Vocabulary and spelling development is no different than learning an instrument.

“ The findings for the subarea of the study reveal that the observational research indicates that less than 3% of classroom time is devoted to vocabulary development. Surveys of teachers disagree with this finding giving much higher percentages for word meaning development, Teachers say they use a limited variety of methods whereas the reading texts describe a wide variety of both direct and context methods. Many reading investigators believe that there is a lack of classroom attention to systemic vocabulary development “ ( p. 10 )

A historical examination of vocabulary development in the schools,

1900-1985 Matsuda, Lynn Goodwin, Ed. D. University of Hawaii, 1987

This is an important understanding in relation to what is happening in our schools and why there are opinions and contradictions in relation to vocabulary development. Having taught in a school, it was understood that teaching vocabulary is very difficult, and  why there is little time spent on vocabulary. There are weekly spelling tests, yet this practice is more for the student to do by themselves, as teachers must move through a set curriculum. For this reason, there is a focus on defining words using the text, as this is a valuable skill,  although it is not systemic vocabulary development. Teachers cannot be this systemic development, nor are they meant to be as the very design of public schools.

If I look at taking music lessons, what happens is one goes and has the lesson, and one may go and perform in an orchestra or music group. The lesson and the group interaction is not a time for the small details to be worked out by the self. They offer opportunities for insight, yes.  Thus, it is true that we learn from interaction and from lessons, yet that space is not the necessary individual practice that builds mastery on the small scale. It cannot be, by design.  

It is a situation where the classroom time is the lesson and the group interaction, yet it is not that practice done by the self, that is ALSO necessary. Learning language, words and spelling, must also have that careful practice, by the self, alone, building greater recognition of words, and speaking them; spelling them out, sounding them, knowing the parts, and defining them. It is the same as having music lessons. One must interact with the whole, use the whole to expand understanding AND also do that careful self directed and detailed practice. The benefit of this necessary practice is really knowing something, it is that wonderful and necessary discipline of integrating something so that self can generate with confidence. 

Overall, the above quote is correct that teachers do not do that systemic practice, because by design, they cannot. They also teach to use the text, and they model words, but they ultimately cannot go home with the student and be the necessary individual practice that leads to real mastery. 

Teachers, parents and administrators, must realize the practical nature of this. Our bodies are just like an instrument. We have lessons and we have group interactions. The practices of the group is actually being what it can be and do. Overall, nothing can replace that individual careful practice of integration. Children, or adults that have not walked this, must practice sounding the words, generating them without copying, spelling the words and placing the words into living contexts. When one practices the individual  discipline of moving with an instrument, momentum builds and one is able to process more with greater ease. Working with words is really no different. 

There are tools that organize and automate this practice for the child. What is awesome about this, is that this gives the child the sense that they are doing this themselves. How empowering would this be for a child to realize they can learn and develop with practice? What greater lesson can we give to a child?

Overall, it is important to realize the benefit and limitations of a public school. How we learn an instrument ( or a physical discipline)  is a cool analogy in relation to developing the skill of effective communication. 

If you are interested in such a tool send me a note! 

In my next blog, I will talk about vocal and focal distractions, and how within that necessary individual practice, learning the word by itself, mastering the sound and the spelling, how important it is to build a definition that is directly related to one’s living environment. 

Thank you for reading. 

Why is vocabulary development a key to self responsibility?

Blame has an inverse relationship to accountability.

We begin with the abc’s and end with the SAT. This parameter is to learn all language and communication skills, because humans use language to communicate and share perspective, which is measure. It is all really a math, as inherent in the statement ‘ blame has an inverse relationship to accountability’  reveals. Our coping mechanism behaviors are a form of protection in relation to having defined ourselves as a measure of lack. Often they manifest as blame, self aggrandizement or self justification. In the end, all are blame, because they are not problem solving.

It is understood that we can build neurons throughout our lives. It is understood that perfect practice makes perfect, hence, what does an imperfect practice? Do we inform ourselves as the measure of what we believe just as we inform ourselves as that perfect practice that leads to a greater degree of self responsibility? Are the accompanying thoughts of lack , as mindfulness reveals, simply the reflection of what we have informed ourselves as in measure? Can an  imperfect practice become what is practiced or automated and would it manifest as a behavior of resisting change because it is caught in a self perpetuating measure of belief that is not what gives a sustainable self responsibility?

