<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><DIV>On Nov 9, 2007, at 2:24 AM, Richard Brekne wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; ">As with all things... the better start from a pure educational point of view one has... the shorter the learning path experience yields. <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV>This is at the heart of curriculum development. Whether we teach the piano technician equivalent of Mozart, or whether we teach the piano technician equivalent of Gomer Pyle, our methods need to try to accommodate various abilities and learning styles and need to include lots of repetitions. Practice makes perfect. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Also, I think our profession demands a little bit of both of the educational models described in recent posts. The democratic model aims to educate large numbers of people without particular regard to each separate individual. Depth of learning sometimes suffers in order to be able to spread the education to millions of people. That's our current public education system. The tutorial model aims to educate individuals. Depth of education and individual attention is key. Home schooling represents this trend today.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>PTG has to address both. There are a lot of technicians that need a good basic start. Materials are out there to help with this, but more and better materials are needed. Individual attention is also important. Professional education requires as much hands-on, individual attention as possible. I think each of us can point to an individual who was pivotal as a mentor and teacher. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The goals, then, IMHO, are to develop good materials, spread them as far and wide as we can so that they reach the grassroots of our organization, and help develop individuals who can teach those materials one-on-one at the local level.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>As far as certification goes, I would be content to see a simple certificate of recognition given to technicians who have taken required CAUT curriculum courses. These more-or-less standardized courses should be widely available, and narrow in focus. The "endorsement" would consist of a piece of paper that proves a technician has been given information about CAUT related work. More stringent requirements/testing could come later.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Richard West </DIV></BODY></HTML>