How can our kids get higher SAT scores? It is not by cheating or gaming the system in some way. Here is my take.
I don't hold myself out as some kind of expert, but I have been a good observer and have formulated a few principles. What I used to do when I was teaching at a major university was to try to keep my students juiced up and excited about learning. Here is one trick. I used to ask my class if anyone had ever gotten a speeding ticket. When I did, several hands went up. I asked one of the students when did they get this ticket? Often, it was several years ago, but they remembered every detail of the event. Why do you think that was? Was it because they were so smart or had a high IQ? No! It was because they were "juiced up" by the event. See how it works?
Historically, before we even had a written language, we used to communicate special stories with "plays". The audience could observe more than just the words on the script. They could hear the inflection in the voices and the expressions on the faces of the actors. They could also see how others in the cast were reacting to what was said or actions taken. A movie tries to duplicate this, but we all know that a real play communicates much more. In a play, you can even "smell" what is going on in some cases.
Compare this to communicating to someone "face to face". In those cases, you might even reach over with your hand and touch the other person. What if the hand is warm or holds firmly on to your hand or arm. How about the "firm" hand shake? We all need to think about how us humans communicate and how we have communicated since the beginning of time. I once saw a movie where no one ever said a word. How about a foreign movie that had sub titles? How much did you really get out of that kind of movie?
How about reading a book? Notice that we often prefer one author over another. Why is that? Have you ever read the script of a play? It can be a very disappointing experience compared to the actual play or movie. What I am trying to do is to build the case that us humans have perfected different systems for communication that worked.
Talking on the telephone, is clearly not as effective as talking face to face even though the same words are exchanged. How about telegraph? That one was so bad that most of us have rejected it all together. Now, look at the most modern forms of communication like "face book" or "email". Compare them with face to face, which is the base line. Many of us spend several times as much time trying to communicate on these new modern modes and often feel that it is better. The fact is that we are being duped. We are busier trying to communicate, but are actually learning less than by the old proven methods. Are you following this?
Back to SAT scores. If we want to learn more, we have to get off these modern systems and back to the basics. We have to figure out how to get more juiced up and more involved in our communications. We will never improve our SAT scores as long as we sit in comfortable chairs in front of our computer screens. We have to get some skin in the game!
I don't hold myself out as some kind of expert, but I have been a good observer and have formulated a few principles. What I used to do when I was teaching at a major university was to try to keep my students juiced up and excited about learning. Here is one trick. I used to ask my class if anyone had ever gotten a speeding ticket. When I did, several hands went up. I asked one of the students when did they get this ticket? Often, it was several years ago, but they remembered every detail of the event. Why do you think that was? Was it because they were so smart or had a high IQ? No! It was because they were "juiced up" by the event. See how it works?
Historically, before we even had a written language, we used to communicate special stories with "plays". The audience could observe more than just the words on the script. They could hear the inflection in the voices and the expressions on the faces of the actors. They could also see how others in the cast were reacting to what was said or actions taken. A movie tries to duplicate this, but we all know that a real play communicates much more. In a play, you can even "smell" what is going on in some cases.
Compare this to communicating to someone "face to face". In those cases, you might even reach over with your hand and touch the other person. What if the hand is warm or holds firmly on to your hand or arm. How about the "firm" hand shake? We all need to think about how us humans communicate and how we have communicated since the beginning of time. I once saw a movie where no one ever said a word. How about a foreign movie that had sub titles? How much did you really get out of that kind of movie?
How about reading a book? Notice that we often prefer one author over another. Why is that? Have you ever read the script of a play? It can be a very disappointing experience compared to the actual play or movie. What I am trying to do is to build the case that us humans have perfected different systems for communication that worked.
Talking on the telephone, is clearly not as effective as talking face to face even though the same words are exchanged. How about telegraph? That one was so bad that most of us have rejected it all together. Now, look at the most modern forms of communication like "face book" or "email". Compare them with face to face, which is the base line. Many of us spend several times as much time trying to communicate on these new modern modes and often feel that it is better. The fact is that we are being duped. We are busier trying to communicate, but are actually learning less than by the old proven methods. Are you following this?
Back to SAT scores. If we want to learn more, we have to get off these modern systems and back to the basics. We have to figure out how to get more juiced up and more involved in our communications. We will never improve our SAT scores as long as we sit in comfortable chairs in front of our computer screens. We have to get some skin in the game!
