Teacher, Parent, Child: Stories of how the child could learn better in school by an Educational Consultant

By R. J. Andersen

The book every parent and teacher should read!

Ever wondered why your child is not getting the grades you hoped for them, or why as a teacher your students never seem to understand what you are explaining to them?

Teacher, Parent, Child is a game changer for education. It explains, through stories of real adults and children, why we are wrong to assume that learning capacity is dependent upon intelligence, and why the apparent ability of any student in school is only their history of understanding. When the parent or the teacher applies enough sensitivity to restructure the child’s understanding, then dramatic improvements follow.

This book is based on nearly 40 years of teaching experience and research into all aspects of learning and school systems. It is a must for anyone who is interested in how students learn at any age and how we could teach them better, not just to get better grades but more importantly to prepare them with higher reasoning skills for the world driven by artificial intelligence which awaits them as they mature.

The works of Andersen bring new meaning to those of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bloom in education, as he brings forth a new paradigm in how children really learn and how we could teach them better.

Prof. David S. Martin. Ph.D., Dean Emeritus, Gallaudet University, Washington D.C.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781398438057

R. J. Andersen

Roy Andersen is a distinguished scientist, global educationist and author of eight books detailing how society and the school work together to produce a citizen worker. He has written and lectured profoundly on the need to redesign education to prepare the 21st century child for a world dominated by artificial intelligence, and so the need to teach our children to have greater intellectual and behavioural self-responsibility. He has proposed “The Brain Environment Complex Theory” as a new understanding to what we think intelligence is and the theory of “The Art of Sensitivity in Awareness” to define exactly how teachers and students develop competence in teaching and learning. He has also developed “The Andersen Attitude Method of Teaching” to enable teachers and parents to understand the importance of emotional sensitivity and language in the development of student ability. Roy has dedicated 40 years of his life to help children learn better in school. His books explain in great detail how children really learn and why school consistently fails to educate our children better. These books are said by professors and parents around the world to be some of the best books written about school, society and learning. “These are seven very important books that should be read by every parent and educator in the world. They represent a real breakthrough in our understanding of what intelligence is and how it develops, and the importance of changing the ways students are both parented and educated. The work that Roy is doing for learning is as significant as was done in the past by figures such as John Dewey. There are must reads for both parents and educators alike.” Prof/Dean Emeritus David Marin PhD, Gallaudet University, Washington. DC, USA

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About the Author

Roy Andersen is a distinguished scientist, global educationist and author of eight books detailing how society and the school work together to produce a citizen worker. He has written and lectured profoundly on the need to redesign education to prepare the 21st century child for a world dominated by artificial intelligence, and so the need to teach our children to have greater intellectual and behavioural self-responsibility.

He has proposed The Brain Environment Complex Theory as a new understanding to what we think intelligence is and the theory of The Art of Sensitivity in Awareness to define exactly how teachers and students develop competence in teaching and learning. He has also developed The Andersen Attitude Method of Teaching to enable teachers and parents to understand the importance of emotional sensitivity and language in the development of student ability. Roy has dedicated 40 years of his life to help children learn better in school.

His books explain in great detail how children really learn and why school consistently fails to educate our children better. These books are said by professors and parents around the world to be some of the best books written about school, society and learning.

These are seven very important books that should be read by every parent and educator in the world. They represent a real breakthrough in our understanding of what intelligence is and how it develops, and the importance of changing the ways students are both parented and educated. The work that Roy is doing for learning is as significant as was done in the past by figures such as John Dewey. There are must reads for both parents and educators alike.

Prof/Dean Emeritus David Marin PhD, Gallaudet University, Washington. DC, USA

Dedication

To My Wife Irina and our Family

for all the love, support and encouragement

you always give to me.

Copyright Information ©

R. J. Andersen 2022

The right of R. J. Andersen to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The story, experiences, and words are the author’s alone.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398438040 (Paperback)

ISBN9781398438057 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2022

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

There is not space here to mention all the many people I have ironed out my thoughts with in the twenty years it took me to complete these books. To those I mention here, and to many others, I am profoundly grateful for their time, generosity, and the great friendship they have shown me.

Prof./Dean Emeritus. David Martin. Gallaudet University, USA.

