About Jane Reed
My choice to enter the field of education is based on my belief that each individual is born with a unique design of endless possibilities. We all have the right to become capable, positively accepted by society and successful. However, I was determined to make a positive difference by loving and encouraging my students, rather than threatening and judging them.
Over the last thirty years as a parent, grandparent, teacher and educator, I have witnessed that much of a child’s ability to realize his potential depends directly upon all the adults who influence his early years.
My love for public speaking was influenced and encouraged by my fifth grade teacher. I remember giving a book report to the class and the looks on the teacher’s and student’s faces when I finished was amazement. This truly inspired me to try to reach higher levels of excellence with each report. It also taught me to look for and recognize the abilities of others, knowing that recognizing exceptional moments motivates others to keep trying to grow beyond what they believe they can do.
Another turning point came when my 3 1/2 year old daughter wanted to play the piano. I was frustrated with the results that my traditional teaching methods were yielding. After much soul searching, I enrolled in my first Suzuki Piano Teacher Training class.
I learned that if we want children to learn, we must prepare an environment that encourages growth.
This course would not only teach me to be a better teacher, but would lead me to my ultimate purpose in life! I wanted to have a positive impact on students and contribute to improving society through my work. I wanted my work to have a value bigger than myself.
Becoming a teacher-trainer motivated me to study learning, so that we could all do our best job of teaching. As this process continued for many years, I was finding that a lot of the teachers I trained were struggling with the behavioral problems of their students and that made it difficult for them to teach successfully.
We know that children can only learn when they are focused, and behavioral problems quickly remove concentration. Bob did some research and found the Love and Logic Institute. Their values and purpose were very much aligned with the Suzuki philosophy and my personal values. So off I went to learn more!
Love and Logic helps parents recognize their priorities and establish firm, yet loving boundaries to keep their values intact. It teaches parents to interact in ways that help children, while preserving the parent’s dignity. We learn to choose our words wisely and act as better role models. Children are encouraged to learn through natural consequences of their behavior while they are young and the price tag for mistakes is small.
We know that when parents behave better, children behave better and we can teach valuable habits that lead children to become motivated, responsible and capable.
Solutionary Insights is the culmination of my research, learning, training, practicing, parenting and teaching. I believe we are all capable of better educating ourselves, and in turn, leading our children through example, helping them to learn and become the better leaders of tomorrow.
About Bob Reed
As a young adult, I used to believe that TEACHING was mostly lecturing, using some supportive examples and demonstrations, because this is the way the majority of my teachers, professors, course instructors and mentors taught me.
However, I was very fortunate to have a few adult people in my early life that didn’t conform to, or practice this form of teaching. Learning began with both my parents, who only had 8th and 6th grade educations. They had learned a lot from their childhoods that wasn’t right or didn’t work out well for them.
Fortunately I grew up with two loving parents who had acquired great life skills and who always attempted to do the right thing for the right reason, even when many of their decisions were difficult and sometimes very agonizing. Their own childhoods were compromised by both losing one parent to early departure. Unfortunately, the surviving parent never became a good role model for either of them. My dad went to work at the age of 12 and my mother at 14. They both grew up with a substantial amount of Experiential Learning.
My parents began my education mostly by asking thoughtful, leading questions. These questions were always followed by this supportive and challenging statement, “I believe you can find the answer to that.”
Asking questions became the key means of learning for me. Ultimately, it led me to discover more advanced ways of thinking, by using specifically structured questions to discover answers that led to validated conclusions. We call this method today “The Scientific Method.” This method is not new.
I was tasked with, and given responsibilities at an early age. Out of family necessity, brought about by the great depression and World War ll, I started my first job at the age of 7. I have no recollection of just how many jobs I had afterward, but I sure had a lot of OTJ, on the job training, (And Education). As a sophomore in high school, I started my second full-time job as an apprentice tool and die maker, making use of the skills and education learned both in and out of school. Working the second shift allowed me to attend all my required high school classes.
