Teaching

Scientology’s Role in Classrooms: Study Aid?

By Catherine Gewertz — October 01, 2010 1 min read
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My inbox is crowded with press releases about stuff designed to help teachers teach more effectively. There are all the requisite announcements peddling new curriculum materials, new ways to gauge student achievement, and the like.

This one, which dropped into my queue yesterday, caught my attention with a surprising tidbit: the Church of Scientology has developed a system to enhance study effectiveness.

Part of the church’s “Meet a Scientologist” series, the press release introduces Samuel Silver, a private-school teacher from Oregon who is a Scientologist, and describes how Scientology supports his teaching. The series offers video clips of Silver and other teachers, principals and students discussing the role Scientology plays in their work.

Apparently, Silver uses the organization’s “Study Technology” to turn “even reluctant or previously failed students into eager learners,” helping them learn material deeply and apply their skills, which reduces test anxiety and “breeds competence and self-confidence.”

The system “includes methodology to identify when a student has hit a barrier in comprehension and how to help the student overcome the barrier,” the release tells us, so that “any student, fast or slow, is able to quickly overcome any difficulty in comprehension and move forward again.”

Yet another proposed solution to the problems of education, submitted for your consideration.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.