Prof Søren Nørby. Denmark.

Dr Irina Andersen

Dr Gini Andersen. PhD Hobart, Australia.

Ms. Naomi Andersen. MSc Paris, France.

Prof Mads Hermansen. Nordic School of Public Health. Sweden.

Prof Freddy Bugge Christiansen. Arhus University, Denmark.

Prof Albert Gjedde. Arhus University Hospital, Denmark.

Prof Rik Drummond-Brydson. Leeds University, England.

Prof Jorn Bundgaard Nielsen. Arhus University, Denmark.

Dr Paul Harris. Southern College of Optometry, USA.

Prof Cosimo Di Magli. The Anne Frank School, Italy.

Prof Harry Chugani. Wayne State University, USA.

Prof Laming. Cambridge University, England.

Prof Martha Constanine-Paton. MIT, USA.

Prof Carla Shatz. Stanford University, USA.

Prof Derek Forest. Dublin University, Ireland.

Ms Claudia Krenz. USA.

Ms Leigh Collinge. Australia.

&

Ms Sara Lappi. USA.

Foreword

It is with pride and professional pleasure that I write this foreword for a pioneering book authored by Roy Andersen. Today in the field of education, we are finally beginning once again (after a period of almost 50 years) to recognise the vital importance of cognitive development in our children.

This cognitive development is, for most individuals, a process that does not happen sufficiently in itself; it requires explicit activity on the part of parents, teachers, caregivers, and others. While we know that it’s possible to acquire cognitive strategies in later life, it is never too late to improve one’s thinking patterns, at the same time, early development by parents is essential whenever possible.

Even though most parents of young children today were not the beneficiaries themselves of systematic cognitive education in their own schooling, nonetheless it is not only possible but also necessary that they provide that foundation in thinking skills for their children, at an early age if possible. Some will say that this development is the responsibility of the school, and of course, the school’s role is of critical importance. However, we must remember that a school-age child may spend 40 hours or less per week in formal schooling (less in a number of countries), while there are 168 hours in the week (some of which, of course, should be spent in sleep). And formal schooling does not begin until after the development of some essential brain-patterning which can occur within the first two years of life.

This simple statistical comparison indicates that parents have the potential for at least as much, and perhaps more in some ways influence on their children’s development as does the school. This important book designed as much for parents, as for teachers, indicates the rationale and process for how both can enhance the child’s thinking process.

Clearly, the most powerful combination of forces would be the home and the school, working together; helping schools to understand and implement the process of cognitive education for their part is the subject of other writings by Roy Andersen. With this book in hand, however, interested and dedicated parents can gain important understandings as well as procedures for their part in enabling tomorrow’s adults to reach their fullest possible cognitive potential while there is still time to do so.

Prof. David Martin. PhD

Dean Emeritus Gallaudet University, Washington D.C.

About Me

I did not do well in school. In fact, I failed every one of my final examinations and left school virtually illiterate. Yet, four years later, I was to pass all of these examinations and those considerably far, far higher with the highest distinction.

This achievement seeded in me a quest to understand not just what was and still is wrong with the school system, but also how children learn and what stops them from learning better. As I sought to improve the ways children could learn, I worked as a teacher through all the levels of education from kindergarten, through primary and secondary school and then in university.

For 30 years, I have struggled to share the thoughts and insights I gained with other teachers and parents in how children could learn better. Eventually, I was to devise not only a new method of teaching but also a new understanding of what intelligence could be. It was inevitable from this background that I should become a consultant to help students of any age to better understand not just what they were learning, but how they could learn the skill of what we call intelligence. As my experience in this developed, I was able to explain to my students the processes their mind and brain go through to understand their world, and the skills they can develop to explain their mind better to others to achieve far higher recognition. The classes I worked with improved in their overall performance and the individuals I helped gained far higher grades. This book tells a little of some of the wonderful human beings I have met, and what I learned from them.

