Speed Reading
|
Alvin Tofler, author of Third Wave, claims that we are now in the information age. It is said that power belongs to those who have the knowledge and information. This is only part of the recipe for success. Archimedes needed a place to stand before he could move the earth with a lever. We need a way to select, evaluate, store and retrieve our information if it is to do us a bit of good. Then to knowledge add action, for it is only when we set out to do something that something clicks inside our brain and all that we have stored becomes accessible even as we need it. There are true stories of tiny women lifting huge cars off their children. In an emergency our bodies are capable of immense strength and endurance. Our brains too are capable of assimilating and making good decisions so rapidly that the speed of light appears slow in comparison. There are ways you can tap into this cognitive speed and scan a full page of text almost instantly. The human brain has a capacity for learning that exceeds all the computers on earth, combined. All it needs is better tools. Some of those tools have already been developed and are being put to use -- and new tools are already being developed to implement what we have now. Before the automobile came onto our dusty streets there were mechanics being born that had a knack for repairing them. Before computers were sold in stores there were programmers being born that could put them to work. When the Commodore 64 became available there were literally thousands of geniuses that could make it sit up and sizzle. We are part of a new generation that is heir to all the past learning on this planet. My grand daughter is less than 6 years old, but she is learning algebra, geometry and logic in her kindergarten class. There are 23 other students in that class and they are all doing better than she is. Every week we expect to see a termination note pinned to her dress saying she isn’t bright enough to continue. With each new tool that the brain acquires new frontiers open up. Language is a tool. Without language our brains could not acquire or share ten thousandths of what our ancestors had to pass on. Writing and reading made language a hundred times sharper and more valuable. The telegraph linked the continents of the earth together for even more sharing. Then came the telephone that let us on the remote reservation trading post talk person to person with scientists in Europe. New ways of learning, new ways of teaching are now appearing so rapidly that a man is ancient before he is 30 years old. His skills on the Commodore 64 are but feeble scratches on the doors ready to open for the children of today, and yet, and yet we have access to those same tools and with our maturity, our laser sharp focus on purpose can catapult us far ahead of our children in some areas. If you have that burning desire, speed reading is the tool you need to acquire next. |
