Launchpad to Success: Building Your Foundation

The: used when referring to a specific person, thing, group, time, etc.

Competence: the ability to do something successfully or efficiently.

Institute: refers to an organization that has a particular purpose, especially one that is involved in education, public service, or research.

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In this episode of the Competence Institute podcast, co-founders Mike Tyler and Ryan Kimball discuss the mission and goals of the institute. Mike shares his personal journey and how it led to the creation of the Competence Institute. He emphasizes the transformative power of education and the belief in the potential of each individual to achieve greatness. The long-term goals of the institute include creating a society of lifelong learners who contribute positively to the world. The approach of the Competence Institute is based on the study technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard, focusing on building a solid foundation and addressing individual learning gaps. The Institute offers an individualized and tailored education program to help students master any subject they choose.

Takeaways

-The Competence Institute is a culmination of Mike Tyler's life's work, driven by a belief in the potential of each individual to achieve greatness through proper learning and understanding.
-The long-term goals of the Competence Institute include creating a society of Lifelong Learners who contribute positively to the world.
-The Competence Institute utilizes the study technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard, focusing on building a solid foundation and addressing individual learning gaps.
-The Institute offers an individualized and tailored education program to help students master any subject they choose.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background
01:30 Transformative Power of Education
02:20 Long-Term Goals for the Competence Institute
03:34 The Approach of the Competence Institute
04:23 Building a Solid Foundation
05:54 Individualized and Tailored Education
06:45 Identifying Learning Gaps
09:28 The Competence Institute: A Step-by-Step Program
09:54 Summary and Conclusion


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© 2024 The Competence Institute. All Rights Reserved. The Competence Institute is a non-profit educational organization and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, nationality or ethnic origin in administering student admissions or any of its policies, programs or activities. COMPETENCE INSTITUTE is a trademark and service mark owned by The Competence Institute, a division of Team Tyler USA.

Applied Scholastics and the Applied Scholastics Open Book Design are trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to L. Ron Hubbard library for permission to reproduce a selection from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.

Transcript

Ryan: Welcome to an episode of The Competence Institute podcast. Today we dive deep into the heart of our mission. We're sharing a discussion between Mike Tyler and myself, Ryan Kimball, the co-founders of The Competence Institute. Together, we have over 50 years working as dedicated educators. Hi Mike! So I've heard you say that The Competence Institute is a culmination of some of your life's work. Please tell us more about that. 

Mike: Thank you, Ryan. I'd love to answer that. The Competence Institute indeed represents the essence of my life's journey.  It began over three decades ago when I discovered the transformative power of L. Ron Hubbard's study technology. This methodology not only saved my life by helping me understand how to learn, but also ignited a passion within me to assist others in their educational journey.

My work over the years has been driven by a profound belief in the potential of each individual to achieve greatness through proper learning and understanding. The Competence Institute is the physical manifestation of this belief. It's a place where anyone, at any age, at a crossroads in their lives, finds not just education, but a path to personal and professional fulfillment.

Ryan: That's truly inspiring, Mike. Can you share an example of how this approach has changed lives? 

Mike: Absolutely. Take the story of Jaccob - Ann's son.  Jaccob's journey is a testament to the transformative power of our approach. Despite his rebellious nature and the challenges he faced, including legal troubles and ethical dilemmas, my program helped him rediscover his path.

We focused on the ethical foundations of learning,  personal responsibility, and the importance of understanding. This holistic approach led to a remarkable turnaround in Jaccob's life, impressing even the legal authorities involved in his case. His story is one among many that fuel my commitment to this work.

Ryan: That's powerful, Mike. Looking forward, what are your long-term goals for The Competence Institute? 

Mike: My vision for the Competence Institute extends beyond the individual success stories. I envision a world where the principles of effective learning and ethical understanding are commonplace. I want to create a society of Lifelong Learners who not only succeed in their personal and professional lives, but also contribute positively to the world. We are laying the groundwork for a future where understanding and competence are the cornerstones of every individual's life,  leading to a more informed. ethical and successful society. 

Ryan: Mike, your dedication and vision are truly inspiring. Thank you for sharing your journey and your dreams for the Competence Institute. It's clear that this institute is more than an educational center. It's a beacon of hope and transformation. 

