EASY Buttons Push EASY Learning

Introduction:

We seem to be at an impasse in education. It is too many cooks spoiling the broth. It is paralysis by analysis. It is every school and every teacher for himself, doing his own thing. Educators argue and argue and little seems to change. We are waiting for miracles to happen. Surely, the true formula for success will be revealed to the nation. Eventually the funds and the necessary legislation will emerge. It is only a matter of time and patience.

We wait for poverty to go away, the best teachers to arrive, the standardized testing to end, and on and on. In the meantime, students struggle to graduate and go on to college. The economy slows down, again, and we wait for some spontaneous recovery, or some messianic leadership from Washington. It is not happening.

Napolean said: From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step. The situation in education seems so ridiculous. Perhaps we can find some steps to go backward from the ridiculous to the sublime.


A man came to the Jewish sage Shamai and asked if he could teach him the whole Torah, while he was standing on one foot. Shamai said he could not. The man then approached the sage Hillel with the same question. Hillel said: What is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else. All the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.

Perhaps we could start motivating ourselves by admitting that we are not motivated to begin with. We could imagine pleading a case in court that we were not prepared to do the right thing. Then the judge or teacher could try to explain to us how we might become motivated, next time. Thus, a critical review process could be used, with others or by ourselves, if necessary.

(Agree to disagree and compare) (THEY SAY I SAY book)

There does not seem to be any easy way to fix our failing schools, but maybe, like Hillel, we can begin with one step..

But note that psychology is MESSY and not straightforward or sure. It is about chance and statistics, like in sports. In sports, the more you practice and the better you get, the better your chances of winning. Motivation may also rise.

Also, positive FEEL GOOD reactions are not needed to learning, all the time. Students and teachers do not have to be ON EDGE, with excitement, all the time. See DULLMEN.com .
Even some unpleasant, boring times are OK and even helpful without demanding reward.

Button Pushing Sayings 

They Say / I Say 7min Video 

Learned Helplessness 3min Video

RX Check list  picks of Advice for each Student and Teacher?
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I Don't Want to Go to School 3min

Bored of Education 1936 10min


Outline:
Introduction to the Problem of Fixing Education
a) Key Ideas
b) My History
c) Some Exercises
d) Concluding Remarks

Study Made EASY not Hard

a) Key Ideas

1-EASY does it
Schooling is too complicated and thus almost impossible to fix. Start with simple, easy steps and progress from there.

2-Use simple hands-on methods like with buttons to communicate change.

3- Use simple key words like EASY and STUPID

4-Practice, practice  practice simple exercises

5- Share the ideas, and exercises widely, person to person and via the web.

6-Some Made Easy books you can find on Amazon include: English, Signing, Scuba, Spelling, Math, Mastering Windows, Essay Writing, Arithmetic, Punctuation, Piano, German, etc. I could not find a Study Made Easy book.

7-What does EASY learning mean? Is it for everyone? Yes.

8-Compare EASY and FLOW state ideas.

Start counting
When angry,
count to ten, before you speak,
if very angry, an hundred.
Jefferson

Motivation Lacking (Needs Constant Review)

"Motivation missing. Reward if found" online poster

Study can be easy and study can be hard. But it always takes time and effort. The mind and the body have to be focused in order to learn.

Every time we study it's different. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it is hard. If we are prepared to make the effort, we make progress.

Boredom Challenge RWein

EASY Encouragement Exercises

There is a resonance or spin to study. When our interest builds our mind stays focused.


1) Find EASY steps in learning. Note them in a book or computer file. Share some of your EASY steps with other students. Receive EASY steps from other students and share them.

2) Practice and repeat EASY steps in learning and note your progress.

3) Use practice to motivate learning, as in sports practice.

4)  RPreida: Target Learning not Schools note D&C

5) Exercise is a way to delay (try wait) gratification with patience and purpose

Motivate with Mistakes

A student once suggested to me that: curiosity is route to knowledge. The trick may be asking the right questions which stimulate our curiosity. Asking the right question may lead to other questions and other answers.

