The Star Online: Malaysia News ~ Mongolia adopts new method of learning

October 19, 2003 under Applied Scholastics

A study technology, developed by L. Ron Hubbard, will be introduced in Mongolian schools through Applied Scholastics (AS), an organisation that makes available Hubbard”s educational methods to the world.

At the invitation of Tumor Ochi, the Speaker of the Mongolian Parliament, representatives of Applied Scholastics went to Mongolia, including S. Krishnan, the executive director of Applied Scholastics Malaysia.

Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, developed the study technology to help students learn how to learn and understand what they study. It consists of tools and techniques teachers can use to improve the learning rates of their students.

Krishnan, Ann Roberts, an exponent of AS learning technology for African nations, and Damien Bolger, from the UK chapter of AS, presented the study technology to Ochi.

“Democracy is new to Mongolia and reforms in all aspects of Mongolian socio-economic life have been introduced over the last decade,” said Ochi, who was introduced to Hubbard”s learning technology during a visit to Britain.

A memorandum of understanding for the implementation of the study technology was signed by the Mongolian Ministry of Education.

There are at present 624,000 students attending schools in the 29 provinces of Mongolia.

Krishnan said AS in Malaysia will work closely with the Mongolian Ministry of Education to create an implementation strategy.

“It will be a tremendous challenge as the course materials and books would have to be translated. The Mongolian national language, Altaic, has the same roots as the Finnish and Hungarian languages. Modern Mongolian is written in Cyrillic script,” he said.

Original link: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/10/19/education/6380824

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The Lovelock Review-Miner ~ Board makes it official: Applied Scholastics study dropped

September 4, 2003 under Applied Scholastics

During a special meeting of the Pershing County School Board on Tuesday, Sept. 2, the Pershing County School Board voted to permanently discontinue use of the Applied Scholastics study program within the Pershing County School District.

Several people throughout the community, including parents and teachers, had expressed concern with the program because the books used in the program are reportedly based on the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology.

At a special school board meeting last week on Tuesday, Aug. 26, several people spoke both for and against the program. Those who spoke for the program said that it has helped students both here in Lovelock and also across the country.

Pershing County Middle School teacher Debra Scilacci was one of those teachers who supported the program. She said that she has used the program in her classroom and it has helped several students improve reading skills. Other people from out of town spoke about how the program had helped students in their communities.

Those who spoke against the program said that the link to Hubbard was reason enough to cause them concern. Pershing County High School teacher Valdine McLean expressed her opposition to using the program. She said that she felt that Hubbard’s connection to the program was her major concern.

Also speaking out against the program, were Pershing County Elementary Literacy specialists Sandy Condie and Shea Murphy. Condie and Murphy run a literacy program at the elementary school and said that the Applied Scholastics program is radically different than what they teach in the younger grades.

At the meeting last week, the school board members said that they needed more time to look at all the information that had been presented to them.

School Board chairman Shane Thacker asked his fellow board members how they would like to approach the subject of Applied Scholastics and making a decision. He said that they could either do an informal discussion and then make a motion, or a motion could be made and then have a formal discussion.

School Board member Todd Plimpton said that at the first meeting a great deal of testimony was taken by the audience and that the testimony had been articulated very well.

He made a motion that “the Pershing County School Board, upon further consideration and review of the materials and testimony as presented, hereby suspend indefinitely, without prejudice, the Applied Scholastics program.” Board member Rachel Clingan seconded the motion.

Clingan said that her decision was not a reflection of any the people who have been involved with the Applied Scholastics program.

“It has helped some students,” Clingan said “that’s not an issue here.”

She said that suspending the program is the right thing to do for the community at this time.

Board member Brad Arnold said that this issue has been interesting and thought-provoking.

Arnold said that when the issue came up what he wanted to know was if the program met the needs of the district.

“After the reading the results presented by staff,” Arnold said “I am not convinced that this technique, by itself, has proved or produced a mainstream improvement.”

Arnold said that he is convinced that increased individualized instruction as provided by staff either in school or summer school has proven to be beneficial.

He also said that no program will be successful unless there is a committed staff dedicated to providing the needed efforts to help students improve. He also said that no staff can be effective with division amongst them.

Arnold suggested finding another effective program that isn’t as divisive among staff and parents.

Thacker said that the board has always been forward looking and will continue to look for new and better programs.

Plimpton called for the board’s decision on his motion following any discussion from the audience. There was no comment from those in attendance and a vote was called for.

The motion to discontinue use of the Applied Scholastics program was unanimously passed by the board.

There was confusion regarding the program L.E.A.P. (Literacy Education and Awareness Project) and it’s connection to Applied Scholastics. Thacker explained that L.E.A.P. is a literacy program designed to provide dictionairies to students and there is no connection between L.E.A.P. and Applied Scholastics. However, L.E.A.P. founder Jess Jonas is a strong supporter of the Applied Scholastics program.

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Lovelock Review-Miner ~ Board orders staff to discontinue use of purported Scientology-connected books

August 28, 2003 under Applied Scholastics

The Pershing County School Board has ordered the discontinuation of a study program currently being used at Pershing County Middle School until further research could be done by the school board members. The decision was due to the concern of many people in the community regarding this program.

The motion was made at a special meeting of the school board on Tuesday, Aug. 26. The chief concerns include the fact that the books being used in the program are authored by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology and that the terms used in the books may be the fundamental basis for the Church of Scientology.

