.

For example, if one is studying tractors, the printed page and the spoken word are no substitute for an actual tractor. Lacking a tractor to associate with the written word, or at least pictures of a tractor, can close off a person’s understanding of the subject.

Definite physiological reactions occur when trying to educate a person in a subject without the thing actually present or available. A student who encounters this barrier will tend to feel squashed, bent, sort of spinny, sort of dead, bored and exasperated. He can wind up with his face feeling squashed, with headaches, and with his stomach feeling funny. He can feel dizzy from time to time and very often his eyes can hurt. These reactions are quite common but wrongly attributed to poor lighting or studying too late at night or any number of other incorrect reasons. The real cause is a lack of mass on the subject one is studying.

The remedy to this barrier is to supply the thing itself—in the example above, the tractor, or a reasonable substitute for one. Some educators have instinctively known this, but usually it was applied only to younger students and it certainly was never given the importance it warrants at any level of education.

The Second Barrier – Too Steep a Gradient
The next barrier is too steep a study gradient. That is, if a student is forced into undertaking a new action without having understood the previous action, confusion results.

There is a different set of physiological reactions which occur as a result of this barrier. When one hits too steep a gradient, a sort of confusion or reelingness is experienced.

Commonly, the difficulty is ascribed to the new action, when in fact it really stems from the previous action. The person did not fully understand some part earlier and then went into confusion on the new one. This barrier to study is very pronounced in subjects involved with activity.

Take the example of a person learning to drive. He cannot properly coordinate his feet and hands to manually shift the car into another gear while keeping to one lane. The difficulty will be found to lie in some earlier action about shifting gears. Possibly he was not yet comfortable shifting through the gears with the engine off and the car at rest. If this is recognized, the gradient can be cut back, and the person brought up to a point where he can easily shift the gears on a motionless car before performing the same action while in motion.

The Third Barrier – the Misunderstood Word
The third barrier to study is the most important of the three. It is the prime factor involved with stupidity and many other unwanted conditions.

This third barrier is the misunderstood word. A misunderstood definition or a not-comprehended definition or an undefined word can thoroughly block one’s understanding of a subject and can even cause one to abandon the subject entirely.

This milestone in the field of education has great application, but it was overlooked by every educator in history.

Going past a word or symbol for which one does not have a proper definition gives one a distinctly blank or washed-out feeling. The person will get a “not-there” feeling and will begin to feel a nervous hysteria. These are manifestations distinct from either of the other two barriers.

The barrier of the misunderstood word is far more important than the other two, however. It has much to do with human relations, the mind and different subjects. It establishes aptitude or lack of aptitude and is the key to what psychologists were attempting to test for years without recognizing what it was.

A person might or might not have brilliance as a computer programmer, but his ability to do the motions of computer programming is dependent exclusively and only upon definitions. There is some word in the field of computer programming that the person who is inept did not define or understand and that was followed by an inability to act in the field of computer programming.

This is extremely important because it tells one what happens to doingness and that the restoration of doingness depends only on the location and understanding of any word which has been misunderstood in a subject.

A reader coming to the bottom of a page only to realize he didn’t remember what he had just read is the phenomenon of a misunderstood word, and one will always be found just before the material became blank in his mind.

This sweeping discovery is applicable to any sphere of endeavor, and opens wide the gates to education.

STUDENT HAT
These barriers to study and their resolution are contained on a Scientology training course called the Student Hat. (“Hat” is a common English term for a particular duty or task assigned, taken from the fact that in many professions the type of hat worn is a badge of specific authority. In Scientology too, the term refers to one’s duties and responsibilities. It also describes the written materials one studies to learn how to perform a particular function, in this case study.) The Student Hat course covers the complete technology of how to study any subject effectively. These are the materials one needs to learn in order to study successfully. This is very important for Scientologists who wish to undertake Scientology training. It will provide them with the tool needed to comprehend everything they study. Much of the study technology is contained in nine lectures Mr. Hubbard gave on learning and education, and these are all included, along with many of his pertinent writings.

This course provides a full understanding of the barriers to study and how to recognize and fully handle them. It shows one how to clear up a misunderstood word so he fully understands it and can use it both orally and in writing.

The study technology has been put to many uses: in schools, universities, businesses and other institutions. To make this technology available to all, the Church offers the following works in addition to the Student Hat materials:

Basic Study Manual
The major breakthroughs of study technology are described for any age or academic level from teenagers on up. All fundamentals are covered, giving a firm grounding to successful learning in any pursuit.

Learning How to Learn
Recommended as the first study book for children, this illustrated work teaches children how to study. Basic to all children’s education, it teaches exact skills they need in order to begin learning.

Study Skills for Life
Written specifically for young teenagers, this book enables a person to learn the most basic aspects of study technology in an easy-to-understand format.

Two additional books exist to aid children in study:

How to Use a Dictionary Picture Book for Children
Many children have not been taught to use a dictionary. Thus, when a parent or teacher uses a word beyond their level of comprehension, they have no way to define it. How to Use a Dictionary Picture Book for Children teaches children how to find and understand words.

Grammar and Communication for Children
This simple English grammar book was written and illustrated to hold the interest of children. Its purpose is to show the young student the basics of grammar so he can understand and communicate well and does not develop a fear or distaste for the subject.

A TECHNOLOGY TO INCREASE COMPREHENSION
In the years following L. Ron Hubbard’s breakthrough on the importance of the misunderstood word, he developed a considerable body of technology which enables one to deal with the misunderstood words or symbols he encounters.

The relay of ideas from one mind to another mind or minds depends upon words, symbols, sounds, pictures, emotions and past associations. Primary among these, in any developed culture, are words. These can be written or spoken. While whole subjects exist concerning the development and meaning of words, many of them very learned and worthwhile, practically no work was ever done on the effect of words or the consequences of their misuse or noncomprehension.

