greater than 11% of all people
throughout the United States of America
over the age of 25 don’t have a high
school diploma that’s more than 29
million adults one of the reasons why
there are so many adults without high
school diplomas is because throughout
our nation 7,000 students drop out of
school every day now it should come as
no surprise to anyone that in those
areas throughout our country with the
graduation rate is low the unemployment
rate is high and the rate of
incarceration is even higher but the
most troubling fact related to these
statistics is this the single greatest
determinant of how well a child will do
in school is the education level of the
parents so with so many obvious negative
consequences to dropping out of high
school why would anyone choose to do so
a common misconception is this the high
school dropout is someone who chose to
develop a negative attitude about some
aspect of the learning experience and
their bad attitude caused them to turn
their backs on their education however
some people who drop out of high school
loved all aspects of the learning
experience but they were assigned to
take classes in a school that became
nothing less than dangerous so they left
school out of concern for their own
physical well-being and that is
particularly true in those neighborhoods
with a high crime rate I’m keenly aware
of some of the challenges faced by the
young high school dropout and the adult
without a high school diploma not
because I’m aware of a few statistics I
know from as George Washington once said
dear Bart experience and I say that
because when I was 14 years old I made
the conscious decision to quit school
next year will be the 50th anniversary
of me making that mistake and I’ve often
referred to it as the worst decision of
a few years after I came to the
realization that I needed an education
and that I wanted a career I developed a
means by which to recover called the
tools of learning it’s a system of
learning understanding and remembering
information so that a person can succeed
in both work in school now when most
people first hear of this tools of
learning they say well what makes it
different what makes it unique and I’ve
got several reasons why I believe it’s
unique but for most are the following to
number one most of the students I teach
this information to our adults without a
high school diploma returning to school
some of them haven’t been to school in
decades literally decades
well since the program was written by
someone without an education struggling
to get an education and finally figuring
out how to how to get it done the tools
of learning is written at a level that
most adult education students can
readily understand I estimate that most
of it is written a door below the ninth
grade level but more important is this
reason why it’s different the
introduction and the beginning of each
of the 20 tools has something in it
called the preparation motivation the
preparation motivation is something I
learned from an organization called the
Connecticut state fire school now known
as the Connecticut Academy and what it
says simply stated is in every lesson
plan you should have a means by which to
prepare or motivate the student to value
the information you’re going to teach
them that’s the essence of it well I
learned about how important the
preparation motivation is the hard way
from the following experience I was in
the process of giving my very first
presentation to a group of adult
education students some of them will
order to be in the classroom by their
parole officers and they looked at me
like this and will look on their face
that said go ahead and teach us this we
dare you so after I spoke for just about
three minutes one of them stood up
quickly and pointed at me and said who
are you to teach us how to study and
when he said that
said I obviously didn’t prepare motivate
these people develop information and so
on the spot I decided that I would tell
them the story of why the tools of
learning was created in the first place
and it seemed to work they listened to
the rest of the presentation
they asked meaningful questions and even
thanked me when the entire presentation
was over but that preparation motivation
consists of consists of the following
three years after I quit going to school
I was getting ready to turn 18 years old
and I knew I was gonna need a full-time
job and I was eligible to apply for a
job at Pratt & Whitney a factory next to
Hartford and they paid big money and
they didn’t require a high school
diploma but she had to have a good job
reference so I went to go see the most
respected man I knew his name was Walter
James dr. Lee senior he was my fifth
grade gym teacher and in the years to
follow he created a scholarship fund
that sent over 500 high school graduates
to college among many other great things
but I went to see him for a job
reference to get the Pratt and Whitney
and instead of getting a job reference I
got a lecture and that lecture lasted
for about 45 minutes but the gist of it
was persistence he said I quitted
everything got to be persistent be of
service
stop being so self-centered help someone
else and the last thing he talked about
was getting an education at one point he
said I’m not gonna help you get a job at
Pratt & Whitney or anywhere else because
