Archive for August, 2009

How do we teach one another? How can it be that we were instructed in everything that we now know?

At some points in history, knowledge was elitist and even a forbidden concept. In 399 BC, Socrates explained that he was known as the wisest of all men since he understood that he only knew about nothing. Socrates was ultimately executed because of his unyielding questioning to the Athens population to find out how they knew what they knew.

Today, we still ask Socrates questions and have yet to fully understand the answers; nevertheless, technology is bringing us closer and closer.

Science and technology discovered is that the human brain is capable of processing 10,000 to 50,000 units or single words in one minute. But, these are older statistics from the 1980s, but new technology studying speed reading combined with brain development research indicates that you can most likely read even faster. Most high school graduates read 200 words per minute, down from 252 wpm from 25 years ago. College students, only one or two years older, have improved to 120% words per minute simply from having to read so much and the brain practicing reading so much. Regardless, of your beginning reading speed “increases for 50-60% the first day is more than likely, in two days of reading practice ” youve doubled your reading speed.

The brain is a computer composed of human organic materials. If you were to consider your brain as the hardware (CPU = Central Processing Unit or a computers own brain) and your mind (the thoughts you think) as the software, you wouldnt be far from what the scientists evaluating the brain believe; that the mind and brain are component parts of our physical bodies is to give us an efficient way to determine more things.

The human mind is connected to our physical bodies to make life more useful for us to learn and thrive. This amazing tool allows us to absorb a universe of knowledge in many different ways.

Childhood education creates the first limitations to reading ability. Heres what the first two years usually look like to a young learner of language: 1. First, we are introduced to the alphabet and how each letter sounds. 2. Then, we move on to put letters together into syllables and hear their unique sounds. 3. Later, we formed words and their individual pronunciations. 4. Then, we progressed to sentences and lastly paragraphs, which we read loudly.

In that learning method, we move our lips slowly and carefully so that we would pronounce each syllable and every word clearly. There were entire classes dedicated to learning how to read out loud.

We did pronounce every single word correctly, and then we were praised by our teacher and we felt the thrill and excitement because we were learning so well. Soon, it was determined that we could indeed read, so we no longer read in the classroom out loud. Most of us, however, were still concentrating on every syllable and reading each word out loud to ourselves for confirmation. This phenomenon, called sub-vocalization, is what causes us to have the 200-300 words per minute limitation to our reading speeds in high school and University. Interestingly, its the same speed at which most people talk (unless you live in the Southern US and have learned the Southern Drawl that slows you down even more).

Theres been research to show that high school students that use speed reading methods can double their reading speed. When these techniques are practiced on a regular basis, the results are even more impressive.

With the power of the brain and mind combined, you can stretch out and achieve far greater abilities. In fact, the amount of words that can be read per minute has no bounds. It is only a persons inner voice that can limit us, stop us and confuse us while reading or studying.

These voices tend to Babble On while you are struggling to perform tasks, such as reading. It is that same voice, that can make you panic before an exam. It is only when you quiet this Babblers voice that you can truly transfer and speed read material at a phenomenal rate.

SPEED READING can help you to overcome slow reading habits developed from your early education. You can then retrain yourself to read faster.

It is remarkable how your brain and mind have the ability to absorb thousands of bits of information in a small amount of time. You are like many people that read slowly on account of early education. You become bogged down when you are mouthing syllables and words. Even though you have developed these bad habits in early education, its great to know that from this moment on, you can retrain yourself to be a powerful SPEED READER and your potential is limitless.

One benefit of Speed Reading is that it can help you in reading and understanding written information much quicker. Speed Reading is useful in careers, especially where you are required to master large volumes of information quickly. Many people run into burn out from information overload. Speed Reading assists you to absorb and retain, for later recall, all the information that you read.