This study method is called LEAP, Literacy and Education Awareness Project and comes from a non-profit company called Applied Scholastics. While the program has been used within the school district for over a year, the concerns were just recently raised when Pershing County High School teacher Valdine McLean learned of the program’s connection to Hubbard and the Church of Scientology.

Once aware of the connection, McLean said she expanded her research and also started notifying people in the public about what she had learned.

At the regular meeting of the school board on Monday, Aug.18, a number of Pershing County residents attended the meeting to voice their concerns about the study method.

At the meeting McLean said that through her research of Applied Scholastics she learned that the program has a direct link to the Church of Scientology.

She said that L. Ron Hubbard is as revered in the Church of Scientology as the pope is in Catholicism and Joseph Smith is with the Church of Latter Day Saints. She said, the fact that he authored the books concerns her.

“My question is, if the pope’s name was on any public books,” McLean said, “would it be appropriate for school?” She said that she would think that it was not.

McLean said that while the books say nothing directly about scientology, the terms used in the books are the fundamental basis for the Church of Scientology. McLean provided information to the board that showed that the three principles of the study method are also fundamentals in the Church of Scientology.

School board president Shane Tacker asked the rest of the board if they felt that the issue needed to be looked at further. Board member Todd Plimpton was absent from the meeting, but board members Brad Arnold, Rene Childs and Rachel Clingan all agreed that the issue needed to be further researched and reviewed at a future board meeting.

Later in the meeting, Special Programs Coordinator Anita Fisk, who was instrumental in bringing the project to Lovelock, and Debra Scilacci, PCMS teacher, spoke about the program. Fisk urged the board to talk to the teachers before making a decision about whether or not to use the program. She also said that there was nothing underhanded on her part to hide anything about the program. Scilacci has been using the program in her classes and presented the board with information on how the program helped in her summer school classes.

Thacker asked Fisk if she felt it was a time-sensitive item that needed to be decided on sooner rather than later. Fisk said that because of the grant money which would pay for the continuation of the program and because the teachers need to know if they will be using the program this year, it was a time-sensitive item.

The board decided to hold the special board meeting to receive further information.

The members of the school board were given a packet of information that would help them in making their decision.

In addition to the information provided by McLean, there was also information compiled by Scilacci during the 2003 Summer school session. The information had several charts, including one that showed how the average ending grade level increased from the average beginning grade level in several subjects.

Also included in the packet were samples of research date associated with the study program, Applied Scholastics’ application of incorporation as a non-profit educational research agency, articles about the successful implementation of study technology and testimonies in favor of the program.

During the special board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 26, the room was packed by more than 100 people. Dave Noonan from the University of Nevada facilitated the meeting so that the board members could concentrate on the information and testimony being given.

Superintendent of schools Dan Fox spoke first, giving a brief history of the program in Pershing County. He said that the program was approved by the school board just like any other educational program.

Fisk said that the study is used across the United States in private and public schools. She said that the books used in the program do not proselytize for any religion. She explained that if any funding were being diverted from Applied Scholastics to any religion, it would not be non-profit. She said that 28 teachers that had initial training with the program moved forward with additional training.

She said that she was told that if Hubbard’s name wasn’t on the book’s cover and the words used in the program were changed to not be so similar to those words used in Scientology, the program wouldn’t be as objectionable.

“Is a rose by any other name not still a rose?” Fisk asked. According to her the program would still be the same.

Of those teachers that attended the training, Fisk said that no teacher has been told that they have to teach the program a specific way. Instead, they were told they could apply the program any way they choose.

PCMS Principal Charles Safford said that he has looked through the books and has determined that they are secular. He said that several PCMS teachers said that they would like to add the study method to their curriculum. He said that district staff members who are in favor of the program asked him not to use their names because they were concerned of people’s reaction.

Several people from out of town spoke positively about the program. The people included LEAP staff members and Ed Fila, a representative from a Utah-based company called Innovations in Education. Fila said that several schools in Utah use this program including the best academic school in Utah.

Those who spoke in favor of the program included Scilacci, PCMS Counselor Donna Seager and others.

Seager said that when she went through the training she was excited about the educational possibilities. She said that it can be used with several ages of students and up to college students and adults.

Scilacci said that the program does meet Nevada standards and is not religiously connected.

“I do not teach Scientology in my classroom, I teach dictionary use and I teach study skills,” Scilacci said.

McLean, Quint Hughes, Richard Wagner, Tom Moura, Walter and Coni Jo Brinkerhoff were amongst those that were opposed to the program.

McLean said that it is her faith as a Catholic that has prompted her to do what she has done.

“What else do I have to gain by being here?” She asked.

She said that it was interesting that people from Las Vegas, Utah and California had to be brought in to testify for the program. She said that she doesn’t care how good the program is and if it does raise test scores if it undermines people’s faith.

McLean said that she wasn’t there to make accusations against school district staff, she was there to demonstrate her concern that the program violated the separation of church and state. She said that a strong connection between the study method and Scientology is that the same publisher published both the program materials and Scientology books. McLean also said that on the Church of Scientology’s website, the Church claims the books as their own.

She said that The Watchtower, a publication put out by the Jehovah’s Witnesses would not be accepted in the classroom. According to McLean, having Hubbard’s name on the books makes those books equivalent to the The Watchtower.

McLean received a round of applause when she was done speaking.

Hughes spoke as a parent of a student in the district. He said that he objects to the program because of the connection to Scientology.

Wagner said that he was there to speak as an individual. He said that he didn’t care if the program was good or bad, he cared if it was constitutional. He said that there could be a violation of constitutional rights if the board decided to use the program despite the concerns of the citizen. He stated that he had a problem with the usage of the program.