you’re going back to school I said I
can’t go back to school mr. Hurley I’d
be an eighteen year old freshman he said
you don’t have to go back to high school
you can get a GED and with that you can
go on to college now he had explained to
me what a GED was but when I left his
house I had the distinct feeling that I
was going to be able to make something
of my life in spite of all the mistakes
I had made of him to that point so for
the next two years I worked at getting a
GED had to take the test twice because I
flunked it the first time then I went to
college in college twice I went to
college didn’t get a single college
credit because I
filled all the courses certain that I
wasn’t gonna get a college education I
applied to the Hartford fire department
my brother Rocky Edgar teal came to my
rescue
he said there’s an organization in City
of Hartford called Plan B incorporated
run by a woman named Cynthia Jennings
and they’ll prepare you to take the test
to become a firefighter so I took their
course four times after four times I
could have taught the course I got into
the Hartford fire department but the
first day of training was a real
eye-opening experience the deputy chief
of training a man by the name of raymond
McTighe came before the class and he
said i sincerely hope some of you left
your previous jobs and good terms
because you’re going back he then went
on to say you have to maintain at least
a 70 average if you go below 70 average
you’ll be dismissed from the program at
that time I had a four year old daughter
Kathleen a two year old son Charlie and
I said I can’t lose this job I looked at
the syllabus they were law and chemistry
definitions that had to be learned in
medical terms
hydraulic formulas like gallons per
minute equals twenty nine point seven
times a diamond square times the square
of the nozzle pressure I said how am I
gonna learn this this speaking Chinese
it’s not just something I can understand
at all
so during our first break I went up to
the first recruit I saw outside this is
a long time ago obviously but his name
was Eddie Lopez he’s on the left and
that’s me on the right but I walked out
to him and I said how you plan on
getting through this training program
successfully you know maybe we should
get some study groups together he said
no we don’t need any study groups he
says I was in the military and they
taught us how to remember information he
then went on to explain what his system
consisted of visualization repetition to
enhance retention quite comprehensive as
a matter of fact tool number 17 includes
it in support of tool number 17 of the
22 –ls
but when I finished talking with him I
said goodness sakes is a way to remember
information I wish I had known that
years ago but for the next two months I
worked at creating my own
system of remembering information and I
knew that I had to readily learn it and
that understanding and information was a
prerequisite to retention or it worked
better if I understood it before I tried
to remember it at the end of two months
I had eleven ways but I wish to learn
understand and remember information and
that program took me to the top of my
recruit class out of 33 recruits I
graduated number one with a 99.7 average
thank you encouraged by my success I
signed up for more training even after I
graduate from drill school got into the
luciene Theory all came up to me and he
said Charles I believe you’re the kind
of man that can become chief of this
department but I mean looking at your
record you’re not gonna make it with the
GED says you got to get a college
education and so I went about the
possible process of getting a college
education using the tools of learning
this time I made it
I got an associate degree from Capital
Community College a bachelor’s degree
from Springfield College and a master’s
degree from the University of Hartford
and thank you I also use the tools of
learning to pass all my promotional
exams on my way to becoming chief of the
Hartford fire department over the course
of the 32 years following that summer of
1982 the tools of learning Wentz through
three hundred twelve revisions but each
time I went through a revision it
revolved around one central idea and
that idea is this you should never try
to learn anything without knowing how to
learn how to understand and how to
remember that information first what I’d
like to do with the rest of my time is
just share with you a sample of what the
program consists of it’s 20 tools long
and I can only address just a portion of
each of the tools that I’m going to
address but use of a dictionary this
recommends the five times that system of
building a powerful vocabulary sense
search synonym sentence and story the
purpose of it is to enhance our ability
to comprehend what we
– right to be able to engage in public
speaking and also to avoid those dreaded
and malapropism words that don’t exist
that we use periodically words like yeah
conversate not a word
expressions like for all intensive
purposes not an expression I know this
from experience but that’s the beauty of
this this tool next this is just one
sixth of the tool on establishing a
solid math foundation but it’s
deceptively important addition
subtraction multiplication and division
it is amazing to me how many people go
off to college without knowing their
times tables and if you don’t know your
