Who is the Slow Learner here?

Who is the slow learner here?

Greetings

Do you know the saying “I’ve told you a million times…”  It’s an expression I’ve heard since childhood.  However my life has changed since I learned the appropriate response to it.  It is a response that is best kept inside your head it goes like this, “So who is the slow learner here?”

Early in my teaching career I went to an in-service.  The in-service was quite intense about new methods in teaching reading.  At the end of the second day we got to have a little bit of down time listening to a teacher who was also a humorist.  His big draw was how funny he was.  Well, Bill Page, changed my teaching and many other parts of my life more than any other speaker I have heard.  He was hilarious.  He told stories about his life as a teacher that were hard to believe.  Here is the one that changed my life.

Bill Page, a big man with a big presence on the stage told this story.  When I am walking down the hall and I hear a teacher say to a student I have told you a million times not to run in the hall, or I hear a teacher yell I have told you a million times not to sit on top of your desk or a teacher whispers in the staff room I told him a million times this won’t work, I think who is the slow learner here?

Now think about the question.  An adult who has a degree in education has done or said the same thing a million times and it has not worked.  So what so they do?  They tell the student the same thing one more time.  Now really who is not catching on here?  Who has the ability to change the situation?  Oh, so who is having a hard time learning?  The teacher.

Albert Einstein is widely credited with saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

I find it easier to think, inside my head, “Who’s the slow learner here?”

I went back to my grade 1 classroom after listening to Bill Page and said to my students.  There are coats all over the floor again, go hang up your coats.  Then I said to myself – Who is the slow learner here?  And I watched for a few days.  The coat hooks were so close together the students knocked off each other’s coats when they tried to hang up their own coat.  I asked for more coat hooks so we could use every other hook.  Problem solved – mostly

I said to Chris, “Chris how is your work all over the floor again.”  I said to myself, “Who is the slow learner here?”  I said to Chris, “What if we keep your things in the box except for what you are working on?”

Just this past year every day after lunch, “Mrs H, Mrs H what are we doing now?  I tell you every day, I’ve told you a million times - Reading time like every day.  Made me crazy – how could they not know?  Why were we in this situation?  Oh – who’s the slow learner here?  I need to change something.  I just quit answering, they quit asking and started reading.

My husband and had had 3 dogs.  All of the dogs were runners.  We used a rope all the time but as soon as they had a chance they took off.  We were getting a new dog.  I thought I hope this dog isn’t a runner too.  OHH I thought - this is like I’ve told you a million times.  Who’s the slow learner here?  I took puppy training classes this dog comes when I call her.

I went to visit my parents; my father shook his head as my mother had difficulty with the can opener.  He said, “I’ve been telling her for 25 years it only works if …  My father loved to tell everyone how he had been telling my mother various things for 25 years.

I told him about Bill Page.  I told him how Bill Page figures the person saying “I’ve told you  - is the one who is a bit slow in the learning department.  The next time I visited home there was a new can opener.  And my father had to figure out a new phrase.

The whole idea is like the old joke, “Dr, Dr, It hurts when I do this.” “So don’t do it!”

I think I must have impressed on you by now, Any time you are saying or thinking not this again, I have been here or said this a million times before remember to ask yourself, who is the slow learner here?  How can I change this situation?

I want to restate my point just one more time.  When you hear yourself say, I have told you a million times remember to say Who’s the slow learner here?  What can I change?  Did I just repeat myself? Saying it one more time to make sure you understand? Ahhh who’s the slow learner here?