He showed a copy of the booklet being used with the instruction of teachers. He asked that if the name L. Ron Hubbard was replaced with the name Jesus Christ, a cross placed on the cover and a synopsis of Hubbard’s life inside the book was replaced with a synopsis of Christ’s life, would it be allowed in schools?

“That’s what this is about,” he said.

Wagner said that the words used in the program are the indoctrination words used in Scientology. “I don’t care what any of you say, I know that’s true,” he said. He added that this situation is a violation of the separation of church and state.

Moura said that he is skeptical about the program because it has Hubbard’s name on the books. He said that looking back on his own schooling, he had a teacher that pushed the use of the dictionary just like this program does. “Why has that been lost?” Moura asked. He said that he would encourage other existing programs to reach for the same goals as Applied Scholastics. He also encouraged the district to urge staff to use a dictionary in their classrooms.

Walter Brinkerhoff said that he supported McLean in the research she has done. He said that he was told that the program is one of the top ten education programs. He then suggested looking into the other nine and going with one that doesn’t create such concern in the community. Coni Jo Brinkerhoff, Senior English teacher at Pershing County High School, also urged the board to look into other successful programs.

Lovelock Elementary Literacy Specialists Sandy Condie and Shea Murphy said that the Applied Scholastics is drastically different than the reading methods they are teaching in elementary school. They were both concerned about the differences between the two programs and the different teaching methods that students would receive.

Board member Todd Plimpton said that he would like time to digest all the information. He said that in all his years on the school board he has never seen so much public interest.

The other board members agreed that they needed more time to look at all the information. Plimpton made a motion to discontinue use of all materials related to the program until a final determination could be made. Arnold seconded the motion and it was passed.

Fisk asked for a clarification of the motion. She was told that the books are not to be used, but teachers are to continue using their best teaching methods.

Another special board meeting was set up for Tuesday, September 2at 5:15. The location is yet to be determined, but Fox said that he would try to find a location to better suit the number of people. Tacker said that the next special meeting won’t be for testimony, but to give the school board an opportunity to discuss the issue amongst themselves and make a final decision.

An audience member asked why it seemed that the program was brought in the back door. Board member Clingan said that it wasn’t brought in the back door. Both the initial presentation and the approval of the program were on the school board agenda.

In an interview McLean said that much of her research was based on an essay on Scientology’s Study Technology and compares the terms used in the Applied Scholastics program to the terms used in the Church of Scientology. She said that website can be found at www.studytech.org/study_tech.php McLean said that all the information on the website can be validated. It offers weblinks to where the information was obtained from and all the words are used in the same way.

comments: Closed

Lovelock Review-Miner ~ Board orders staff to discontinue use of purported Scientology-connected books

August 23, 2003 under Applied Scholastics

The Pershing County School Board has ordered the discontinuation of a study program currently being used at Pershing County Middle School until further research could be done by the school board members. The decision was due to the concern of many people in the community regarding this program.

The motion was made at a special meeting of the school board on Tuesday, Aug. 26. The chief concerns include the fact that the books being used in the program are authored by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology and that the terms used in the books may be the fundamental basis for the Church of Scientology.

This study method is called LEAP, Literacy and Education Awareness Project and comes from a non-profit company called Applied Scholastics. While the program has been used within the school district for over a year, the concerns were just recently raised when Pershing County High School teacher Valdine McLean learned of the program’s connection to Hubbard and the Church of Scientology.

Once aware of the connection, McLean said she expanded her research and also started notifying people in the public about what she had learned.

At the regular meeting of the school board on Monday, Aug.18, a number of Pershing County residents attended the meeting to voice their concerns about the study method.

At the meeting McLean said that through her research of Applied Scholastics she learned that the program has a direct link to the Church of Scientology.

She said that L. Ron Hubbard is as revered in the Church of Scientology as the pope is in Catholicism and Joseph Smith is with the Church of Latter Day Saints. She said, the fact that he authored the books concerns her.

“My question is, if the pope’s name was on any public books,” McLean said, “would it be appropriate for school?” She said that she would think that it was not.

McLean said that while the books say nothing directly about scientology, the terms used in the books are the fundamental basis for the Church of Scientology. McLean provided information to the board that showed that the three principles of the study method are also fundamentals in the Church of Scientology.

School board president Shane Tacker asked the rest of the board if they felt that the issue needed to be looked at further. Board member Todd Plimpton was absent from the meeting, but board members Brad Arnold, Rene Childs and Rachel Clingan all agreed that the issue needed to be further researched and reviewed at a future board meeting.

Later in the meeting, Special Programs Coordinator Anita Fisk, who was instrumental in bringing the project to Lovelock, and Debra Scilacci, PCMS teacher, spoke about the program. Fisk urged the board to talk to the teachers before making a decision about whether or not to use the program. She also said that there was nothing underhanded on her part to hide anything about the program. Scilacci has been using the program in her classes and presented the board with information on how the program helped in her summer school classes.

Thacker asked Fisk if she felt it was a time-sensitive item that needed to be decided on sooner rather than later. Fisk said that because of the grant money which would pay for the continuation of the program and because the teachers need to know if they will be using the program this year, it was a time-sensitive item.

The board decided to hold the special board meeting to receive further information.

The members of the school board were given a packet of information that would help them in making their decision.

In addition to the information provided by McLean, there was also information compiled by Scilacci during the 2003 Summer school session. The information had several charts, including one that showed how the average ending grade level increased from the average beginning grade level in several subjects.