times tables you can’t add or subtract
fractions you can’t do most of algebra
you can’t do most of geometry and all of
that informations foundation doing
trigonometry when I’m telling you is you
won’t be able to do math in college and
they will not teach you your times
tables in college once again I know from
experience the PSG or personal study
guide simply stated that’s a sheet of
paper front and back on the back of the
paper you put all the facts that you
think are necessary for you to know and
find difficult to remember on the front
of the paper you create a question that
forces you to answer questions regarding
the information on the back it’s the
best way that I can think of to test
yourself before you’re tested by someone
else and this thing works I’m telling
you from experience a lot of experience
in this matter of fact most of the
program using knowledge to solve
problems although the tools of learning
has been used by as a program has been
used by many individuals adults to get
gray’s degrees different promotions it’s
not the ultimate goal of the program the
ultimate goal of the tools of learning
programs is to learn understand remember
information so that you can use that
information to solve problems because
it’s the Dean of self-improvement Earl
Nightingale once said if you’re not in
the problem-solving kind of business
you’re unemployed all right and finally
just for this evening and actually the
last of the 20 tools this is grand
finale when I left my mentors house
Walter doc Hurley he sent me to go see a
counselor by the name of Bill Edmunds
who worked at what is now known as
Katherine
community college and bill Edmonds asked
me during that meeting that we had if
you want to call it a meeting he said do
you know how many people spent their
lives risked their lives and sometimes
gave their lives so you could have the
opportunity to succeed and when he asked
me that I finally saw the correlation
between the sacrifices of others and my
actions and I began to govern myself
accordingly it is my hope that everyone
who hears the tools of learning program
will do likewise I’d like to conclude if
you know any adult without a high school
diploma please inform them that there
are thousands of adult education
programs throughout our nation designed
to help them to graduate and once they
get that diploma in their hands no one
will ever be able to call them a high
school drop again and if at any time
they need help learning understanding
and remembering information please keep
in mind the tools of learning well
that’s all my time please keep in mind
these five words never stop hitting the
[Music] [Applause]
throughout the United States of America
over the age of 25 don’t have a high
school diploma that’s more than 29
million adults one of the reasons why
there are so many adults without high
school diplomas is because throughout
our nation 7,000 students drop out of
school every day now it should come as
no surprise to anyone that in those
areas throughout our country with the
graduation rate is low the unemployment
rate is high and the rate of
incarceration is even higher but the
most troubling fact related to these
statistics is this the single greatest
determinant of how well a child will do
in school is the education level of the
parents so with so many obvious negative
consequences to dropping out of high
school why would anyone choose to do so
a common misconception is this the high
school dropout is someone who chose to
develop a negative attitude about some
aspect of the learning experience and
their bad attitude caused them to turn
their backs on their education however
some people who drop out of high school
loved all aspects of the learning
experience but they were assigned to
take classes in a school that became
nothing less than dangerous so they left
school out of concern for their own
physical well-being and that is
particularly true in those neighborhoods
with a high crime rate I’m keenly aware
of some of the challenges faced by the
young high school dropout and the adult
without a high school diploma not
because I’m aware of a few statistics I
know from as George Washington once said
dear Bart experience and I say that
because when I was 14 years old I made
the conscious decision to quit school
next year will be the 50th anniversary
of me making that mistake and I’ve often
referred to it as the worst decision of
a few years after I came to the
realization that I needed an education
and that I wanted a career I developed a
means by which to recover called the
tools of learning it’s a system of
learning understanding and remembering
information so that a person can succeed
in both work in school now when most
people first hear of this tools of
learning they say well what makes it
different what makes it unique and I’ve
got several reasons why I believe it’s
unique but for most are the following to
number one most of the students I teach
this information to our adults without a
high school diploma returning to school
some of them haven’t been to school in
decades literally decades
well since the program was written by
someone without an education struggling
to get an education and finally figuring
out how to how to get it done the tools
of learning is written at a level that
most adult education students can