* * *

Preparing the 21st-Century Child

Prior to the writing of this book, I had written a series of five books on how the child learns and how the educational process works today. These books began by considering why we process children in school, rather than giving them a more personalised education. This led us to examine the long political history behind why the child is believed to largely inherit the intelligence of their parents. As our story unfolded, we examined the genetic argument to this and then a more neurological consideration. The intelligence we came to see is not so easy to define, either in the individual or as a feature of a collective society. When all factors were considered, we came to understand how the intelligence of the child lies firstly on their emotional stability and then in the language they were raised upon or acquired through their interactions with others. The latter brought into consideration the effect of modern technology and so computers. As we saw how intelligence has sharply risen over the past three decades globally, without a genetic shift, we were brought more to understand the importance of the parents at home and the teachers in school realising the great part they play in the development of the child’s mind.

We also came to understand that schools, in a global sense, educate the child of today with the purpose of producing a model citizen of a bygone age. As school processes its students to serve their society as managers or workers, it fails to realise the changes that are developing this century. As artificial intelligence continues to expand its influence into all work and areas of society, the citizen of the future will be required to have a far greater mental aptitude and a greater sense of responsibility to themselves, their society, and the environment than has ever been required before.

As political pressure causes schools to focus on being ever more efficient as they are judged by the grades their students gain in examinations, they seek to balance the deteriorating attitude of the class with an exodus of teachers (as these seek happier and more rewarding employment in other sectors of society), by increasing the use of computers in education. Yet, while computers stimulate the mind, they do not teach quality of intelligence, and so the kind of mental adaptability that will be required of children once they leave school. Of greater significance here is that computers shape the child’s mind to think with little regard to human emotion. Of all things, this is a consideration education is totally ignorant of, and yet it prompts the next generation, and those ever after, to be insecure in dealing with human beings. We are in danger of creating a citizen who does not know how to handle human emotions.

This book, presented as a novel, seeks to show how we can bring empathy back into education, by understanding how the child tries but more often fails to learn in school.

By

John the Brush

John is a professional cartoonist of considerable distinction and international merit. He really loves his job, and I know would be delighted to hear from anyone seeking assistance with a cartoon.

John can be contacted at: [e-mail]

What the experts say:

‘Teacher, Parent, Child’ is written by a teacher who teaches from the heart. Every school should put this book in the hands of all school staff. School leaders should provide opportunities for weekly and regular dialogue. These conversations can build teacher and student capacity toward teaching and learning.

Dr Gwendolyn Lavert. Educational Consultant. U.S.A.

This book appears to me to be very relevant to those currently teaching and particularly those who are just starting their career. Whilst presented as stories, they contextualise the learning process and provide clear and well developed scenarios and ideas of problems faced by learners, reasons for them and importantly how teachers can start to address the different challenges they and their learners face in the mainstream classroom. In short, I think the book would make a great addition to any initial teacher training reading list.

Ian Arkell Educational Consultant CEO SchoolPro UK

Roy’s books should be read by every parent and educator in the world. They do represent a real breakthrough in our understanding of what intelligence is and how it develops, and the importance of changing the ways students are both parented and educated. Roy is doing for learning the work that is as significant as was that done in the past by such figures as John Dewey. These are must reads for both parents and educators alike.

Prof / Dean Emeritus David Martin PhD Gallaudet University Washington, D.C. USA

The whole set of Roy’s 7 books should be in the library of each school in every corner of the world. They should also be part of the syllabus in the institutions who are offering child psychology, and teacher training diplomas and degree programs, or at least they should be the part of a refresher course.

M.Imran Khan. CEO AIMMS Universities. Middle East.

These are very important and interesting books, with lots of valuable points for parents and teachers. They bring learning and education to a whole new level. Well done!

Prof. Mads Hermansen. Educational Psychologist

Denmark.

_________

Introduction

OFSTED is an acronym for The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It is a government organisation responsible for inspecting the standard of schools in the UK. The high school in my village was awarded full marks by OFSTED not too long ago, and so prompted as being one of the best schools in the UK. The school proudly displays its achievement outside the main gates, and the reception hall is littered with OFSTED remarks and posters. It is an advertisement for the achievement of this school, as much as it is for recognition of the work that OFSTED does. It was, then, very interesting for me to talk to a former student of this school, while I waited for a bus.

I’m glad to see you here, I remarked as I arrived panting at the bus stop near the school, thought the bus might have passed.

No. It’s always late, he replied.

We talked about one or two things, and then looking at him I asked,

Are you a student at the school?

I was, but now I’m at Art College.