Also included in the packet were samples of research date associated with the study program, Applied Scholastics’ application of incorporation as a non-profit educational research agency, articles about the successful implementation of study technology and testimonies in favor of the program.

During the special board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 26, the room was packed by more than 100 people. Dave Noonan from the University of Nevada facilitated the meeting so that the board members could concentrate on the information and testimony being given.

Superintendent of schools Dan Fox spoke first, giving a brief history of the program in Pershing County. He said that the program was approved by the school board just like any other educational program.

Fisk said that the study is used across the United States in private and public schools. She said that the books used in the program do not proselytize for any religion. She explained that if any funding were being diverted from Applied Scholastics to any religion, it would not be non-profit. She said that 28 teachers that had initial training with the program moved forward with additional training.

She said that she was told that if Hubbard’s name wasn’t on the book’s cover and the words used in the program were changed to not be so similar to those words used in Scientology, the program wouldn’t be as objectionable.

“Is a rose by any other name not still a rose?” Fisk asked. According to her the program would still be the same.

Of those teachers that attended the training, Fisk said that no teacher has been told that they have to teach the program a specific way. Instead, they were told they could apply the program any way they choose.

PCMS Principal Charles Safford said that he has looked through the books and has determined that they are secular. He said that several PCMS teachers said that they would like to add the study method to their curriculum. He said that district staff members who are in favor of the program asked him not to use their names because they were concerned of people’s reaction.

Several people from out of town spoke positively about the program. The people included LEAP staff members and Ed Fila, a representative from a Utah-based company called Innovations in Education. Fila said that several schools in Utah use this program including the best academic school in Utah.

Those who spoke in favor of the program included Scilacci, PCMS Counselor Donna Seager and others.

Seager said that when she went through the training she was excited about the educational possibilities. She said that it can be used with several ages of students and up to college students and adults.

Scilacci said that the program does meet Nevada standards and is not religiously connected.

“I do not teach Scientology in my classroom, I teach dictionary use and I teach study skills,” Scilacci said.

McLean, Quint Hughes, Richard Wagner, Tom Moura, Walter and Coni Jo Brinkerhoff were amongst those that were opposed to the program.

McLean said that it is her faith as a Catholic that has prompted her to do what she has done.

“What else do I have to gain by being here?” She asked.

She said that it was interesting that people from Las Vegas, Utah and California had to be brought in to testify for the program. She said that she doesn’t care how good the program is and if it does raise test scores if it undermines people’s faith.

McLean said that she wasn’t there to make accusations against school district staff, she was there to demonstrate her concern that the program violated the separation of church and state. She said that a strong connection between the study method and Scientology is that the same publisher published both the program materials and Scientology books. McLean also said that on the Church of Scientology’s website, the Church claims the books as their own.

She said that The Watchtower, a publication put out by the Jehovah’s Witnesses would not be accepted in the classroom. According to McLean, having Hubbard’s name on the books makes those books equivalent to the The Watchtower.

McLean received a round of applause when she was done speaking.

Hughes spoke as a parent of a student in the district. He said that he objects to the program because of the connection to Scientology.

Wagner said that he was there to speak as an individual. He said that he didn’t care if the program was good or bad, he cared if it was constitutional. He said that there could be a violation of constitutional rights if the board decided to use the program despite the concerns of the citizen. He stated that he had a problem with the usage of the program.

He showed a copy of the booklet being used with the instruction of teachers. He asked that if the name L. Ron Hubbard was replaced with the name Jesus Christ, a cross placed on the cover and a synopsis of Hubbard’s life inside the book was replaced with a synopsis of Christ’s life, would it be allowed in schools?

“That’s what this is about,” he said.

Wagner said that the words used in the program are the indoctrination words used in Scientology. “I don’t care what any of you say, I know that’s true,” he said. He added that this situation is a violation of the separation of church and state.

Moura said that he is skeptical about the program because it has Hubbard’s name on the books. He said that looking back on his own schooling, he had a teacher that pushed the use of the dictionary just like this program does. “Why has that been lost?” Moura asked. He said that he would encourage other existing programs to reach for the same goals as Applied Scholastics. He also encouraged the district to urge staff to use a dictionary in their classrooms.

Walter Brinkerhoff said that he supported McLean in the research she has done. He said that he was told that the program is one of the top ten education programs. He then suggested looking into the other nine and going with one that doesn’t create such concern in the community. Coni Jo Brinkerhoff, Senior English teacher at Pershing County High School, also urged the board to look into other successful programs.

Lovelock Elementary Literacy Specialists Sandy Condie and Shea Murphy said that the Applied Scholastics is drastically different than the reading methods they are teaching in elementary school. They were both concerned about the differences between the two programs and the different teaching methods that students would receive.

Board member Todd Plimpton said that he would like time to digest all the information. He said that in all his years on the school board he has never seen so much public interest.

The other board members agreed that they needed more time to look at all the information. Plimpton made a motion to discontinue use of all materials related to the program until a final determination could be made. Arnold seconded the motion and it was passed.

Fisk asked for a clarification of the motion. She was told that the books are not to be used, but teachers are to continue using their best teaching methods.

Another special board meeting was set up for Tuesday, September 2at 5:15. The location is yet to be determined, but Fox said that he would try to find a location to better suit the number of people. Tacker said that the next special meeting won’t be for testimony, but to give the school board an opportunity to discuss the issue amongst themselves and make a final decision.

An audience member asked why it seemed that the program was brought in the back door. Board member Clingan said that it wasn’t brought in the back door. Both the initial presentation and the approval of the program were on the school board agenda.

