It invariably comes along – that question that I dread and welcome at the same time

WHY DO I NEED TO LEARN ALL THIS?  A question that in my days as a pupil, would never ever be allowed to pass from my thoughts to outer space and it would be kept well hidden under my pillow at night, with at times, some tears and tons of frustration.

Today as a teacher I welcome this question for two main reasons:  firstly the almost jealous feeling that I have, that the child in front of me is able to ask the question out loud and the wonderful feeling that I am on the receiving end of it.  The second is that it is one of the questions that force me into the most creative mode of all for that particular pupil because there is no one answer….there is no one person…there is no one dynamic…there is no one learning problem and I find that I have to take into consideration lots of little details and formulate the answer in such a way that the child will walk out with a feeling of “now I know why I have to make the effort”.

Often it  will take a few sessions before I am able to convince a pupil that there is a logical reason for all the homework and tests that we have to do and sometimes there is immediate understanding  and I  see the light gleaming in their eyes as they prepare themselves for the battle.  And that is when the journey starts because we now have to meet the real challenges of how to learn, how to remember, how to concentrate and how to improve everything for ourselves and also to convince teachers that attitudes have changed.

Everyone has a dominant brain hemisphere.  Left dominant brained people think and learn very differently than the Right dominant brained.  Left dominant brains are much more detail orientated while their right hemisphere counterparts prefer a more overall picture of the subject matter.  The lefties prefer doing a summary at the end of the session while the right brains love a summary at the beginning that helps them see the picture as a whole.  Classrooms are usually left brained orientated.  Text books have their own logic and they are not always adapted for all pupils.  Some find them easy and others cannot understand the basic logic of what is written. This does not mean that a pupil cannot understand mathematics; it just means at times that the method is wrong for that certain pupil.

The first thing I do is to map out the pupil’s dominance so that he/she can understand the way THEY think and learn best.  Usually the subjects at school that we receive lower grades and dislike do not have to do with our inability of understanding it generates from the way they are taught or the way we try and learn.  And that is why ‘those subjects’ that annoy us most are the subjects that are our best teachers.  To succeed in them we have to change.  Change our attitude.  Change the way we listen.  Change the way we learn.  Not close ourselves to them.  Not get angry at the teacher, the subject, the homework or the tests.  But ask questions.  How would it be easier for   me to learn, understand and remember?  We need to study so that our brains can be challenged and  we can then challenge ourselves with the HOW TO DO IT DIFFERENTLY AND SUCCEED.