The Technology of Study

The ability to fully understand a text allows one to use what one has learned quickly and correctly. Sometimes the realization that one has run up against a study barrier and the immediate ability to get that remedied do not go hand in hand, both in conventional education and in life. 

In order to overcome study barriers and ensure a student can truly put his or her education to use, we use a simple set of tools called Study Technology™. With them, a student can learn to recognize the signs of study difficulty and, most importantly, do something about it. Using this approach, our students become confident and enthusiastic learners. In fact, on the previous page, you just read about the Three Barriers to Study, a key component of Study Technology.

At Laurel Academy, in the primary grades, teachers facilitate by observing students and looking for signs of upset, confusion, agitation, blankness, boredom, etc., so that the appropriate remedy can be suggested. This may be as simple as defining a word, locating the correct manipulatives, or even drawing a sketch to work out the problem.

Once a student’s literacy level rises to the 4th grade, students begin learning the tools of this technology for themselves, including how to recognize when they run into a barrier and how to get it remedied.

Who owns Study Technology™?

Study Technology™ is a secular (non-religious) methodology developed by American author, engineer, educator, and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard, whose discoveries and writings cover a wide range of secular (non-religious) activity. Mr. Hubbard became interested in the field of education as a young man while teaching English in a native school in Guam during the 1920s.

By the early 1960's, he saw that declining educational standards were having a profound effect on the learning abilities of people from all walks of life. His investigation of this decline, and subsequent research regarding the basic laws of education, led to a revolutionary development in the field—an actual technology of study (referred to as Study Technology or simply Study Tech).

His lectures on this work were recorded, and they form the basis for this revolutionary approach to teaching and learning. In 1972, Mr. Hubbard gifted the rights to Study Technology™ to a group of educators from colleges, universities, and both public and private schools; they established a non-profit educational organization called Applied Scholastics™.

The mission of Applied Scholastics is to provide effective education services and materials that help people learn how to learn and thereby work effectively to achieve their goals and realize their full potential. As such, Study Technology™ serves every conceivable educational arena—public and private K–12 schools, community-based learning programs, state and local government education agencies, professional training, and tutoring centers. 

Laurel Academy is licensed to use Applied Scholastics™ educational materials (specifically Learning How to Learn, and How to Use a Dictionary).

Does Laurel Academy have any religious affiliation?

No. Academic subjects (such as math, geography, science, language arts, art, etc.) are inherently non-religious. No materials, courses or curriculum in the Laurel Academy program have been derived from religious materials of any kind.

Laurel Academy is a fully independent, non-profit, secular, K-5 day school welcoming students of all faiths. Our school pays no fees or tithes to any church and does not teach the doctrines of any one faith, though we celebrate a variety of cultural holidays as our student body is very diverse.

Can non-profits earn a profit?

The term "nonprofit" is a bit of a misnomer. Nonprofits can make a profit (and should try to have some level of positive revenue to build a reserve fund to ensure sustainability). The key difference between nonprofits and for-profits is that a nonprofit organization cannot distribute its profits to any private individual (although nonprofits may pay reasonable compensation to those providing services). This prohibition against “private benefit” is because tax-exempt charitable nonprofits are formed to benefit the public, not private interests.

More food for thought

It is important to understand that Mr. Hubbard continues in the tradition of many individuals throughout history who, while being dedicated to their religion, also made significant contributions to the secular world and to the betterment of mankind.

Among these are Noah Webster (1758-1843) who was a Born Again Christian. He was also the father of the American dictionary and the American system of copyright laws. In 1783, he published a little book called the Blue Back Speller that sold one hundred million copies and was used to teach many notable Americans to read such as Frederick Douglas and Booker T. Washington.

Another example is Joseph Priestly (1733-1804), who was a minister in Leeds, England. He was also the chemist who discovered pure oxygen, something essential to hospitals and respiratory care patients.

Many of our most well-known institutions of higher learning were founded by men of strong religious conviction. Harvard, for example, was established in 1636 and became an official college when minister and philanthropist, John Harvard, gifted it with his entire library and half his estate.

Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, the largest private liberal arts college for men in the U. S., was started in the basement of a Baptist Church by Dr. William Jefferson White, a Baptist minister.

In fact, Morehouse College’s most famous graduate, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., employed the philosophy of another religious figure, Mahatma Gandhi, and changed the face and future of America with his philosophy of non-violence to advocate for human rights.

We owe it to many individuals of many religious backgrounds for advancing Mankind over the centuries.