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At-risk Students Who Find Success! How & Why?

There is a small percentage of teenagers who dropout of high school and become self-made millionaires. HOW and WHY, you may ask? These achievers used self-motivated projects with interactive learning methods to develop valuable skills. Does it not make sense that these people hold the secret to achievement that other students could follow? Why does society keep pushing failed policies on failing students?

Education leaders' wants society to believe that students in passive learning environments are the only one’s who find success. They want everyone to believe that success personalities are based on classroom compatibility. Super achievers are interactive learners who take on projects that are in harmony with their natural talent. Their projects are based on dreams, goals and/or creative ideas. Finding a way to develop self-inspired ideas, and get it right, is a powerful motivating drive. Interactive learning is the power behind people who have above average income. The sequence is as follows:

  1. The first step is to have a burning idea/ goal that motivates. This will be based on natural talent, if free of outside pressure.
  2. Develop a list of mini projects that will help achieve the grand goal. Develop the habit of finishing what you start. Starting and not finishing small projects leads to nowhere. One must learn to complete mini projects so as to have what it takes to complete large projects.
  3. Research to acquire knowledge related to the selected projects. This will be in harmony with individual learning methods. If the classroom is a turnoff, then use other learning methods, self-education and team education for example.
  4. Develop creative knowledge with the help of intuitive forces. The level of creative ability depends on one's ability to reject negative opinions and status quo pressures.
  5. The ability to process known and with creative knowledge, and learn from it without dependency on instructors. The art of learning how to learn.
  6. When resources are available, experiment, trying and failing are learning tools. No one has ever become an achiever without first experiencing failure.
  7. The ability to bounce back from failure. Thomas Edison had a thousand failures while inventing the light bulb. What if he quit at 900?... That's not likely, because one is motivated to keep pushing when on the right track, even if it is failure number 900. One changes direction when it is obvious they are headed in the wrong direction.
  8. Ability to be persistent. The winners are the one's who hang in there when everything goes wrong.

The above steps are based on interactive learning. Many failing students would find a productive lifestyle if they had interactive learning opportunity. Projects are inspiring and motivating. "Motivation is education."

The argument is that students must learn academics and communication skills first. It is obvious that dropouts, who found success, did not go that route. They first focused on what motivated them and then picked up academics and communication skills as needed. They depended on themselves to acquire the knowledge they needed. They rejected the people who wanted to control them.

Interactive learning in high school would have powerful benefits for all students. They not only learn the art of processing knowledge, they understand the need for skills through experience. This motivates them to learn and not be dependent on others or be limited by the opinions of others. Interactive learning is man's natural learning method and it is in harmony with the forces of nature.

This article talks about super achievers, I use this term because their method of learning is easy to understand. But, interactive learning skills would give the at-risk student the tools to pick themselves up should they leave the system. They might not become super achievers, but they would find ways to develop skills that would increase the value of their productivity. Our present system is to force all students to accept passive learning methods or get out of the way. Alternatives would be beneficial to students and society. People by nature have a desire to learn and be productive, they need opportunity that is in harmony with their learning personality. This approach is highly motivating and motivation is the first step to productive lifestyles.

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