Where does Ladder of Achievement Happen

To go from I do not want to do this...0 percent...to 100 percent....I DID IT!..takes many where's in our lifetime. In my lifetime, the where started with my loving and caring family who helped we learn many skills in a loving home environment. My mother was able to achieve 10 years of education before going out to work. My dad was orphaned at an early age and he was able to complete the 8th grade. Mother was strong with verbal and math skills; and Dad was a person who learned by doing with visuals and "hands on." With my Dad at work all day, my Mother was the tutor and the mentor to assist me in my homework and projects while in grade school.

The grade school that I attended focused on providing the basics...reading, writing, computation skills, and reasoning. The Palmer Method was used in our handwriting; and the Phonetic approach helped us in acquiring a solid vocabulary with our reading and our writing skills. Although repetition was used to drum in our memories the times table and other learning skills, the discipline to focus on the essentials and the basics made possible my success in grade school.

In high school, the emphasis was on academic subjects that demanded desire, dedication, and determination to learn the essential concepts for a variety of subjects that included Latin, Math, Social Studies, Science, and Life Skills. My high school was accelerated into three years and one summer to complete the necessary 16 credits to receive a high school diploma. In today's standards, that credit total would be short by almost 10 credits.

In college, my experiences were focused on learning business concepts, English essentials and effective writing, office skills, and music education including instrumental and vocal components.
Also, the supporting classes in educational philosophy, psychology, theology, and methodology were helpful in preparing for an educational career.

For many persons today, the approach to effective, positive learning first occurs in the home environment and supplemented by day care or early learning locations. For many persons, the home environment may be the only choice made by families by using home schools instead of going to private or public schools. The parents choose the philosophical/theological emphasis over the secularistic, humanistic approach often provided by public schools by a mandated curriculum. Also, church related schools may often a plausible solution to many quandaries about biased and unrelated and antiquated curricula offered by public institutions. To reach a balance in total education, many avenues have been selected by learners to grow in their ongoing knowledge and personal growth in spite of learning choices and financial hardships.

After the person learns from many arenas of educational philosophy, the on the job training and career selection continues to enhance the learning curves of the participants. Climbing the Ladder of Achievement in the schools without walls and in the world of experiences, the learner soon learns where to get the additional assistance to grow in their chosen professional career choice. Lifelong learning gives all learners an opportunity to seek the where's to continue their education by working with other learners and professionals who provide positive and effective learning atmospheres beyond the textbooks.

Should we next look at the when's and the why's of effective, positive learning environments and why we are finding out that many persons are still unable to read, to write, to compute, to reason, and to effectively listen in the 21st Century through wasteful use of educational resources and lack of accountability in all of the previous "Where's." Many learners climb up and down the Ladder of Achievement the rest of their lives in spite of the lack of committed educators. As the saying goes, "People do not care how much you know, but how much you care."