readily understand I estimate that most
of it is written a door below the ninth
grade level but more important is this
reason why it’s different the
introduction and the beginning of each
of the 20 tools has something in it
called the preparation motivation the
preparation motivation is something I
learned from an organization called the
Connecticut state fire school now known
as the Connecticut Academy and what it
says simply stated is in every lesson
plan you should have a means by which to
prepare or motivate the student to value
the information you’re going to teach
them that’s the essence of it well I
learned about how important the
preparation motivation is the hard way
from the following experience I was in
the process of giving my very first
presentation to a group of adult
education students some of them will
order to be in the classroom by their
parole officers and they looked at me
like this and will look on their face
that said go ahead and teach us this we
dare you so after I spoke for just about
three minutes one of them stood up
quickly and pointed at me and said who
are you to teach us how to study and
when he said that
said I obviously didn’t prepare motivate
these people develop information and so
on the spot I decided that I would tell
them the story of why the tools of
learning was created in the first place
and it seemed to work they listened to
the rest of the presentation
they asked meaningful questions and even
thanked me when the entire presentation
was over but that preparation motivation
consists of consists of the following
three years after I quit going to school
I was getting ready to turn 18 years old
and I knew I was gonna need a full-time
job and I was eligible to apply for a
job at Pratt & Whitney a factory next to
Hartford and they paid big money and
they didn’t require a high school
diploma but she had to have a good job
reference so I went to go see the most
respected man I knew his name was Walter
James dr. Lee senior he was my fifth
grade gym teacher and in the years to
follow he created a scholarship fund
that sent over 500 high school graduates
to college among many other great things
but I went to see him for a job
reference to get the Pratt and Whitney
and instead of getting a job reference I
got a lecture and that lecture lasted
for about 45 minutes but the gist of it
was persistence he said I quitted
everything got to be persistent be of
service
stop being so self-centered help someone
else and the last thing he talked about
was getting an education at one point he
said I’m not gonna help you get a job at
Pratt & Whitney or anywhere else because
you’re going back to school I said I
can’t go back to school mr. Hurley I’d
be an eighteen year old freshman he said
you don’t have to go back to high school
you can get a GED and with that you can
go on to college now he had explained to
me what a GED was but when I left his
house I had the distinct feeling that I
was going to be able to make something
of my life in spite of all the mistakes
I had made of him to that point so for
the next two years I worked at getting a
GED had to take the test twice because I
flunked it the first time then I went to
college in college twice I went to
college didn’t get a single college
credit because I
filled all the courses certain that I
wasn’t gonna get a college education I
applied to the Hartford fire department
my brother Rocky Edgar teal came to my
rescue
he said there’s an organization in City
of Hartford called Plan B incorporated
run by a woman named Cynthia Jennings
and they’ll prepare you to take the test
to become a firefighter so I took their
course four times after four times I
could have taught the course I got into
the Hartford fire department but the
first day of training was a real
eye-opening experience the deputy chief
of training a man by the name of raymond
McTighe came before the class and he
said i sincerely hope some of you left
your previous jobs and good terms
because you’re going back he then went
on to say you have to maintain at least
a 70 average if you go below 70 average
you’ll be dismissed from the program at
that time I had a four year old daughter
Kathleen a two year old son Charlie and
I said I can’t lose this job I looked at
the syllabus they were law and chemistry
definitions that had to be learned in
medical terms
hydraulic formulas like gallons per
minute equals twenty nine point seven
times a diamond square times the square
of the nozzle pressure I said how am I
gonna learn this this speaking Chinese
it’s not just something I can understand
at all
so during our first break I went up to
the first recruit I saw outside this is
a long time ago obviously but his name
was Eddie Lopez he’s on the left and
that’s me on the right but I walked out
to him and I said how you plan on
getting through this training program
successfully you know maybe we should
get some study groups together he said
no we don’t need any study groups he
says I was in the military and they
taught us how to remember information he
then went on to explain what his system
consisted of visualization repetition to
enhance retention quite comprehensive as
a matter of fact tool number 17 includes
it in support of tool number 17 of the
22 –ls
but when I finished talking with him I
said goodness sakes is a way to remember
