Comments from Students

Comments from Teachers

What is Intellegence?

by Isaac Asimov

WANDERMAN'S TIPS AND ADVICE FOR STUDENTS, TEACHERS, AND PARENTS

by Richard Wanderman
ADVICE FOR STUDENTS:

Pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students. Pull everything out of yourself. Work hard. Then work harder.

• Success isn't how far you got, but the distance you traveled from here you started.
• Consider everything an experiment.
• Learn by trial and error, and don't avoid the errors.
• Learning doesn't happen in class, it happens when you get home and look at the wall. Don't forget to make time for looking at walls.
• Be self-disciplined.
• Be a self-advocate.
• Assume that others are always doing their best.
• Work. If you work it will lead to something. It's the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things. Worrying about work doesn't get it done, it only makes getting started harder.
• Get good at something other than school-related work (like skate boarding or cooking).
• Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.
• Don't spend energy worrying; just get started and it'll work out.
• Subscribe to many magazines, the more pictures the better. Don't feel bad about not reading them cover to cover, just have them around and read what interests you, even if it's just one article.
• It's the process, not the product that counts, because you can use it again and again and it transfers.
• Don't do school-related work under pressure. Allow lots of extra time for things that are hard, and for everything else, too.
• Learning opportunities are everywhere, not just in academic settings. The more stuff you do, the more you learn. But, don't overdo it.
• Read anything you can get your hands on. Comic books involve decoding just as great literature does. Read billboards and road signs.
• Always be around.
• Come or go to everything.
• Always go to classes.
• Write lots of letters.

Learn

Learn from your mistakes. There is no win and no fail, there's only honest effort.

Learn how to keyboard.

Learn to read and use maps.

Learn to read and use indexes.

Learn to use a library.

Learn to cook and deal with food.

Learn to ask questions without feeling stupid.

Give

Give others some slack; it makes life easier.

Give yourself some slack; it makes life easier.

• Watch movies, regularly.
• Travel whenever and wherever you can.
• Save everything; it might come in handy later.

Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's your life.

ADVICE FOR TEACHERS:

• Pull everything out of your students.
• Extend yourself.
• Be creative.
• Don't assess a student's capabilities based on his or her folder or I.Q. test scores.
• Don't be scared to make a mess (mistakes) in front of students. If learning takes place through modeling, you must model the process of working things out, from scratch, mistakes and all.
• Assume that others are always doing their best.

Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's your life.

ADVICE FOR PARENTS:

• Be there, but don't smother kids. Not enough interest is neglect; too much scrutiny can smother. Assume that kids are trying as hard as they can, even though you might not think so.
• Keep the pressure low.
• Allow plenty of time and space for any reading and writing.
• Assume that others are always doing their best.
• Learning how to read and write takes a lot of time and work. Make sure you give your kids enough time and space for them to learn.
• Make sure kids practice reading and writing every day. Don't let them miss a day for anything. Sit on them, but not too hard.
• Make sure there's a World Book Encyclopedia in the house. Any year is okay. Buy it used. (Why World Book? Pictures!)
• Learning takes place after the fact, while your kid is looking at the wall, not while he/she's in a classroom at school. When they get home, give them the time and space to look at walls.
• If you treat kids like animals, they act like animals. Kids are kids. Don't forget it. You were a kid once too.
• Don't romanticize your past too much, kids resent it and it probably wasn't as good as you think it was. Avoid phrases like: "when I was a kid..." or, "when I was your age..." or, "just wait until you're my age..." or, "kids today..." It's easy to have 20/20 hindsight.

Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's your life.

Note: portions of this list came from The Whole Earth Catalog, CoEvolution Quarterly, and The Whole Earth Review.

© 1990 Richard Wanderman richard@ldresources.com

This section is added to from time to time as data are gathered. The starting point for this section was a survey taken at two middle and high schools. Both teachers and students were questioned to get at their concerns, questions, and comments with respect to special education. Your input is valued. Find the section marked Reader Response to give your ideas and comments.

COMMENTS FROM STUDENTS

"Teachers should believe that I am trying. Sometimes things are harder for me than for some other students. It hurts my feelings when they think I'm just not trying."