In an interview McLean said that much of her research was based on an essay on Scientology’s Study Technology and compares the terms used in the Applied Scholastics program to the terms used in the Church of Scientology. She said that website can be found at www.studytech.org/study_tech.php McLean said that all the information on the website can be validated. It offers weblinks to where the information was obtained from and all the words are used in the same way.

comments: Closed

alt.religion.scientology ~ Scientology official admits ASI program a “generation plant”

August 23, 2003 under Applied Scholastics

alt.religion.scientology Scientology official admits ASI program a “generation plant”

Describing the St. Louis, Mo. Applied Scholastics school as “a generation plant”, and a “base from which we can change the course of culture and create a new and literate civlization,” high-ranking Scientology executive Karen Hollander put an end to any doubt over the real agenda of Scientology’s Applied Scholastics International program while speaking before the International Association of Scientologists Patrons Ball earlier this year.

[…]

Ms. [Karen] Hollander stated that in order to get Ron’s study tech in, we go directly to the educators themselves, for they are, in the main, people who genuinely want to teach and want their students to acquire the tools for learning.

But to crack the education crisis worldwide, Ms. Hollander pointed out, “requires a stable base for the emanation of study technology on a global scale, a place where we can train those who go out and inject that tech into society at all levels. A base from which we can change the course of the culture and create a new and literate civilization on Earth.”

And that stable base is Applied Scholastics International Spanish Lake in St. Louis, Missouri.

It was first announced in October 2001 as the future home of Applied Scholastics International, the next “generation plant” in our planetary salvage crusade. It is now a reality, our base for the most extensive training and dissemination of Ron’s study tech ever.

On the facing page are photographs and a short tour through the spectacular new facility.

It is from this new launch pad we will spearhead a planetary assault on illiteracy.

Thanks to Scientologists’ support of the IAS, our Spanish Lake campus

became an official reality with its Grand Opening in July! Led by New OT VIII and Chief Executive Officer Bennetta Slaughter and a team of OTs, including ten currently auditing on New OT VII, Applied Scholastics International Spanish Lake is truly at the forefront of reversing the dwindling education spiral.

[emphasis and outside link added by studytech.org]

Click here for the full text of International Scientology News bulletin (courtesy Google Groups)

The quote appears in the International Scientology News #25, which was published circa August 2003. The briefing letter is sent out to thousands of Scientologist, and includes reports of legal “wins” and public relations coups for which the church claims credit during the previous year. It also contains a full summary of speeches and announcements made at the Patrons Ball, a glittering event held annually for public Scientologists.

Also in attendance at the event were high-ranking church officials, including Religious Technology Centre chairman David Miscavige, the church’s most senior executive, and Mike Rinder, Executive Director of the Church of Scientology International Office of Special Affairs.

Hollander’s comments may well come back to haunt Applied Scholastics officials in St. Louis, who have faced questions from the public and the press over the program’s links to Scientology since establishing the St. Louis beachhead last year.

In a St. Louis Post Dispatch article written in March 2002, just after the property for the school had been purchased, Slaughter denied the existence of any link between the church and the school program, and claimed that ASI would hire employees regardless of their religious persuasion:

Asked about the relationship between the Church of Scientology and Applied Scholastics, Slaughter says there is none.

“Obviously they’ve been very kind to the organization in terms of support,” she said. “But we get our employees from the same place every secular corporation does. We advertise in the newspaper.”

In a later article published on July 25, 2002, ASI CEO Bennetta Slaughter told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that the program was “separate” from the Church of Scientology:

“We are strictly an educational organization,” said Slaughter. “We are not part of the church,” she said.

“We are tax-exempt. We use the materials that Ron Hubbard researched and codified. And we get results.”

But Hollander’s frank – and very public – admission that the real purpose of the program is to “inject the tech into society at all levels” were made at an event not only endorsed, but actually organized by the International Association of Scientologists, and attended by senior Scientology offiicals. That might make it difficult for Ms. Slaughter and her “team of OTs” to argue that her views are not representative of the church’s official position.

comments: Closed

Associated Press ~ New headquarters for L. Ron Hubbard educational methods opens in St. Louis

July 27, 2003 under Applied Scholastics

This Associated Press story on the St. Louis opening focuses on the alleged link between Scientology and Applied Scholastics, and includes another stark denial from CEO Bennetta Slaughter:

Located on a hilltop campus overlooking the Mississippi River, a new educational center opening Saturday in north St. Louis County will teach methods developed by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

But executives with Applied Scholastics International say the center is completely secular, licensing educators and schools in the learning methods Hubbard developed, known as study technology.

Hubbard, who died in 1986, is best known for establishing Scientology, defined by the church as the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, universes and other life.

“We have no religious materials. They are separate organizations,” chief executive officer Bennetta Slaughter said.

The article also includes comments from notorious cult apologist Gordon Melton, who not surprisingly weighs in on the side of Scientology:

J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, Calif., has written about Scientology and visited Applied Scholastics centers. He said Applied Scholastics presents itself as separate from Scientology, and from everything he’s seen, that’s the case.

Applied Scholastics isn’t licensed to use any Scientology materials.

“It has to be separate, or it would just be too controversial,” Melton said.

