An Alien in an Alien World

Posted on | December 10, 2006 | 4 Comments

My wife does not understand why I am so upset. Well, upset is the wrong word. I am visibly uncomfortable. The difference between us is that I spend a lot of time in hotel rooms, and I need to feel comfortable — and I’m not comfortable in a handicapped room. It starts when I walk in. The room is the wrong shape. The furniture does not fit. So much of the space is wasted But it really doesn’t hit me until I walk into the bathroom where the sink and toilet are the wrong height, the walking space is too big, and the shower is totally not a shower. It’s a place for hosing down.

Now please don’t get me wrong. I am not being insensitive to the needs of people who are differentially-abled. On the contrary, I am sympathetic to being in a place that is alien to your shape, to your mode of conveyance, to your various disabilities and abilities. It’s the whole point.

We are all so different. But I suspect that the place we are most different is in how we think.

I’m not sure, because I am not a specialist. But I do not believe that I could ever be taught to be a strong reader. I’m an effective reader. I certainly read a lot. But there is a resistance in my mind, to the easy translation of arbitrary symbols (text) into facts and concepts. There are stages of reasoning that must take place in my mind that does not seem to be required by my son, let’s say. I took piano when I was young. But I could not learn to read music. I understand its concepts. But his ability to look at musical score and immediately translate it directly into his instrument seems superhuman to my way of thinking.

There are those whose minds resist the easy understand of the elegant language of numbers, the understanding of a spacial world, the ability to handle and manipulate complex and abstract concepts. And they each have their strengths and talents — and I wonder how many natural mathematicians, engineers, artists, composers, story tellers and innovators we are wasting, when we measure our schools almost exclusively on their ability to produce good test takers.

How many natural born leaders are we squandering as we teach them to listen, watch, follow direction, regurgitate facts, to sit down and shut up. How many leaders are we losing when we teach them to be taught — in stead of teaching them to teach.

How alien are our classrooms?

Image Citation:
a77eBnY, “Handicapped.” a77eBnY’s Photostream. 24 Apr 2005. 10 Dec 2006 <http://flickr.com/photos/a77ebny/10714112/>.

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The An Alien in an Alien World by 2¢ Worth, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Category: education

Comments

David Truss posted the following on December 11, 2006 at 1:30 am.
Here is an article for you and your readers.
Time Magazine’s next cover story,
How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1568480,00.html
Why weren’t thinkers like you interviewed David?
Reply to David Truss
Karyn Romeis posted the following on December 11, 2006 at 5:59 am.
David, I so relate to your sense of discomfort. I am not designed to be an ex-pat. I am so ill-matched to the UK, that even after nearly 8 years, it feels to me like that room for a disabled person felt to you.

Unlike you (and I’m taking your word for it), I am (and always have been) a strong reader. However, I was most ill-suited to the education system of my time. I was identified as being a candidate for a special programme for gifted and talented kids but, even with the help of a scholarship, my mother could not aspire to the sort of numbers involved (all State education in South Africa must be paid for, and specialist schools even more so). I have no idea if that system would have suited me better, but the frustration I felt on taking my leave of my head teacher, when she acknowledged to my mother and me that the approach she had directed for the staff to adopt towards me had been a dismal failure. How do you get those years back?

I don’t claim that I would have been anyone wonderful if I had been better educated, but it would have been nice to find out!
Reply to Karyn Romeis

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[...] David Truss, in commenting on yesterday’s 2Â¢ worth, points to an upcoming cover article for Time Magazine. It is available now, online. [...]