During my mid-senior year, while still serving my apprentice job, Dad came to me and asked a surprising question: “ Why don’t you ever have any homework?” I was caught a little off- guard, because I really thought he knew the answer, since I worked a fulltime job and had a full schedule in school.
He saw my report cards and knew I got very good grades, especially in math. He wasn’t shocked when I told him that I always did my homework during study hall and my lunch breaks because it was easy for me. I was already using most of my school lessons in my apprentice job, along with my drafting and Machine Shop courses.
Most of my Experiential Learning came from mentors at work, leading to my greatest gains in knowledge, practice and continuous improvement.
This process of Nurturing Thinking Minds works with adults as well.
Wondering why my dad had asked about my homework? He wanted to apply for a machinist position (similar to a tool and die maker) with a new company coming to town. They required a high school education to be considered, but would also permit a written exam combined with references to gain consideration. Dad asked if I could teach him the math I’d been learning in my position to help him pass the exam. In two months, Dad had learned Geometry, Algebra and a little Trigonometry using the same learning, deeper thinking process he had taught his children and that we now teach through Solutionary Insights. He got the job, became one of their “go-to guys” and eventually retired from that company.
There are two common threads to my story. I learned from a very young age by asking questions and experiential learning. This process allowed me to learn and hold numerous jobs all the way through school. When I graduated high school in the upper ranking of my class, I was already holding a position where I was actually earning more than my father.
I quit my job a short time after graduating, deciding it was time to think about college. I was leaning toward architectural engineering because designing and creating things appeared to be my calling. I already had 5 years design experience, even having sold floor plans to a home design book .Then I had a chance encounter with the president of a very well respected architectural firm.
I knew he might be able to give me some advice. After a few reciprocal questions, he suggested I would become a very good architect. However, to my surprise he didn’t think that becoming one was my calling. He also made his point of why he didn’t think it was for me. This became a major turning point in my life and a major dilemma. “Discover your purpose and you will find the course you will want to pursue”.
Facing a draft into the military if I didn’t go on to college, my Dad suggested perhaps I needed more life experiences in the world with people, places and things to discover what I really want to pursue. That led me to over 5 years in Naval Aviation working all around the world, and another 4 years in college. I finally discovered what I really wanted to do.
I have spent the rest of my life living with Purpose; it began with finding solutions to problematic things. After my Industrial Engineering years involving methods improvement, industrial psychology, HR job enrichment, business education and quality improvement, I subsequently realized that I could focus on helping others learn to concentrate on improving their lives and the lives of others. Everyone can learn by using the same discovery methods I had practiced for many years, that lead to better and more complete understandings. I coined the following phrase that reflects my philosophy, “Problems are Opportunities in Disguise” and many now use this to start their own search for answers and solutions. Learning to address problems and effect validated solutions can and will advance society for all. We must learn to educate our children, parents and everyone how to teach the process and make deeper thinking become standard practice in all education and life. Everyone needs to learn how to resolve their own problems with more validity. Why? Because we will always have more problems than currently known solutions! That is the very basic premise of all education. It’s what will lead us to a better way of life for all.
The “The Art of Asking Essential Questions,” Critical Thinking and the Scientific Method of Thinking are the very keys to discovery (THINKING) which leads to greater knowledge and thus the quality of life improvement that can and should benefit all.
Jane and I have spent the last few years developing ways and means to help others benefit from some of the more significant things that we’ve learned and practiced throughout our careers.
The way we are taught to think should become a major and prime consideration for all, but parents and caregivers first. WHY? Learning begins at birth and children need a strong environment for learning from the beginning. In as little as one generation we could change the world course of negative events. The outcome will simply determine our next generation’s knowledge parameters and advancement. This would lead TO RESOLVING MANY of our world problems that all societies are generating, many of which are very quickly becoming threats to ALL mankind’s future existence.