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Scientology makes it in classroom door
Ohanian Comment: More than a quarter of the students at the Prescott Middle School have been held back at least two years. Another quarter are special education students. So what's the solution? Some think a study skills curriculum written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is the answer.
Here is the website of Applied Scholastics, the nonprofit outfit founded by Scientologists in 1972, to advance L. Ron Hubbard's "study technology." As the newspaper article points out, nothing in its literature notes any ties to Scientology, though essays by L. Ron Hubbard are on the site.
Here is how Applied Scholastics, a study describes its program:
Study Technology is not a collection of study tips or memory tricks, but rather a system of learning how to learn. Using Study Tech brings about an understanding that results in the ability to apply what one learns at school, in one’s work and in life.
Study Tech is something new in the field of education. It is the spearhead to a bright new world of understanding and achievement, and it forms the basis of the success of all Applied Scholastics educational programs.
Celebrity supporters include Tom Cruise, Isaac Hayes, Anne Archers, and John Travolta.
Study Technology holds a series of 3-day summer training sessions in St. Louis: The cost of $300 includes training, meals, and accommodations. When one considers that just the registration fee at professional conferences such as ASCD, this is a bargain basement rate.
The registration fee for the NCTE 2007 annual conference was $275 for nonmembers.
The registration fee for the National School Boards Association 2007 annual conference was $820.00.
By Robert Farley
BATON ROUGE, La. - Inside the industrial looking brick walls of one of Louisiana's poorest performing middle schools, Scientologists finally have achieved a longtime goal.
A study skills curriculum written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is being taught as mainstream public education.
All the eighth-graders at Prescott Middle School are being taught learning techniques Hubbard devised four decades ago when he set out to remedy what he viewed as barriers to learning.
The curriculum and textbooks used by Prescott's 156 eighth-graders are similar to methods and books used among Scientologists worldwide. And teaching the children is a Scientologist hired by the school district.
Scientologists helped usher Hubbard's program into the school during the chaotic months after Hurricane Katrina. Celebrity Scientologists John Travolta and Isaac Hayes played key roles, as did a former Clearwater resident known for her persuasive voice.
The people who run the program say Hubbard's teaching technique is divorced from Scientology, that it is just a masterful way to learn. They note that it has won the support of many non-Scientologists, including a number of academics. . . .
Since the St. Petersburg Times does not allow its articles to be posted in full, you must go to the url below to read the rest of this article. It is worth the trip.
— Robert Farley
St. Petersburg Times
2007-05-20
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/20/Worldandnation/Scientology_makes_it_.shtml
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