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STUDIES IN MEANING©

[A Critical-Creative Thinking Curriculum]

The Critical-Creative Thinking curriculum that teaches

students to understand what they read and write.

SAT / ACT VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT

MODERN CLASSICAL LITERATURE STUDIES

THE READING PROBLEM

High school student: "I may be using my pencil, but I'm not using my

mind at all."

"Kids: Teaching Them To Think, " ABC Television Network / May 4. 1989

Teacher: "The most important skills that a student can leave school

with are the powers of critical thinking."

"Kids: Teaching Them To Think," ABC Television Network / May 4. 1989

"The critical thinking movement is now at the forefront of educational reform

in the United States and elsewhere. This major initiative seeks to transform

education in all disciplines and at all levels...Indeed, many feel critical thinking

ability (along with creative thinking) may well be the most important

characteristic of the successful individual in the next century."

"Critical Thinking: Implications for lnstruction," RG / Fall 1995

Before we flood schools with technology, we should use our own critical

thinking skills for the purposes of considering how we will be affecting the

way we think and the modes we need for learning. If we use technological

tools well, we will be enhancing our modes of thinking and our capacity for

critical thinking. We will be creating a new literacy that will incorporate all the

types of literacy that came before it: circular, literacy, and multidimensional. If

not, we may be hastening the deterioration of our civilization.

- " Now More Than Ever: Will High-tech Kids Still Think Deeply?" /

The Education Digest, Nov. 2001

The higher level thinking skills [comprehension, application, analysis,

synthesis, evaluation] and the drive to succeed we are working so hard to

cultivate in students, are exactly the same qualities students will need to

survive in tomorrow's workforce....Critical thinking is the cornerstone of

human existence."

- "Computimes Malaysia"; New York; May 14, 2001 / Mary Leiker,

superintendent, Kentwood Public School District, Michigan, US)

Studies in Meaning© is a critical-creative thinking language arts program which ranges from kindergarten through 12th grade, from students below-level, on-level, or above-level, and including ESL (English as a Second Language) students.

That you would expect children to be truly educated,

then expect understanding to accompany knowledge.

Only by understanding can we get the better of destiny.

The Studies in Meaning© program has been taught as an afterschool program at Wilton Place Elementary, Third Street Elementary, Windsor Hills Magnet Elementary each of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Birney Elementary of the Redondo Beach Unified School District.

It has been taught privately to over 1800 students through the years with overall remarkable success.

Statistically, 99% of all parents to whom the Studies in

Meaning program was presented, enrolled their children; and

of those children, most of them studied the program one or

two times a week for a year or more, and some for up to three

years.

To parents, teachers, tutors, administrators,and all other interested persons:

The major issue confronting American education in our times is how to remedy its long-standing reading problem. Teaching the "basics," crucial as they are to academic learning, is proving insufficient to meet today's techno-electronic, intellectual, psychological, and cultural needs.

This site addresses this reading problem in the following ways.

Second, an 18-page BOOKLET, An Education in Understanding, presents the various academic issues involved in this reading problem and a solution through a critical-creative thinking program, named Studies in Meaning©. This booklet consists of an essay, a talk, and a history, each related to Studies in Meaning as a solution to the reading problem.

Fourth, academic EVALUATIONS assess students as to their academic school level and their critical-creative thinking ability.

And sixth, the STUDYBOOK CATALOG outlines descriptions and prices for all studybooks.

In conclusion, if your students, or children, do not understand their schoolwork, whatever grades they may be receiving, then it would be to their advantage for you to review this website.