Mike: Thank you, Ryan. It's a journey we're on together and I'm excited about what the future holds, for us and the many lives we will touch through The Competence Institute.

Ryan: Awesome. I love working with you on this purpose and helping people. So with that in mind, tell us about how The Competence Institute accomplishes our goals. 

Mike: We utilize the study technology developed by best selling American author and educator L. Ron Hubbard. This is an engineering approach to education where exact results follow from exact step-by-step actions.

The crux?  Mr. Hubbard says, quote, As long as children and young men and women find pleasure in study, they will continue studying throughout life, and upon that depends their happiness. End quote.  So what is our goal at The Competence Institute? Build a solid foundation. 

Ryan: Awesome. You often talk about the foundation. Can you expand on that? 

Mike: Certainly. Think of education as being like building a house. Elementary school, where basics like reading and arithmetic are taught, is the foundation. The structure is weak if only 92 percent of the foundation is set. 

Ryan: That's an eye-opening analogy. 

Mike: It's an analogy that can be put into practice. With its grades and percentages, the current system inherently implies that you can't achieve 100 percent mastery. But every child can master skills, given the right approach. 

Ryan: So, how do we remedy this? 

Mike: We're strategic. We identify key learning gaps and address those. We don't blindly reteach everything. We engage the student's interest, focusing on vital skills. The process is individualized and tailored.

Ryan: Sounds revolutionary. 

Mike: It is! It's all about recognizing that every person is unique. We must nurture that uniqueness and ensure their foundational skills are robust.

Ryan: That is amazing. Could you give us an example of how that process is started? 

Mike: Sure.  Let's say this high school student is struggling with chemistry.  Extra tutoring hasn't helped.  Medication for a theoretical chemical imbalance didn't help.  I guarantee you, working on teaching this student chemistry misses the whole point.

First of all, does this student have any purpose for studying this subject?  I'm not talking here about, so they can take the advanced chemistry class next year, or so they can go to college.  I'm talking about this specific student actually being interested in the subject in the first place. If they are not, you lost the game before you even started.

Ryan: Okay, that makes sense. And where does it go from there? 

Mike: We always go earlier. It's like tracing down the reason why the light bulb isn't on. In that particular case, you check the bulb in another socket and find out that yes, the light bulb works. As regards your high school student who supposedly has an attention disorder, let's check that against another frame of reference.

Is there anything they enjoy so much that they will do it on their own for hours or all day if they could?  It doesn't matter if it's video games or playing basketball. If they can keep themselves engaged at something they themselves choose to do because of their own personal self-interest, then they don't have anything wrong with their ability to pay attention. What's wrong is the educational approach.

So, we take this struggling chemistry student and back it up. Where did they first lose interest in studying? We often find out that they don't even know the component parts of a sentence, or how to put together and take apart somewhat more complex pieces of information.

This struggling student has concerned parents, teachers, possibly tutors, all trying to get them to understand chemistry. But we lost them completely back in the third grade. They don't even know what a sentence is made of. 

Ryan: Have you ever worked with someone where this was the case?

Mike: Sure. There was this one fellow, a young adult who had graduated high school, but was struggling with some advanced studies.

In working with him, it didn't take me very long to ask him, point blank, what do you think a sentence is composed of?  He immediately starts going, uh, uh.  Now, I want to point out that this is the exact nervous hysteria that many people experience when they are taking tests.  So he finally spits it out: Uh, a sentence has five words in it, right? Or is it seven? 

Now, look, I'm not going to go into a full-blown lesson on sentence structure and so forth right here, but this young man's answer is about like asking someone, what building materials are houses made out of? And they say, uh, uh, a house has five rooms, right? Or is it seven?  You'd go, what? Does this guy know the difference between a cement block and a two by four? 

Anyhow, you get my point. Words are used to communicate ideas and words get put into simple structures and then more complex structures and a student should master each of these building blocks before moving on to the next.

Ryan: There you have it, folks. The Competence Institute isn't just another educational institution. It's a proven, step-by-step program that is tailored to the individual where anyone can fill in the gaps in their education and learn how to master anything they want to.  Join us next time for more insights into education, development, and nurturing competence.

Until then, keep learning!