information I wish I had known that
years ago but for the next two months I
worked at creating my own
system of remembering information and I
knew that I had to readily learn it and
that understanding and information was a
prerequisite to retention or it worked
better if I understood it before I tried
to remember it at the end of two months
I had eleven ways but I wish to learn
understand and remember information and
that program took me to the top of my
recruit class out of 33 recruits I
graduated number one with a 99.7 average
thank you encouraged by my success I
signed up for more training even after I
graduate from drill school got into the
luciene Theory all came up to me and he
said Charles I believe you’re the kind
of man that can become chief of this
department but I mean looking at your
record you’re not gonna make it with the
GED says you got to get a college
education and so I went about the
possible process of getting a college
education using the tools of learning
this time I made it
I got an associate degree from Capital
Community College a bachelor’s degree
from Springfield College and a master’s
degree from the University of Hartford
and thank you I also use the tools of
learning to pass all my promotional
exams on my way to becoming chief of the
Hartford fire department over the course
of the 32 years following that summer of
1982 the tools of learning Wentz through
three hundred twelve revisions but each
time I went through a revision it
revolved around one central idea and
that idea is this you should never try
to learn anything without knowing how to
learn how to understand and how to
remember that information first what I’d
like to do with the rest of my time is
just share with you a sample of what the
program consists of it’s 20 tools long
and I can only address just a portion of
each of the tools that I’m going to
address but use of a dictionary this
recommends the five times that system of
building a powerful vocabulary sense
search synonym sentence and story the
purpose of it is to enhance our ability
to comprehend what we
– right to be able to engage in public
speaking and also to avoid those dreaded
and malapropism words that don’t exist
that we use periodically words like yeah
conversate not a word
expressions like for all intensive
purposes not an expression I know this
from experience but that’s the beauty of
this this tool next this is just one
sixth of the tool on establishing a
solid math foundation but it’s
deceptively important addition
subtraction multiplication and division
it is amazing to me how many people go
off to college without knowing their
times tables and if you don’t know your
times tables you can’t add or subtract
fractions you can’t do most of algebra
you can’t do most of geometry and all of
that informations foundation doing
trigonometry when I’m telling you is you
won’t be able to do math in college and
they will not teach you your times
tables in college once again I know from
experience the PSG or personal study
guide simply stated that’s a sheet of
paper front and back on the back of the
paper you put all the facts that you
think are necessary for you to know and
find difficult to remember on the front
of the paper you create a question that
forces you to answer questions regarding
the information on the back it’s the
best way that I can think of to test
yourself before you’re tested by someone
else and this thing works I’m telling
you from experience a lot of experience
in this matter of fact most of the
program using knowledge to solve
problems although the tools of learning
has been used by as a program has been
used by many individuals adults to get
gray’s degrees different promotions it’s
not the ultimate goal of the program the
ultimate goal of the tools of learning
programs is to learn understand remember
information so that you can use that
information to solve problems because
it’s the Dean of self-improvement Earl
Nightingale once said if you’re not in
the problem-solving kind of business
you’re unemployed all right and finally
just for this evening and actually the
last of the 20 tools this is grand
finale when I left my mentors house
Walter doc Hurley he sent me to go see a
counselor by the name of Bill Edmunds
who worked at what is now known as
Katherine
community college and bill Edmonds asked
me during that meeting that we had if
you want to call it a meeting he said do
you know how many people spent their
lives risked their lives and sometimes
gave their lives so you could have the
opportunity to succeed and when he asked
me that I finally saw the correlation
between the sacrifices of others and my
actions and I began to govern myself
accordingly it is my hope that everyone
who hears the tools of learning program
will do likewise I’d like to conclude if
you know any adult without a high school
diploma please inform them that there
are thousands of adult education
programs throughout our nation designed
to help them to graduate and once they
get that diploma in their hands no one
will ever be able to call them a high
school drop again and if at any time
they need help learning understanding
and remembering information please keep
in mind the tools of learning well
that’s all my time please keep in mind
these five words never stop hitting the
[Music] [Applause]
Please follow and like us: