The visual learner

 

Need a reminder that we all learn differently, and that inflexible, strict adherence to one way of teaching can do harm to a child? I came across the following passage in an old book recently, and thought I would share it. This is from Eileen J Garrett, written in 1949. She grew up in rural Ireland. It’s from her biography,  Adventures in the Supernormal:

“I was full of curiosity and passionately eager to learn, especially languages and music. Yet it was with the teachers of these subjects that I had my troubles. The teaching methods of those times were even worse than the methods of today, but in addition I undoubtedly had my own peculiarities as a student. I could never learn a thing by repeating it by rote. Strings of verbs meant nothing to me. I had to use them in the creation of some kind of form before they would take on any significance. If I could write and rewrite a thing I could absorb it. There seemed to be some visual necessity in the process for me. I made my pleas to be allowed to learn in my own way, but the suggestion was attributed to stubbornness, and a feud developed between the teacher and myself until finally it became difficult for me to study at all.”