Here we have a special question mark. It is make up of other question marks. When we question something of interest, the mind and the body become oriented to it. (Click question mark to enlarge)Damon Weaver Asking Obama, 4min
Damon Weaver Interviews Obama, 10min

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes Wilde


Between the amateur and the professional...there is a difference not only in degree but in kind.

The skillful man is, within the function of his skill, a different integration, a different nervous and muscular and psychological organization...A tennis player or a watchmaker, or an airplane pilot is an automatism but he is also criticism and wisdom. Bernard De Voto

Pessimistic professions: law (Martin Seligman) (risk averse, Murphy's Law)
Others possible: medicine, hazardous work, teaching (esp in difficult schools), rabbis.
Speed and efficiency are part of some job, so it is hard for people to take the time to think of changes and practice changes.  And there is the push for data and more data, before trying any thing new.

The lack of mutual trust in some professions, can make it difficult for collaboration and criticism to happened

Resonance Controls (Dancing) Minds

The title of the blog, Study Max is meant to encourage more study and the activity of focusing one step at a time. There is no perfect way to study. Everyone has their own path to learning, step by step.

Love (Subway) Train SongVid  Video2min

Share Learning - 3

It is said that attitude is everything. Every student has a choice. He can wait to be spoon-fed, or he can study on his own.

Tangible Results Motivate - 4 (Discovery Flips)

Without effort study cannot happen. Tying a string to fingers suggests memory. It takes time and effort to remember what we are trying to learn.

One way to appreciate what we learn is to focus on things that are discovered and have special value to us and to others.

For example, learning that two plus two is four is a skill. But finding an unusual way to add large numbers, might be seen as a useful discovery. One discovery might lead to another discovery and this might motivate us to keep learning more. We may sense turning points in our lives, as a results of our discoveries.

My Education Story

I started writing about the problem of education, eighteen years ago, in Jan 1996 with a essay on stress and relaxation in schools. I continued writing letters to a Rochester newspapers on and off since then.

But it was in Dec, 2011, that I did demonstrated a simple tangible idea, the EASY button. (include transcript)



Read: Kids Extreme Media Use

Seek Recipes to Engage - 6

Much of what is learned in schools is motivated by grades and testing. But we can learn much more if we study more that we have to to get good grades.

Child - Parent Homework - 7

Learning is constantly under the guidance of our teachers, parents, book authors, other students, etc. Giving credit to the people who guide learning can add to study.

Learn to Relax / Relax to Learn - 8

Learning can be very stressful, to the point where it just stops happening. Just being told what to do over and over can be stressful. Cramming can be stressful. Students are always being tested and evaluated.

So it might make sense to try to step back from the stress and try to relax, so that more learning can happen.

Organize to Simplify Learning - 9

Study can be helped with some organization or pattern. The fisherman casts his net over an area and brings in the catch.

So to, when we study we can collect ideas and examine them to see what value they might have and how they might fit together.

SCREEN OFF - MIND OPEN - 10

The value of learning needs to be sold in some way to motivate the student. But selling the lesson can, in itself, encourage learning. Why is it important to know such and such?

History of Screen Addiction - 11

Einstein on a bicycle suggests to me that idea that the mind, the brain is stimulated by circulating activity, which tends to focus its direction.

Cellphone Nation - 12

Study can take on greater meaning when it is done with specific questions in mind. Here are the six basic questions we can ask.

Breaking the Habit - 13

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Mind Open - 14

Study can be driven by the desire to influence the opinions of others and vice versa.

Imagination and Curiosity - 15

When we learn, we make mistakes of all kinds. Mistakes can inhibit the learning process, or they can make it more interesting.

Overcome Learning Blocks - 16

The mind has rhythms of its own, like music

 Also, we need more honesty, as suggested by Prof. Dan Ariely. in his new film being produced