Help Them Understand

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I was a young adult when I began to grasp numbers and the workings of math. It’s a downright miracle that I passed any grade at school. I memorized tables and practiced formulas, but it made little sense. The manipulations of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc were, and still are abstract to me. They are symbols, representations of sets. I can’t recall that anyone made sense of it until I entered an Introduction To Math class in college. We did not handle numbers until the last few weeks of the course. We studied logic, sets and subsets. My light bulb might be on a dimmer switch, but it did come on. It all made sense! The teacher understood that some people see differently.


You might have no difficulty with math, but I guarantee you struggle with something else. Just because you understand does not mean the one who does not understand is less than you. Have patience with those you teach or lead. One may regurgitate what has been memorized, but that does not mean one understands. It only demonstrates one has memorized. Some people understand differently, so flexibility is required of the teacher. As Plato said, “knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind." 


If one refuses to learn, don’t waste time, energy or breath; otherwise, help him understand. One does not build up by tearing down.

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