The research in education makes this very clear as well. When our foundations, as those foundational years in childhood, are lacking in effective vocabulary, which is exposure to varied measure, our ability to process information is slower.  The inverse of this is, the greater one’s ability to process information is determined on the words we know effectively. The children who lack this development tend to be left behind, and those who have a large vocabulary, tend to become bored.  

And yet, again, all children, at least the majority, learn to crawl and to walk, they are not born with religion or classism, they are born absorbing their world around them. When that world lacks  an effective vocabulary, the children have less self response ability and  more stress in abstracting information in a school.  Those who lack the kind of inner structure that the more effective vocabulary in other children impart,  end up comparing their lack to others, and develop coping behaviors to enable them to fit into the system. Coping mechanisms only distracts from a real development because it occupies the focus of the child. Do these children reach their full potential? No, they spend their lives accepting a lack. Meanwhile the ends to the mean is always right in front of us.

Our children have a natural learning ability, and they require a stable structural development to be self responsible in this world. Such a development would benefit everyone in the society. 

It is right there in front of us, that a sound mind is structured through words, through an effective vocabulary. It is right in front of us that a perfect practice in being able to spell all the vocabulary from kindergarten to grade 12 would impart a self empowering inner structure and that the outcome would allow the child to reach their full potential. This would benefit the community. This understanding would empower parents to become responsible for the development of their child, so that when the child went to school, they could develop self esteem in processing information. What kind of home life would this create? A home with the stress of raising a child removed!

Once a child can practice a perfect practice, in a steady and consistent manner, their spelling of words, recognizing patterns in words, would enable them to step out of a fear of processing information based on an idea of lack in relation to this, and allow the child to focus more on defining the words, because a fear of the picture as the words, would no longer exist.  And, because this simple understanding has not been understood, technology can be a stable point in a world where we adults have somehow missed this point and are caught in the consequences of not understanding this in thought and word and deed.

A child who lacks self respect has  a hard time looking another in the eyes. A child who lacks structure, has a hard time being self disciplined. A child who lacks the ability to spell words, has a hard time processing information. A child who defines themselves as the lack, hides from the world, and will tend more towards drugs and alcohol, as this is an escape from the stress of a mind in chaos. 

We humans are social beings, we love to participate. Any middle school teacher can see that all the behaviors in middle school have an underlying voice, and that is an immense desire to participate. Why?  Because it is fun to participate! Learning is fun! Self definitions of lack, accumulating in a measure  that is a behavior of resistance causing consequences of limitation in relation to being socially engaged, is not fun. This is an unhappy child.

If our children learned their words, the SAT would be easy, as it should be. The behaviors of such a child, would be a child with the structural means, because humans use language - which is words- to be self accountable. Being self accountable is being self responsible, the opposite of blame. Instead the behavior would be a sound character who solves problems. Such a child would have a dynamic mind, and a synergistic thinking that no longer moved in limited associative thinking.  

What automated the child would be a clear thinking, that could self monitor and at the same time see directly others in their world. I would call this a quantum thinking or seeing. Instead of a limited behavior of self defense in fear of being considered less, a child could be open and realize themselves within and the world without. This is a child comfortable with the world, one willing to participate in life.  This is building  the means towards behaviors of self esteem and self confidence. This is a child raising their hand and participating! Is this not what we want for all of our children, and would this not benefit each of us. Who would not want to give this to a child?

It is a math, and it is simple, and it is right there in front of us. Somehow, we have allowed friction and conflict in arguing over the means to the end, losing sight of the whole mechanism. We argue over small steps/means in a natural process within that parameter of learning our abc’s and becoming effective communicators in adulthood.  This is a loss in a natural spatial ability inherent in children.

We can, with technology, rebuild our minds, rebuild our neurological networks, with words. We can effectively know our words so well that we can choose and be whatever we want. We then can restore a natural quantum ability to self monitor and assess the world around us, so we direct ourselves without fear, and face all situations coming up with new ways of doing things that is what is natural to each of us, and what makes each of us so unique and special. We all want to participate in our society, it is our real and natural state. 