 

"I can't remember what you said when you give assignments right at the end of the period. There is too much confusion. Everybody is getting ready to go and I can't think or remember then."

 

"Don't talk so much. It makes me zone out."

 

"Mrs. X is a good teacher because she explains so I can understand."

 

"I like doing projects in history and science instead of just having to write all the time. Like the time we did a radio show from the time of WW II. I could really do that and it was fun. It was fun making all of those sound effects."

 

"I hate it when we have to take notes during a movie. I can't watch and write at the same time. He says it is important to take notes but I never get through writing down one important thing before the movie is on to ten more."

 

"Why do we have to study this stuff? How will it help me in life?"

 

"Everybody else understands this stuff (math) but I don't. I know the teacher thinks I'm dumb. I do too."

 

"I liked it when we got to carve a totem pole. The Indians in the northwest really loved their totem poles. They all had a special animal that was like their personal one. They believed they got power from that animal and had their strengths. I chose a gazelle because I run fast. American Indians are neat."

 

"I wish just once I would get called on when I know the answer."

 

"I'm going to be a mechanic in my dad's garage. Just wait until a teacher comes in to get their car fixed. They won't think I'm so dumb then!"

COMMENTS FROM TEACHERS

"Resource teachers should tell regular ed. teachers how to help the students."

 

"Help!"

"It's especially helpful when my students tell me what they need. I get so busy trying to reach all the students that I sometimes miss the obvious."

"Teaching is getting harder and harder all the time. I really appreciate it when I have a good resource teacher who can help me get a handle on what her kids need."

"I'm amazed at how hard some of my students work! I know the class is tough but they just keep on trying. I wish all my kids worked as hard."

"I think it is perfectly okay to give him a chance to tell me the material orally instead of writing out a test. The idea is to find out if he knows the stuff, not if he can write or not."

"Group activities work best if I structure them really well. I usually give the job of keeping the group on task to a strong student and choose jobs that suit each of the students. For instance, I would never have X be the recorder because he writes so slowly, but he is a great artist so he often designs the product the group will make. I can tell he understands the work by the way he does his part."

 

"To me the point of doing group activities is so that every kid can really be involved in learning. I know they seem like more work but they do the trick. Kids really get a handle on the material better when they get in and get their hands dirty with the ideas."

 

"Years ago I used to lecture all the time. I almost never have more than 15 minutes of lecture at a time now. And I always give the class an outline of what I am going to say or put it on the overhead before I speak. That way they don't have to try to write and listen at the same time."

 

"Kids ask all the time, 'Why do we have to learn this?' Sometimes it's hard to answer them. Part of the problem is that we are teaching stuff based on the assumption that all the kids will go to college or have a white collar job. You know what? It isn't so. I think we should teach to the reality of life. Some will be plumbers, some mechanics. Should they have to learn the fine details of molecular biology? No. But there is plenty they need to know. Like how to read a blueprint, and how to understand instructional manuals. That's math, and science, and English."

 

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WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE, ANYWAY?

by Isaac Asimov

What is intelligence, anyway? When I was in the army, I received the kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that, and for two hours they made a big fuss over me. (It didn't mean anything. The next day I was still a buck private with KP - kitchen police - as my highest duty.)

All my life I've been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I'm highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think so, too. Actually, though, don't such scores simply mean that I am very good at answering the type of academic questions that are considered worthy of answers by people who make up the intelligence tests--people with intellectual bents similar to mine?

For instance, I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was. Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles--and he always fixed my car.

Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I'd prove myself a moron. And, I'd be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an arbiter of such matters.

Consider my auto-repair man, again. He had a habit of telling me jokes whenever he saw me. One time he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: "Doc, a deaf-and-mute guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, Doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?"

Indulgently, I lifted my right hand and made scissoring motions with my first two fingers. Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, "Why, you dumb jerk, he used his voice and asked for them." Then he said smugly, "I've been trying that on all my customers today." "Did you catch many? I asked. "Quite a few," he said, "but I knew for sure I'd catch you." "Why is that?" I asked. "Because you're so goddamned educated, Doc, I knew you couldn't be very smart."

And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.

I hope that you find this web page useful. It will grow and develop through the contributions of its readers so I encourage you to visit the reader response page and share your ideas and questions.

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