Read the full article here.

comments: Closed

St. Louis Post Dispatch ~ L. Ron Hubbard-inspired teacher training center opens in county

July 26, 2003 under Applied Scholastics

by Carolyn Bower

The grand opening of the Applied Scholastics national headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri took place on Friday, and in the classic tradition of not telling the whole story, CEO Bennetta Slaughter marked the occasion by denying the organization’s close ties to the Church of Scientology:

The words, teachings and photos of Hubbard appear in a hall just inside the main entrance of the complex at 11755 Riverview Drive, about a half-mile north of Interstate 270. So do photos of prominent Scientologists such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Anne Archer and Isaac Hayes. Applied Scholastics appears prominently on the Scientology Web site. Leaders of Applied Scholastics say their organization is separate from Hubbard’s Scientology, that it is based on his educational techniques.

“We are strictly an educational organization,” said Slaughter. “We are not part of the church,” she said. “We are tax-exempt. We use the materials that Ron Hubbard researched and codified. And we get results.”

Read the rest of the story here.

What Slaughter fails to mention, of course, is that the “school” pays huge licencing fees to the church for the privilege of using this material. Not to mention, of course, the fact that Applied Scholastics schools and teaching methods are seen by many as a thinly veiled recruiting tactic to bring new members into the church.

Slaughter, of course, is no stranger to controversy – or, for that matter, to dancing around the truth. She was heavily involved in the case of Lisa McPherson, a former Slaughter employee who died while under church and under suspicious circumstances, and was at the forefront of the church’s efforts to derail the wrongful death lawsuit that resulted from McPherson’s death.

Slaughter was also on the scene after the Reed Slatkin scandal broke, making an ill-fated effort to corral angry investors as part of the Scientology damage control strategy.

For more information on Bennetta Slaughter’s past incarnations, click here.

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Bedford McIntosh ~ Educational Wisdom from the People Who Brought You Battlefield Earth

July 16, 2003 under Applied Scholastics, Tom Cruise

By Bedford McIntosh

Would you want your child’s schoolteacher to use teaching techniques invented by someone who had dropped out of college after two years of low grades? Probably not, but Tom Cruise would like to change your mind about that.

Lately Cruise has been in Washington touting the teaching methods created by a George Washington University dropout with exactly that background. The collegiate education of the person Cruise is promoting didn’t end there: he later obtained a “Ph.D.” from Sequoia University, an unaccredited, Los Angeles-based diploma mill.

That academic record of indistinction belongs to L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer who announced Dianetics to the world in the May 1950 issue of “Astounding Science Fiction.” According to its proponents, Dianetics and Hubbard’s next-step development, Scientology, can help you learn to be “at cause” over “MEST,” (that’s Matter, Energy, Space, and Time to us non-Scientologists, or “wogs” in Scientology parlance). That’s just a small part of what Scientologists hope to gain from this self-described “applied religious philosophy.” Furthermore, Scientologists believe L. Ron Hubbard was a man of extraordinary talents — whose legacy reaches far beyond Scientology — and they believe that with the intensity of, well, believers. In such circumstances, scrutiny has to come from others.

Most parents enthusiastically gravitate to promises of a better education for their children, and politicians may debate whether they should follow along as well. In this case, when they hear the connection to Scientology, they will naturally wonder if the teaching methods carry an underpinning of religion. They will be told quickly by the Scientologists that these methods are “secular works” by Hubbard, and have nothing to do with religion. Indeed, a cursory look into Hubbard’s teaching materials will offer no obvious religious message. But it is there, implicit in the methods themselves. To understand this, one must know something of the complicated history of Scientology and the unusual nature of Scientology beliefs. Beliefs that don’t appear religious to the typical person.

Even the IRS has been confused about this issue. For approximately thirty years the IRS scrutinized Scientology to determine whether it deserved the tax-exempt status normally accorded religions and concluded it did not. To the IRS, Scientology’s philosophy, acquired through a series of “fixed donations” for courses, looked more like a business than a religion. So it is hardly surprising that the teaching methods credited to Hubbard, invented as part of his development of Scientology, don’t appear “religious” to those first learning of them.

In an extraordinary move, the IRS reversed its Supreme Court-supported position and granted Scientology tax-exempt status in 1993. So now Scientologists obtain tax-deductible religious training that requires “word clearing,” warns against going past “misunderstood words” (look in the front of the book “Dianetics,” for example) and posits the concept of “mental mass.”

But wait a minute: these are also the key practices of the educational “technology” that Cruise is so excited about. Parents, politicians, and education officials need to realize they simply won’t find obvious religious flags when reviewing Hubbard’s materials, but the practices they demand are in effect part of the “faith” of Scientology followers.

Even if Hubbard’s proponents could surmount the religion question, there remains an even more important issue: whether Hubbard’s ideas on education are sound. If teaching and learning are ultimately about the search for truth, we must allow for the possibility that Hubbard may, in fact, have something to offer in the way of improving education. But the likelihood of that being the case is small. The myriad entities of the greater Scientology world (including their drug rehab program, Narconon, and their prisoner rehab program, Criminon) rely almost exclusively on the “success stories” of believers and have been subjected to little independent review.

If there is an independent review which demonstrates the effectiveness of Hubbard’s educational methods, it is carefully hidden; instead we have the enthusiasm of the Scientologists who are attempting to introduce them to our public education system. Having Tom Cruise’s endorsement — even if John Travolta, Lisa Marie Presley, and Kirstie Alley join in — isn’t enough when the issue is providing our children with a quality education.

In his later years, Hubbard returned to producing science fiction novels. Commenting on the prose of one of these works, The New York Times stated that it presented “…a disregard of conventional grammar so global as to suggest a satire on the possibility of communication through language.” According to The Los Angeles Times, another of these works “…read as if poorly translated from the Japanese. ‘The blastgun barrel was into my stomach with violence!’ goes one entire paragraph, characteristically substituting typographical stridence for the crisp prose and well-visualized action so conspicuously absent from the book.” Hardly recommendations of Hubbard as a source of excellence in education.