In this age of information, it is necessary that our children are exposed to a broad vocabulary, learn to spell their words well, and have the means for a perfect and consistent practice within this. Because our schools by design cannot do this, and parents are too busy to do this,  we can use technology to become the means to achieve this. What is so special about this, is that it self empowers the child! They can do this themselves given a tool that monitors this development, allowing that child that needs a greater degree of practice the necessary practice and that child that has some negative emotional associations the chance to move beyond such negative definitions because they can build a clean and clear neurological framework in relation to words. Technology is stable and consistent. It is the perfect means to give a perfect and consistent practice!

If interested in experiencing what I am sharing, please leave a note, and sign up for a presentation.  I am a parent who has raised two children, I have worked with children and parents in relation to what I speak about, and I realized, through teaching violin, that when the structure was set, when the practice was “ perfect” , the essence of the child would burst forth and begin to fly. This ability is inherent in all of us, it is who and what we are as life. 

Thank You for reading, very much appreciated!  And, sign up! After all, it is through real time sharing that we expand our awareness.  Time to transform blame into accountability, as this is our real potential in expression!

Your words tell me more about you than they do about myself! We are the words we know. We are a reflection of our subconscious information.

Children are very absorbent beings. This is how they learn things so quickly. If we, for a moment, look at this aspect of a child, and slow down enough to realize what this means, we can perhaps realize that nature of learning.

What does the child absorb? They have no learned information, as in specializing in some discipline. Those children who are born into families where the parents have learned a discipline, tend to learn that discipline as well. I have a friend here, who attended Harvard, and yet his profession is cutting down trees. He told me his father had studied the classics extensively, and he grew up in a house where these things were constantly spoken of. By the time he reached college, he could talk the talk of the classics and had the information that allowed him access to the higher levels of learning that demanded such a background.  Of course, this does not always happen. One either accepts the specialized knowledge or one does not. One can become the persona of rejecting the constructs of information.  Yet, accepting the information or rejecting the information is a movement, it is building or making a decision not to build the body of information present.  The point is that information is built and that it is a choice- or not.  Does the child that makes the choice to not build become that information as that measure of rejecting the information? And could this choice actually become a limitation that inhibits the child from choosing something else to inform them? More than likely yes, as we all know personalities that appear to have no direction,  and are angry about their childhoods. It would not take too much effort to realize that within the “ mindfulness’ paradigm, the measure of information, as rejection, would be the thoughts coming up that need not define the person/child. Yet, this all makes it clear that we become the information we are exposed to and/or the reactions/resistances we have towards that information.

Do we as parents realize how this works within the example above? Do we realize that every measure we convey, we express, informs the child? When we come home from busy day, and are caught in some problem, some upset - based on not remembering this- and spin that upset around in our selves, and in so doing lack attention to the child and what we are modeling, do we slow down to consider the overall presence we are projecting as a form? When we blame something in our world are we modeling solutions and careful measure of the parts that build the form? And, are we addressing what discoveries that child themselves may have made within their day to ensure that the understanding in the child is clear. Are we doing within ourselves, as our information and how we are spinning it, for the child? If we understand that a child can pick up all information, through a great absorbent ability, can we realize that what we allow within ourselves is what is going to be absorbed by the child, and that this very ability is the learning ability of the child? And, this begs the question as to what is being imparted in the child via media. 

Let us look at the behavior of a child, in a school, that has been exposed to a parent that developed a resistance to what was in their environment as a child. If a parent has history of resisting what information they had around them as young children, would that pattern then be influenced into the next generation? Would that child develop difficulty in taking in information in school because the information the child absorbed in the home was a form of expression of resistance? Could we call this an emotional polarity?  Would the child. not understanding this as that child absorbed the measure of the parent, then begin to define themselves as not being able to learn? Would this spiral into a personality, as the very words a child spoke or believed within themselves, that they were not very smart?  Would such a belief system take a lot of time to work through, and within the present system, would countering this belief and realizing that because of this inner belief, that taking in new information was going to be slow until the momentum past the belief was built. And does a school, a public school, have the time to sort this out in the children? 

It is to say in many ways, that there is no good or bad, there is balancing out what has been absorbed within, and grounding that ability to absorb into structures that allow self direction in clear and productive ways. Building such children would benefit the society as a whole, because the collective ability of each would be capable and able to realize how this works and work together to create a community of people who realized that capacity of each to reform and direct in ways that produced effective systems that benefitted everyone. I mean, what is a school overall? A school is a system where men work together, where people form things. And it is a system that forms with what has been formed by the parents and the parents before them.  In this we are all responsible for what is the forms we accept and allow, and it is our responsibility to realize how this all works.  Each part has the responsibility to sort this out, this aspect of how a child is formed by the information within the environment they are exposed.

