Measurable Skills and Learning Environments

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Measurable Skills and Learning Environments

High school funding and teachers salaries are now based on measurable output in the classroom. This means the system has abandon the development of skills that cannot be measured. Standardized testing is the controlling criteria. Skills that cannot be measured are ignored. The system gives the impression that the classroom is man's ONLY source of education. How did people learn before classrooms were widely available? Eight United States Presidents never finished grade school, yet they learned the skills needed to be president.

	By looking at the chart below, you can quickly understand why academics is just one skill needed for a successful and productive lifestyle. Also, the classroom is only one of many learning environments.
	Success attitudes are achieved by developing skills that cannot be measured. Education funding is NOW based on measurable classroom performance, not elements that produce super achievers.

Measurable Skills	Skills that Cannot be Measured	Learning Environments Inspire Learning Ability
Academics Technical Acquire knowledge Memorize ability Sports Follow orders Job skills Productivity ________ Today's education system considers academics to be the primary skill needed for job qualification. The system does not consider what can't be measured. Yet, what can't be measured is the secret to being selected. Example: When hiring, employers select applicants with positive self-esteem. A person with negative self-esteem is of no value to anyone, even with education achievement papers.	A love to learn Character Natural talent Competitiveness Ability to process knowledge Knowing how to learn Self-esteem, pride Motivation, desires Persistence Vision, goals Ambition Attitudes Leadership Responsibility Research and analytical skills Instinctive ability Perceptive insight Integrity Bounce back from failure Willingness to take risk Creativity Fear control, courage Communication skills Reasoning Decision-making Problem solving Time management Applying technology Acquire & evaluate information Ability to get jobs done	Classrooms Apprentice programs Team learning Learning with responsibility Learning by teaching Competitive education Non competitive education Conflict and debate Bragging, socializing, peers Research and analyzing Self-education Risk environments Trial and error, learn by doing Interactive environments Instinctive environments Nature as an instructor Leadership styles ________________ A person's ability to acquire knowledge is influenced by the learning environment they are in. People, who can educate themselves without instructors, will do poorly in classrooms. People who do well in classrooms will do poorly in a self-educated environment. People, who are given responsibility will learn faster than those who only follow orders. The environment controls the ability and desire to learn. This is different for everyone. More information at Learning Personalities.

	Students, who excel, are in a learning environment that is in harmony with their natural talent.
	Professionals, who excel, have a career that is in harmony with their natural talent.
	Discovering one's natural talent and developing it, is the key to a productive lifestyle.

My Experience

Bob's Liki Tiki in Tahiti, Argosy, September 1967 My teenage school years were a failure. In my adult years, the failure label became a barrier that needed to be overcome. At the age of 27, I help crew a 36-foot sailboat from Hawaii to Los Angeles, a 30-day voyage. That experience made me realize I was not a failure and had the ability to do things others could not do. In other words, I broke through the limitations other people placed on me. Before this experience, I believed these limitations to be true. A few years later, I was living on the beach in Tahiti building a Polynesian double hull boat named LIKI TIKI, with the goal of sailing it to Hawaii, my teenage dream. Full story.

If I were given high school level academic test at the age of 30, I would still be labeled a failure. I had skills that could not be measured in the classroom and I discovered what they were. My low-level academic skills, by classroom standards, did not prevent me from succeeding once I discovered my natural talent and unique skills.

I am a technician, not an intellectual. I design and build boats, not produce literary art as required in the classroom. My concepts would never be on paper if it were not for the computer. The computer makes it possible, for people like me, to organize thoughts in a literary format. For the first time in history, non-intellectuals can publish their concepts from their point of view and influence society.

	Students don't become failures because they can't learn, they fail because of social prejudice in the classroom, intellectual versus non intellectual. There needs to be alternatives, we all have different learning personalities.
	An increasing number of teenagers are being labeled failures by the education system. Believing it, they walk away and turn to violence for recognition. Someday society will wakeup to the fact that there needs to be alternatives other than correctional facilities. Many of these teens are highly intelligent with skills that cannot be measured. See Teenagers Dilemma

Additional Information

	My Adventures in Paradise
	My story on how I found success
	My first ocean voyage
	How a tall ship experience changes attitudes

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