Most Scientologists are good, well-intentioned folks – and it is impossible to deny the sincerity of their belief. There is every reason to believe Tom Cruise is like that as well. That Scientologists may accept Hubbard’s ideas that we are immortal Thetans; the “OT-III” story that our bodies are crawling with the spirits of space aliens murdered 75,000,000 years ago by the galactic tyrant Xenu; that we visit a between-lives implant station on either Mars or Venus; that we have clams in our evolutionary history…well, that’s their business. Any religion can look odd to non-believers.

But when Hubbard’s followers try to extend into the public education system his unproven concepts — that a yawn from a student is an indication that he or she has misunderstood a word, for example — we need to tell them to keep those beliefs in their church and their Hubbard-inspired private schools.

Especially if the proponent’s primary qualification is that he or she is a Hollywood star. Remember, Tom Cruise only made it to Princeton in the movies.

[end]

The author grants permission to reprint article in its entirety providing proper attribution is displayed.

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St. Louis Post Dispatch ~ Villa Gesu Will House Teachers Of Group With Scientology Link

March 21, 2002 under Applied Scholastics

Applied Scholastics Plans A Commuity Center As Well, Hopes To Open Next Fall

A nonprofit organization promoting the teaching methods of L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, is moving its world headquarters to Villa Gesu, a former retirement home for Catholic nuns along Riverview Drive north of Interstate 270.

Applied Scholastics International bought the complex from the School Sisters of Notre Dame in October for $2.9 million. Until then and for the previous 70 years, the 55 acres of brick buildings and rolling hills overlooking the Mississippi River had been home to infirm and elderly sisters who needed regular nursing care.

The last of the sisters moved out at the end of the year. Now a caretaker watches the property while Applied Scholastics completes plans to convert the grounds into a teachers’ training school and community center, which it hopes will draw educators from across the country as well as teachers and students from the St. Louis area.

Bennetta Slaughter, chief executive of the organization, says she expects the facility to be up and running in the fall, although no date has been set.

“We don’t even have design plans finished, frankly,” she said. “We have a bit of a runway before we’ll be there.”

Applied Scholastics was founded in 1971 by a group of educators inspired by Hubbard’s ideas for overcoming barriers to study; it became a legal nonprofit corporation in 1972. According to Slaughter, it trained more than 10,000 teachers last year in the techniques it calls Study Technology, and over its 30-year life it has taught millions of students to read in places ranging from China and South Africa to cities in the United States.

In a nutshell, Study Technology asserts that only three things prevent students from being able to concentrate on their studies. Using Hubbard’s terminology, they are a lack of mass (that is, of the physical presence or a representation of the thing they’re trying to study), too steep a learning gradient (meaning students are asked to master a logical step in a subject before they’ve fully mastered the steps below it) and misunderstood words.

Hubbard and Applied Scholastics developed specific methods for overcoming these barriers. For instance, when students lose concentration while reading, they’re encouraged to look up or clear words they didn’t understand, until they’re able to explain and answer questions about not only all the words in their reading passage but in the definitions they’ve read as well.

Past controversy

Applied Scholastics describes itself as a secular organization, but the extent of its relationship to Hubbard’s religion, Scientology, has been a matter of some dispute in its current home, Los Angeles.

Controversy arose there in 1997 when teachers who had been using Applied Scholastics books applied to have them placed on the state Department of Education’s list of approved classroom materials so schools would be allowed to buy them with public money as supplements to the state’s shorter list of official textbooks. At the same time, a special education teacher in the Los Angeles area, Linda Smith, a Scientologist, proposed to found a charter school based on Applied Scholastics methods.

In both cases, educators, public officials and editorialists questioned whether this amounted to introducing religion into public schools. They debated the issue extensively within education circles and in publications such as Education Week and the Los Angeles Times.

Critics cited similarities between Study Technology and concepts central to Scientology. Robert Vaughn Young, a former Scientology spokesman who after 1989 began to speak out against the church, said that secular offshoots of Hubbard’s research such as Applied Scholastics were mere front groups. “They are set up to get Scientology into areas where it could never go as a religion,” he was quoted as saying.

The Times editorialized against the charter school.

Many educators who had used Study Technology said Hubbard’s methods were effective classroom tools with no religious content, and J. Gordon Melton, a University of California religion scholar and author of the Encyclopedia of American Religion, reviewed Applied Scholastics’ textbooks and judged them “purely secular.”

In the end, a 20-member textbook-review committee agreed. “There’s no religion mentioned in those books,” a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Education said when the books were approved. “They don’t say anything about Scientology.”

The charter school proposal did not resolve itself so clearly, and ultimately Smith withdrew her application. The Los Angeles Times education reporter who covered the story in 1997, Duke Helfand, says that this was where the controversy ended.

Asked about the relationship between the Church of Scientology and Applied Scholastics, Slaughter says there is none.

“Obviously they’ve been very kind to the organization in terms of support,” she said. “But we get our employees from the same place every secular corporation does. We advertise in the newspaper.”

Applied Scholastics is planning to adapt the Villa Gesu complex and over time to add to it.

“The sisters took incredible care of it,” Slaughter said. “It has some absolutely beautiful woodwork.”