Within this, imagine being a teacher wanting to impart a general scaffold of information in a classroom in a school. Let us set aside what that information may be, for a moment because that is another issue- one that cannot be addressed until understanding and practicing how this works is understood in detail. That teacher is paid to impart a set body of information. She has a classroom filled with 20 or so students. Each student has a different background. Some have the ability to take in more of the information than others. Some have already developed a resistance based on many degrees of ideas within them, as the exposure of their past. That person, standing in front of that group, cannot teach the new information and sort out the measure in each child. Just as that measure was built over time, so that time frame of the classroom can only impart a certain measure within that space. A teacher cannot be speaking information and showing graphs and examples, and balance the measure of belief and direct the focus through a measure of belief at the same time for each child.  And, what we form in our imaginations in relation to this, is not reality. What one can dream up is much easier than what is actual in reality.  If one has experienced arriving at home, and not having the patience to address a child and sort out what occupies the presence of one’s self, then how can  a teacher do this with 20 or so students in a classroom?  

Let us place ourselves in the shoes of the child caught in a measure that is not what allows them to see through their information and take in new forms of information with an understanding of how this works.  Do any of us want to not participate in absorbing new forms of information, and in ways that expand our awareness of how this world works? Remember that we enjoy when we understand things, because it is natural and self empowering when we understand something. We become anxious when we do not understand something, and we can all remember times where we  were anxious, it is not enjoyable. We have more fun when we understand.

Imagine being that child who has not had things made clear, because the parents came home often stressed and worrying about something at work, for example. That child is not only absorbing that stress, they are also not sorting out something that they did not fully understand and/or scared them, in a TV show, or within an idea about what a friend said or did. That measure of uncertainty, is what is left within the child, and it accumulates and remains, tainting the perception of the child, slowing down that innate ability to absorb because the dis-clarity remains. Then, the child misses a step in understanding new information, and becomes more confused.  The very behaviors of the child reflect this, in the inability to understand the new information. The teacher has so many hours in a day, before they return to their family, so they cannot sort this out. And that child returns home to parents who are busy sorting out their misunderstandings and - and this varies by degree - do not give the necessary time for a closure within a misunderstanding. What would happen over time as this accumulates? How many realize that by the time we are forty and our working and earning years are waning that we begin to realize this? Is this not too late? Do we want to repeat this with each generation? Is not prevention the best cure!

On one level, this reveals a very simple understanding. We become what we are exposed to, we become the program of our parents and the information we take in;  we absorb. This means that we can realize a solution to all of this. We must rebuild. We can use the code, as language, and rebuild the measure within the child. We can automate that process. Technology is never emotional. It is a means to rebuild the measure within the subconscious of the child, to have the tools of thought, as words, to clean up and clear up emotional polarities of values that create a resistance and fear of information, and build the measures as the words, to then be able to see more clearly, and realize that capacity to absorb is the capacity to understand when the measure is available in detail and clear.  We can turn technology into a teacher, into a one on one teacher, or tutor, to create clean placeholders of form, as words, as the details that build the understanding, to create a measure in the memory of the child, that is detailed and understanding of the parts that allow that movement into seeing the whole in ways that are productive. Here the child becomes an active participant, building a sense of joy in realizing their absorbent ability is the means as a natural ability to understand and direct themselves in communication with others and the world around them.

Imagine if you really knew your words, as the parts that build the whole, when you were in school. Imagine if you knew the parts as the words so well, that when that problem came up at work, you could critique the overall form and patterns, and creatively reform them to solve problems immediately, so that when you went home, there was time and space to focus on the child. This would be living the joy of understanding to such a degree that that absorbent ability was realized for the value that it is, and the relationship with the child would become one of joy. What kind of home life would this build?  What kind of school environments would that create? What kind of society would that realize? 

We ‘ spell ’ what we are in the words we speak.  It is a magic that is in the doing, and words can help us to help ourselves. We can use technology to self empower what information we accept and allow in building that subconscious storehouse of information. It is time to get that in order, as this is what we would all want. Being anxious is no fun, being able to answer and reform and understand is!

If you are having reading problems, or processing information problems, send me a note and I will set up a meeting to help you help yourself.

Thank you for reading! Much appreciated!

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