Bernard Percy—One of those Teachers you Never Forget

Just returned to Los Angeles from Spanish Lake, Missouri, from the annual conference of Applied Scholastics International April 4 - 6, Bernard Percy has been involved for the past four decades in the movement described in a new brochure published by the Church of Scientology.

Those of us who are lucky can look back over our schools years and remember a favorite teacher—one whose guidance and care made an impact on our lives, brought out the best in us and made us believe in ourselves. Just such an educator is Bernard Percy, one of the early pioneers of the program described in the new brochure Scientology: How We Help—Applied Scholastics, Achieving Literacy and Education.

Although possessed of the personality, aptitude and a genuine concern that he hoped would lead to success in his chosen profession, when he began teaching Percy came face to face with the harsh reality that his formal education had not prepared him for what he encountered.

“I was an honors student in college, majoring in education, and I received my master’s degree from Columbia University in childhood education. But I was unable to meet the practical realities of working with students in an inner city school and achieve my goals as a teacher,” he says.

Help came from a direction he had not anticipated. Percy had recently begun studying Scientology. To his surprise, he learned that the technology developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard for the training of Scientology spiritual counselors could also be applied to overcoming the barriers to studying any subject.

“When I studied and applied the references, including how to get the true cooperation and agreement of my students, as well as preventing or overcoming any barriers they may have hit during their studies, I became more effective as a teacher,” he says.

From then on, Percy was able to tackle even the most problematic students and help them become successful. A reminder of the difference this made came in the form of a very special phone call he received not too long ago. The call was from a man Percy taught in the 1970s. As a child he had fallen badly behind the rest of the class and despaired of ever learning the alphabet much less becoming truly literate. In less than a half hour, using Study Technology, Percy located and resolved the reason the boy had been unable to learn—a problem other teachers had tried to handle for years.

Hence, the phone call that began with, “Hi Mr. Percy, it’s me, Charlie.”

“After 40 years, I found out that Charlie went on to college and had a successful career in the army as a trainer,” says Percy. “I know it was my application of the correct Study Technology tools that contributed to Charlie having had so much success in his career.”

Percy was not the only teacher using Study Technology to help his students. Other educators had begun using these tools in their classrooms too, and Applied Scholastics was founded in Los Angeles as a secular nonprofit public benefit corporation to make this technology broadly available.

“I have been involved with and supporting Applied Scholastics since it started in 1972,” he says.

His original interest was as a teacher working in the inner city in New York and applying this technology and philosophy to his classes. He later became a spokesperson for Applied Scholastics and in 1980 published a book in which he included data on the educational tools and philosophy of Mr. Hubbard. From there he went on a media tour of radio and television shows and introduced Applied Scholastics educational programs and materials.

Four decades later, Percy is still going strong.

“Recently I have been delivering teacher training seminars and workshops across the globe. These feature Study Technology with a focus on how to get the agreement and cooperation of students,” he says. “Having, understanding, and applying the educational technology and philosophy of Mr. Hubbard has helped me develop the certainty and confidence I can make my dreams come true as an educator, and for this I am eternally grateful.”

The Church of Scientology has published a new brochure Scientology: How We Help—Applied Scholastics, Achieving Literacy and Education, one of a series of publications presented to meet requests for more information about the Scientology religion and its support of global humanitarian initiatives and social betterment programs. For more information, visit the Scientology website at Scientology.org/AppliedScholastics.

Applied Scholastics International is a secular nonprofit public benefit corporation that addresses head-on the problem of illiteracy by making L. Ron Hubbard’s discoveries in the field of education and literacy broadly available. It has trained nearly 140,000 educators and has helped more than 39 million with Study Technology. The organization works with hundreds of affiliated schools and educational programs throughout the world, providing the effective learning tools developed by L. Ron Hubbard.