Because the organization’s Los Angeles center will remain open with much of its current staff, the St. Louis headquarters will hire most of its employees locally. Teachers from throughout the country will come to the St. Louis center for short- and long-term courses, and although some will be able to stay in dormitories on the campus, most will stay in hotels.

Slaughter suggested several ways in which the center might involve interested St. Louisans.

“For sure, a community center,” she said. “For sure, we will be having regular open houses. Ultimately I would like to have some sports here.”

Sister Joan DiProspere, who was administrator of Villa Gesu during its final days as a nursing home, says she and the School Sisters are happy with the new owners so far. The sisters are using money from the sale for the renovation of their motherhouse in Lemay and for charitable works. Over the next 18 months, they’ll be working with Applied Scholastics and the Hubbard organization’s real- estate arm, Better Living Properties, to remove the remains of sisters who were buried on the property to another Catholic cemetery in the area.

She says that although the sisters didn’t look exclusively for a buyer who would maintain the integrity of the Villa Gesu grounds or use them for nonprofit work, they’re glad they found one.

“We’re happy that this group is renovating the buildings and trying to maintain them as they are now,” she said. “We wouldn’t want it, you know, to be used for any purpose that’s contrary to our values.”

========

Applied Scholastics International

Applied Scholastics is an organization that promotes and trains teachers in Study Technology, developed by L. Ron Hubbard. Its world headquarters will open sometime this fall in the former Villa Gesu on Riverview Road.

Address: 11755 Riverview Drive, St. Louis, Mo. 63138
Telephone: 314-355-6355
E-mail: education@appliedscholastics.org
Web site: http://www.appliedscholastics.org

Other sources: At least two other Web sites devoted to L. Ron Hubbard’s ideas discuss Applied Scholastics – http:// www.scientology.org and http://www.able.org. Education Week’s coverage of the controversy in Los Angeles as well as many letters praising and criticizing Applied Scholastics’ work can be found in the free archives of the magazine’s Web site at http://www.edweek.org . Search the year 1997 for references to L. Ron Hubbard.

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Christian Science Monitor ~ Textbooks by Religious Figure Incite Church-State Row

Seated behind his desk at Applied Scholastics here, President Ian Lyons flips through one of the children’s learning texts his foundation has distributed worldwide for 25 years.

“Tom (noun) paints (verb) fence (noun),” reads Mr. Lyons pointing to a picture of a child with a brush. “There is nothing that could be construed as religious anywhere in these texts,” he adds.

Recently Mr. Lyons has had to repeat his disclaimer often for reporters, because the Los Angeles school district has been asked to approve a charter school that would use five such books – all written by L. Ron Hubbard – in the classroom.

Because Mr. Hubbard, who died in 1986, also founded of the religion of Scientology, school board members, citizens, and others have voiced concerns that use of the books would expose children to the works of a man whose religion actively promotes itself – and might constitute a breach of the constitutional separation of church and state.

Whatever the Los Angeles school board decides – its ruling is expected by Aug. 20 – the episode raises a tangle of church-state and free-speech issues that could have serious implications beyond the case, legal scholars and educators say.

“If it is proven that a consideration for accepting or rejecting the materials was based on the religious affiliation of the author, there could be a real problem in violating that [author’s] freedom of speech and religion,” says James Kushner, professor of law at Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles.

“It is in a sense saying to someone who is Baptist, or Catholic, or Islamic, or Jewish, ‘We will do business with you, but if you cross the line and are too religious as a member of a church or ministry, then we are going to disable you from doing business with the government.’ That is precisely what the First Amendment clause of religion is meant to deal with.”

Los Angeles school board president Julie Korenstein says legal advice will be sought to determine if the public money used to support the charter school, and its purchase of Hubbard’s texts, would be illegal or inappropriate. Board member David Tokofsky indicated July 28 that the board would block the school application.

At the same time, the state department of education has given preliminary approval for statewide use of the books as supplemental curriculum.

“There’s no religion mentioned in those books,” said Anna Emery, of the state Department of Education. “They don’t say anything about Scientology.”

Part of what legal analysts will be trying to determine is whether the books have religious content that is overt or subtle, and where the state money used to purchase the books would go.

According to George Zervas, a constitutional scholar at Southwestern School of Law, government purchases must have a secular purpose, must neither advance nor inhibit religion, or encourage “excessive entanglement” – in which the government meddles in church affairs.

On the face of it, say several educators, the books in question deal only in matters of learning, and espouse no views that could be construed as religious.

The applicable test, he says, is whether a particular educational philosophy holds beliefs about learning that are shared outside the religion. Montessori schools, for instance, stress a child’s initiative but are not considered religious.

The other detail for legal scrutiny in the case, observers say, will be to examine the relationship among Bridge Publications, which publishes the texts; Applied Scholastics, the nonprofit foundation which has distributed them worldwide since 1972; and the church of Scientology. According to spokeswoman Rena Weinberg, Bridge Publications publishes 196 works of Hubbard, including some science-fiction titles sold in bookstores.

Applied Scholastics, she says, is a California-based, tax-exempt, public-benefit corporation that promotes Hubbard’s “educational technology,” and has trained 3 million students in 12 languages.

“The real issue is that these methods work like no other when it comes to empowering children to learn better,” says Ms. Weinberg. She cites a 30 to 40 percent higher rate of SAT scores in one secular school network, known as Delphian Academies, which has seven K-12 schools in the US. The Delphian schools have used the program exclusively since 1974.

“The program has helped our students apply superior study methods aggressively while mastering each step as they go along,” says Alan Larson, founder of the Delphian Academies. It frees [students] up from having to feel in lock step with everyone around them.”

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