When my children were young I ordered an educational program to help them with their grades. The workshop was presented by a father, Professor Claude Olney, who had done extensive research on learning in an attempt to help his own children. As a result, other parents and students asked her to start conducting training sessions.

Last fall I was thinking about this experience and thought it would be wonderful if I had the course for my grandchildren. I went online and sure enough, I found a website that offered the original training on DVD for less than fifty dollars. There was one game for high school and one for college.

When I called the 1-800 number I had a wonderful conversation with the gentleman who stated that he is one of Professor Olney’s sons who died before finishing the updated series that was in production. I told him about my experience, and in return, he shared with me about the success of his father’s job.

Although the original workshop was filmed in the 1980s, orders are still being shipped all over the world. That week he had shipped a DVD set and accompanying workbooks to Saudi Arabia and England, as well as to various locations in the United States. wow! Isn’t it amazing how good information stands the test of time?

Of course, when my fifteen-year-old grandson and I sat down to watch the high school edition, his first question was “When was this made?” The way the participants were dressed made it a quick giveaway. But it wasn’t long before my grandson was laughing and totally enthralled by the speaker and his techniques.

Well, no matter what the most recent report card says, it’s not too late to make a difference in the outcome of the school year. Sometimes it is not the content of the course that is a problem. It is the fact that the student does not know good strategies to learn or to write exams. They may never have been taught how to prepare an essay or remember important facts.

Now I am definitely not commissioned or earning anything through promoting this program. I just hope that maybe you can find a way to help your son improve his studies in the next few weeks.

Metacognition is a term that is associated with learning strategies. It means that you learn to learn.

According to Wikipedia, JH Flavell first used the word “metacognition” and described it in these words: “Metacognition refers to one’s knowledge of one’s own cognitive processes or anything related to them.”

Maybe you and your child need to focus on metacognition for a while instead of concentrating on what the last report card said.

(Oh, and if you really want to get results, watch all the DVDs with your child so you can talk about the concepts and practice them together.)