> Very interesting, Ken. It's another indication of how different people have
> different ways of learning.
This is a topic which is very near and dear to me. I'm not a
memorizer. My brain just isn't wired right for that. Part of that
expresses itself in the form of ADHD, but it also manifests itself in
that I don't learn by rote. I learn by concept. If I get the concept
of something, I can learn and understand just about anything I choose
to. If I understand the concept of something, I can usually "invent"
my own answers. That usually works well and allows me to stay a few
steps ahead of the industry I'm employed in.
Sometimes, the concept won't click. If I don't understand something,
it doesn't matter how hard you try to teach or how hard I try to
learn, it ain't happening. Learning foreign languages is a good
example of this. People like me are not dumb. We usually can slam dunk
the IQ tests. Whether we are actually that smart or not, I'm not sure,
but we can usually game the tests and figure out how to answer the
questions even though we may not really know the answers. Odd. MENSA
hasn't called me yet. Maybe they know I'm not REALLY that smart.
So, here we are with another generation of kids being put into the
meat grinder known as "Public Education" where there is one and only
one acceptable method of teaching the kids. Those like me are bored
out of our skulls. We don't bother doing homework because there is no
logical reason to do it. We either know it or we don't. If we don't,
it's because the teacher hasn't given a good enough explanation as to
application.
We need to teach backwards. Teach the application first.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
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