Son Bob is studying (to me) some of the most boring stuff on the face of the earth. He's working for a 2-year certificate in HVAC. That has to do with heating, air conditioning, refrigeration (like the cold boxes at the grocery store) and the computer controls it takes to operate and monitor them.
As I've mentioned before, Bob has always been a strange kind of student, the kind that drove his teachers crazy. He's very social. While a teacher was talking, he could carry on conversations with two or three other kids and still - when the teacher stopped and said "Bob, what did I just say!" he could repeat probably the last 3 minutes word for word and the general gist of everything else.
Bob is dyslexic. He can read fairly well now, but he doesn't retain visual information well. Auditory information, however, goes directly to his brain and stays there.
On Thursdays he often asks me to read a chapter or two from one of his Refrigeration books aloud to him. Gaaaaaah! Gag me with a spoon. But I do it. I just plug my eyes directly to my mouth and read away, avoiding any engagement by my brain. I read really, really fast to get it over with. When I get to the end of a chapter I ask Bob the questions, thinking there's no way he could have retained any of that information, but he always does.
Today he had 30 "homework" questions that require written short answers, they weren't multiple-choice. He asked me to read a chapter to him while he did his homework. Just the thought of how that would work put me in brain freeze. I asked him to please clarify, sure I'd misunderstood the request. Nope.
So I read the chapter while Bob sat at the counter with his back turned to me. By the time I got to the chapter questions and hour later, he had finished the homework. He answered every single chapter question with no hesitation. And then he packed up and took off for class.
I'm still sitting here in a daze, waiting for enough brain cells to recharge so I can remember what I need to do with the rest of my afternoon. Take a nap? Yeah, that sounds good.
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6 comments:
LOL...Learning Styles are different for different folk. I had to teach everything in my GED class two or three different ways until I saw light bulbs coming on. One guy got a math problem right because he remembered how I moved my hands.
My brother was brilliant. In his ROTC class he would sit at the back of the room and lean back and sleep. The Sgt would scream his last name and ask a question. My brother said that woke him up and he could remember what the guy said even though he was sound asleep.
Finally, the sgt was exasperated that my brother alone could answer questions. "Jones can answer questions even if he sleeps through class. The rest of you are wide awake and cannot answer anything." (Jones is not our last name.)
My mother was aghast!
Students who learn differently often must make their own accommodations by listening closely. They are often brilliant.
I can see why your brain went to mush. Where was the plot?
At least he can fix a variety of things around your home!
As Practical Parsimony suggests - it is funny how the human brain works in different ways. Many children have been dubbed failures simply because they were unable to learn properly in the middle-of-the-road manner that is okay for middle-of-the-road learners.
You have a very smart son. Even if you still have to read to him. He's a very nice person. Too bad there are not more like him in this world. Cousin Bev
PP, you are entirely correct. We had to take Bob out of public school about 5th grade because they only dealt with the traditional way of learning. I really feel for parents who can't afford private school and think that some kids end up with permanent problems because they were treated like they were stupid for 12 years. And then, as YP can probably tell you, some of them ARE stupid. If not academically, then socially.
Cousin Bev, I'll tell Bob what you said.
And yes, Bob will be able to fix some pretty expensive machinery when he finishes his courses. Unfortunately we don't have either air conditioning or central heat in this house, only windows that open in the summer and a whole house fan, and the woodstove in the winter. I guess he could fix the refrigerator, but I would part with that plastic piece of poo in a minute.
Jan,
I worked with those people who learn differently all the time in GED classes. Some were in prison where I taught. People from LD classes told me that they were stupid because they were Learning Disabled and in Special Education programs. It broke my heart. I regularly lectured them on how they were not dumb or stupid, just did not learn like others, a thing that was no shame.
That's why the guy said he remembered how I put my hands during the math problem. I used all the senses I could muster to teach. I taught fractions using the hershey bar as an example of fractions.
One prisoner assured me there could not be 5/2 of anything because there were only 2 halves in anything. The rest of the class was watching. I picked up 3 new pencils and snapped them into halves and counted out 5 of them. He turned to the class and said, "Now, that is REAL teaching."
Just because people don't "get it," does not mean they are not brilliant. I love using Learning Styles to teach. I have a great "bag of tricks," a repertoire, if you will.
When I can afford to take the GRE, I will apply for a PhD progrm so that I can help people learn to the end of my days. I love teaching those who think they cannot learn!
Look up Multiple Intelligences...that is one of my favorite "memes."
Sounds like to me he has a photographic mind...it works differently than the what we think of as normal, because he is really a genius!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
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