Skipped Gradient Principle

Let's talk about one of the hidden secrets of education training. Why is it some people go along so good and then they just stall out? Well, there's a lapse in their training or their understanding. And you call that the skipped gradient principle. There's a step that just didn't get. And it really shows up. It shows up everywhere. But it shows up really, especially in fundamentals sciences, like where the educational process builds off one another for like mathematics, music, things like that. But it applies pretty much in everything. So let's just say you start off and you have a. Use the example of climbing a staircase, and you want to get to the top. And so here you are and you go up, you know, one step at the time. And that's the way education is, isn't it? You learn, you know, you learn your how to hold a pencil and paper first. Then you start learning about letters and then numbers and then what to do with numbers, addition, subtraction. And if you don't get that, you're never going to be into the multiplication and division. I remember when I was in third grade, we went from Oklahoma to South Georgia because my father was in the military and he was transferred over to Chateauroux, France. It was the middle of the school year and we said, we're going to go over there and join you in the summer. It was third grade. In the meantime, we're going to stay with the grandparents and finish out the school year. But I showed up in South Georgia. Believe it or not, kids in South Georgia were way ahead of us mathematically. How about that for Georgia? So of course I didn't know all this, but I was behind because the kids understood mathematics. You know, they understood the two by two and the subtraction. I had a lot of catching up. Fortunately, I had an uncle who would walk through that stuff with me because, see, I was, you know, learning. You know, just like the kid going here, he's. He's stepping up, he wants to go up. You're moving along through life. You take it one step at a time. You can't jump up, but you can take one step. You can do that, you can do it by degrees. You can't do it all at once. But then if all of a sudden you reach a point in here where this is not here, someone took this step out, know this is not here anymore. And now you're up to this point, everybody else is climbing on up here, but you have a hole in your staircase. Your ladder, let's say, is missing some rungs. If you step through there, you'll fall down, you don't know what to do. You know, you're standing up here now going, what? You know, what's up with this everybody? You know what? You know, what am I going to do? How come they're going up there and I can't go? Well, that's the way I was when I was in third grade. I didn't understand the really have my tables down on adding and subtracting and everything. And so when it came to multiplying, it was a lot. So fortunately, my uncle Martin got out the flashcards and at night we went through the multiplication tables, had kind of like a catch up phase. And since that time I pretty much been at the top of whatever class it was in mathematics. And that was true until I ran into college calculus. And so then I became a dud again. But the skip gradient thing catches a lot of people. If they don't, if they're somewhere in the process of their learning where there's a concept that is brought up that they don't understand, their progress stops. So when you're training people, this is why you want to be asking questions. When you're training on fundamentals, they build on each other. They're like steps, one step at a time. They come in sequence. So it's not what you teach, it's what your people, your students understand. So you've got to. That's the purpose of quizzing. And constantly quizzing doesn't have to be a formal test, but just asking questions, looking at their eyes, See, they'll give it away if they don't understand it. Making sure they're with you. It's not. Did you cover the material, say, well, I trained them on it, I told them about it. Yeah, but they didn't get it. So that means you got to do it again. Because anytime you reach a step and you don't understand it and you're confused, you stop everything, all your progress stops. And you're going to be handicapped for the rest of your life in that subject until someone comes along and explains that step to you, your progress is stopped. It's not that you're stupid, it's not that you're, you know, incapable. It's just, you know, they went through it too fast. Maybe you didn't hear a word or two and you were distracted and you just didn't get it. But once you get that, hey, it's like your engine is cranked back up again and from there on out you might go back to the top of the class. So it doesn't have to mean don't think of this as put in the category of good enough to do it. Too dumb, you know, not. This is not my thing. Well, how could it be your thing if you don't understand it? It might really be your thing. And so for you to keep moving up the ladder to the top, you've got to understand each step, even little things, because that keeps you, that gives you the tool, the mental understanding, the tools in your mind to understand all the new stuff that's coming on top of it. It's called the skipped gradient principle. And it's amazing how many educators don't even know about it. But when you're training people always make sure they're with you, they're understanding what you're teaching or when you're training with your kids, otherwise you're going to lose them. And it's not because they couldn't do it, it's because you rushed through something or that maybe they led you to believe they understood it and they didn't. So don't be afraid to go slow, don't be afraid to take your time, don't be afraid to ask questions, because once they learn it, you're empowering them for the rest of their life. And if it's worth teaching them once, it's worth teaching them where they understand it and that they can use it. Alright, that's a skip gradient principle.