The Washington Times

Professor Bernie

By Donna Borak
United Press International

Washington, DC, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Over the last three years, Professor Bernie Gaidosch has been counseling parents, teaching them how to motivate their children to become better, more-competitive students in school with the "Professor Secrets."

"They're not supposed to be secrets, it's just that most students don't know," said Gaidosch, of George Brown College in Toronto, a two-time author of "The Professor's Secrets: Breaking the Silence-How to Write Essays and Term Papers," and "The Professor's Secrets-How To Get Top Marks on Tests and Exams."

In his latest installment of the Success-in-School Package, Gaidosch, nicknamed "Professor Bernie," has created a video, "Motivating Students to Learn and Excel," which helps students learn test-taking techniques, as well as, studying and de-stressing skills. A tool he hopes will help to bridge the gap between what students should be learning and need to learn to be successful during their secondary education.

"We're setting them up to fail. They're going to flounder. They're going to fail (because they don't have strong writing and studying skills)," said Gaidosch in a telephone interview with United Press International.

Gaidosch said that most students are unprepared when they leave for college, and that they don't have the adequate writing and studying skills to become successful either in or out of college. He believes that high schools around the country are being driven by test-based education that has resulted in less time being spent on learning to write effectively.

He said schools are not being held accountable for the education they are providing their students, citing an example of a 12th grader whose senior year in high school requirement was to create a poster.

"It's not an essay, it's not a term paper or a research paper -- it's a poster board," said Gaidosch.

Gaidosch claimed that the decline of developing writing skills in schools is a result of our society becoming more visually and orally focused, rather than focusing on honing literate skills. He used an example in his classroom at George Brown, where he asked students to describe a situation in an oral presentation and then where asked to write about it.

"They were extremely articulate in their description, but when asked to write they wrote like fifth graders," said Gaidosch.

Situations like these prompted Gaidosch to produce two books and his recent video.

"There is a reality out there that students don't realize. It isn't until they get to college and the honeymoon period is over, that students realize how unprepared they are when they are faced with having to read a 800-page book, writing term papers and taking tests," said Gaidosch.

Gaidosch said he decided to make the video after being on a radio show in San Francisco where he received 300 calls from parents who thanked him for creating a program to help their children develop writing and studying techniques.

But the residual question asked by parents: How was he planning to motivate students to get excited about school?

That's when Gaidosch decided the time had come to make a video.

Parents are shocked to learn that there is a problem in schools and that their children are not developing adequate writing and studying skills to prepare them for college, he said.

"Parents' eyes are not opened. (They think) that their children are getting what they need," said Gaidosch. "Parents don't go beyond the word 'fine,' they interpret that everything is OK. And it becomes a reality that keeps happening. Kids are then left to drift for themselves because of the lack of parent involvement."

That is why he suggests to parents to attend their children's parent-teacher conferences and demand that teachers explain how much writing is being done in the classroom.

"Have you taught my child how to write? Have you taught them how to study? If you don't get an acceptable answer, don't stop until you get a satisfactorily one," said Gaidosch.

One of the most detrimental aspects of students not doing well in schools is the emotional impact, Gaidosch said. He explained that he has students who come up to him after class and ask him: "What is wrong with me? Do I have a learning disability?"

Gaidosch simply says, "How can you drive a car if you were never taught how to, same thing applies to writing and studying, you have to learn to."

"Most students have an incredible amount of good will. They lack these days a positive road map, a guide, a bit of direction," said Gaidosch. "I know what they need."

Gaidosch's video has a 7-minute introduction and conclusion. Each of the 20 segments is a minute-and-a-half long.

"It flies by, nobody can fall asleep to it," said Gaidosch.

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