Being Blind to the Obvious

[muninnhuginn]

I remember years ago sitting down and reading a friend's textbook for his Part 3 (postgraduate) Mathematics course, on advanced string theory. I got through quite a bit, tho' after reading the Acknowledgements it all got a bit complicated. Said friend refused to explain any of it, because he couldn't have taught me the basics (note I stopped--reluctantly--studying Maths post 'O' level, except for the little required for an 'A' level in Economics). Not the complicated stuff, but the basics. He refused to supervise Part 1 students for the same reasons, despite the fact it would have helped with his finances. He simply couldn't explain the more basic areas because it was so blindingly obvious to him he could see no way of explaining it to someone else.

Now, I was never entirely convinced by this. But then I never found mathematical concepts that blindingly obvious. Spelling, now, that's another matter. Apart from the odd blind spot, I don't remember needing to learn to spell. Or punctuate. That's generally obvious. But that hasn't stopped me helping out with remedial teaching of humanities and volunteering with Adult Literacy for a while.

Yet when it comes to helping Looby Loo, I find helping her with Maths, finding activities, explaining basic concepts, easy, despite the fact that it's not what I'm strongest at. For example, I've made a careful effort to explain repeatedly how the decimal system works as she's begun to go beyond counting to ten. It's been simple to see how to relate weighing and measuring in everyday activities to what she needs to learn for future competence in the world and at school. I can even see how the simple activities she's being doing in Logo could build not only into simple programming but also into a range of mathematical knowledge. We even practice counting in 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s while I'm brushing her hair.

Trying to explain spelling, helping her to parse words phonetically, is just so difficult. I know it's partly impatience: I learned to read, whole words rather than phonetically, before my early memories really kick in. I don't think I've ever had to learn spelling rules: I got to reading and spelling sufficiently well before it was taught at school. And, anyway, it's bleeding obvious. It's not obvious to Looby Loo. So we struggle somewhat.

It's true that she seems to have a mind for arithmetic, although her school last year saw her as much more tlented in artistic things, especially painting, and commented on her extensive (spoken) vocabulary and fluency in speaking. But I don't thinks it's entirely her ability to do sums that makes one area easier to explain that the other.

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

This is one of the challenges which attracts me to teaching - to learn to deconstruct my own knowledge sufficiently well that I can explain it to others!

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Arithmetic (the ability to count, add, subtract) seems to be instinctive to humans, something that we genuinely have wired into us. It's something so obvious that we don't even think about it.

Reading and writing, though, are learned skills.