What was not studied or known before L. Ron Hubbard’s development of study technology is that the flow of ideas in any message or field of learning can be blocked in such a way as to suppress further understanding or comprehension from that point forward. Further, the misunderstood word can even act in such a way as to bring about ignorance, apathy and revolt in the classroom and in the workplace depress productivity.

Not only did these factors remain undiscovered before Scientology, but also, of course, no technology existed to remedy the problem.

To enable a person to handle the effect of misunderstood words, L. Ron Hubbard developed the subject called Word Clearing. Word Clearing is part of the broader field of study technology, but in itself Word Clearing has many uses and applications. Word Clearing can be defined as “the subject and action of clearing away the ignorance, misunderstoods and false definitions of words and barriers to their use.”

In his observations of society, Mr. Hubbard had noticed a deterioration in literacy during this century. This conclusion is inescapable if one compares the political speeches and literature of a hundred or even fifty years ago to those of today. He noticed that the public was more and more dependent upon radio, motion pictures and television, all of which contain the spoken word, and he considered the possibility that these messages were not being fully received or understood. His observations were confirmed when an advertising association undertook a survey which showed that television audiences misunderstood between one-quarter and one-third of all the material they watched—findings with alarming implications. Not only are there serious economic consequences, as the study pointed out, wherein up to one-third of advertising expenditures are wasted because the public does not understand the ads. More importantly, such a gross level of noncomprehension can generate antipathy and even aggression among viewers.

When one speaks or writes, one has the responsibility to others to do so in a way that he will be understood. Further, one has a responsibility to oneself to ensure that he understands what he sees and hears.

L. Ron Hubbard developed nine separate methods of Word Clearing and several related technologies for handling the effects of misunderstood words and false information. Each method provides a different way of locating noncomprehension, identifying the underlying misunderstood word and then helping the individual come to a full understanding of the word so he can use them in his own vocabulary. Thousands of hours of research and hundreds of thousands of case studies went into the development of these nine methods.

In the twelve or sixteen years or more that a student spends in school, the unknowing accumulation of undefined words and symbols can present a serious barrier to knowledge and productivity in life. Also, when a person comes across words or symbols in everyday activities outside of the classroom that he does not understand, these, too, will end up limiting his capabilities.

With the techniques of Word Clearing, whole subjects which were not understood at the time and therefore could never be applied in life can be “recovered” and actually understood and used. Such is the power of clearing misunderstood words. Wherever communication is being engaged in, given or received, the technology of Word Clearing will find beneficial use.

Mr. Hubbard once remarked, “The future is the only frontier without limit and the frontier that we will all enter and cross no matter what we do.” Reading news headlines is enough to tell anyone that social problems are escalating in virtually every community and that these portend a bleak future. Drugs, crime, unemployment, poverty and violence are all indicators of how extensive educational failures have become. A great many of those enmeshed in such problems could have been happier, more productive individuals if they had simply learned how to learn. If used, study technology will salvage both our current and future generations.

RESULTS
The following should not be construed as claims made by the Church concerning personal benefits any individual will experience. The Church provides the services. The results speak for themselves.

“The technology of L. Ron Hubbard is really incredible—specifically his study technology. I studied for nineteen years. I was in a university and I noticed that I started to feel kind of ‘stupid.’ I couldn’t grasp the information in my courses as fast as I could before. I started having trouble with my studies. With the study technology of L. Ron Hubbard, everything changed. All my troubles went away and my brightness came back. I was better than ever. Just to give an example: I’m French and I tried to learn English in French schools for eight years. At the end of that time, I knew only ten to twenty words. I started to learn English with L. Ron Hubbard’s study technology. Three months later I was able to have a conversation with any English-speaking person. Today, my ability to speak English is impressive. This technology is priceless.” P.M. Student Hat

“I just finished my Student hat course and I feel great about it. My trouble in school was that I never knew how to study. I was always a kid with cheat sheets in the desk and instead of writing a report by myself, I’d copy the data verbatim from the source.

“I now know how to study—and if someone can learn to study then they can learn anything they want to and do it. I never knew before how important proper study technology is, but now I love it. I apply the study technology constantly as it is invaluable. I’d never be without it.” E.B.M. Student Hat

“This is the most powerful course I have ever done. The wins, gains and changes have been phenomenal. I have changed so much as a student it is hard to believe. I can actually study comfortably now. This material hit into very basic inabilities and has totally changed them around. I have so much more power to operate and I have regained a marvelous sense of who I am and my own ability to communicate.” S.R. Student Hat

“I have been a teacher for nearly twenty years and a student for nearly fifty years. In that time I have seen and experienced much that has been described as ‘education.’ Some of it has been good, but an overwhelming amount of it had little or no lasting value.

“As a student I found it very difficult to exercise anything other than my memorization skills. I just memorized things without really understanding why I was doing it. The purpose was really just ‘to get the grade.’

“My first course in the study technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard completely revitalized me as a student and provided me with the tools to approach study with a purpose and to really learn something for application. It was this technology that gave me my first real interest in teaching. I realized that with the basic tools provided by this exceptional technology, not only was I able to learn anything I set my mind to, but I could help someone else to learn successfully as well.

“For nearly twenty years I have been working with students of all ages from around the world, and have found that they all suffer from the same study-related problems and that once in possession of Mr. Hubbard’s breakthrough technology they have the tools necessary for successfully learning anything. I can think of no greater gift than to give a child (or adult) these easily mastered study tools. They last for a lifetime; they open wide the doors of the future and they unlock potential that was always there.” B.W. Student Hat

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