Don’t mind me asking, but when did you leave the school?

Oh, two years ago. He was nonchalant in his reply.

Now! Two years ago, was when OFSTED made their investigation and award to this school. So, it was very interesting for me to know of his personal experiences there at this time.

So, tell me, I asked, "what did you think of the teachers?’

Some were OK, he said in a matter-of-fact manner.

How did you feel about their teaching? Did you feel they knew a lot about what they were teaching?

He half laughed to himself. Some did, he told me, "But others did not seem to know too much. Some students knew more than the teachers. They would just tell us to work from textbooks or give PowerPoint presentations. But! Nothing really made much sense. I mean, it was boring just to sit in the class, and be shown slides and told points to remember.

Anyway, lessons were always boring, because we never learned anything interesting. Everything was just about how to answer exam questions. Lessons were only about the types of questions we could be asked, and the best way to answer them. There was never any interest as to why we should learn the subject, just to pass exams often, he continued, I did not understand what I was doing, and if I asked the teacher, they didn’t really explain it to me. We were, more or less, left to make our own sense of what was in the textbook. So, we kind of relied upon one or two in the class to tell us the answers in the break or after school."

Nothing has changed, I thought to myself. It was the same when I was at school. I remembered then reading a letter that a 16-year-old girl had recently written in America.

I can go weeks in most of my classes, she wrote, without doing homework and still maintain a grade of ‘B’. The curriculum is not challenging so no one is trying. Teachers don’t care, and people constantly say we can’t do it. So we no longer try.

Moving to another thought, I mentioned to my new friend, You know, the big thing now is to look for any student who does not keep up with the rest and suspect them of dyslexia.

Tell me about it, he said. Mind you, we look forward to being told we are because then we get extra help in the lesson by an assistant teacher to understand what is going on. But the big thing is that we get an extra 25 minutes in an exam. This really makes a big difference.

Are you dyslexic? I asked him.

Well, I went to the teacher in my last year and asked her. They gave me some tests and said I had a small learning problem. The first time in my whole life anyone has said this to me and this in the very last year. So, I was really glad they said this. It gave me the time I needed in my exams to get a better grade. (And for the school in the league table, I thought.)

Tell me, I asked him, changing the subject, was there a lot of bullying going on?

It was quite common. Not for me, but I know how it affected others in my class. His reply was not totally convincing.

How did the teachers keep control, if things got out of order? In my days they used to just cane us, I told him,

I know some teachers want to bring it back.

I don’t think it made a big difference then. It was just a fact of life. I remember they told me when I was in school that I was too stupid for languages, so I was put in for rural studies. He was not familiar with this, so I explained, "It’s about teaching the value of nature. I never understood what that meant because I can only remember being taken on nature walks.

So, on the last lesson of every Friday morning, Old Tom with a walking stick, an elderly teacher (God knows how teachers working in their late seventies will ever manage), would take us outside. Now, there was a high brick wall surrounding the school with one door at the back that led to the fields. At the appointed time, Tom would unlock the door and usher us through it in an orderly line. But once the last boy was out, we broke ranks and ran anywhere we wanted. Old Tom would chase us, but he could never catch up. We would run to a deep ditch, walk over a large pipe that spanned it, and then we were free. He never attempted to try and would shout and wave his stick while we climbed trees and swung about on ropes. After a while, Old Tom would give up, and we would laugh and have fun. But the thing was that then we would realise it was lunchtime, and amble back to the back door in the wall. Every Friday, the same thing happened. Old Tom would take us out, we would escape, return to the door (it was the only way back in) and he would be waiting behind it. As each opened the door, a hand would come down from behind it and grab him by the collar. The whole class would have to line up, bend over and each of us got six of the best. Then, we went to lunch, and so to the next Friday. We just took caning as a thing that happened normally. It hurt a bit for half an hour, but it was soon forgotten. It was far, far more important to escape!"

He looked at me as if he could never imagine having a school time like that. There never was an escape for him. Well, we just got a yellow or a red slip, he told me.

Tell me about these slips? I asked him.

Well, you’d get a yellow slip if you forgot your homework, or didn’t do it, He smiled. "Two yellows meant a red, and a red was given out for bad behaviour. Once you got a red, you were put in