Hi T-sis,
Thanks for saying all those nice things. What many people don't understand about my thinking and approach to problems is that I am like the guy that gets under the hood of things. I have never been really very good at dealing with people. I understand machinery and technical things. When it comes to problem solving, the mind and the thought processes, differ in people, usually based on the person's personal experiences and the education they have been exposed to.
How people learn things, differs as well, when you try to break through, to get people to learn something, you have those hurdles to clear. However, if you cover the different ways that people learn things; the greater the probability of getting retention of the information. Additionally, if you get as many senses involved in the learning process, the greater the expectation of the rate of retention of information, the higher the likelihood of obtaining the implementing of the strategy they learned.
When the learning leads to the implementation, then their experience of a successful outcome, then serves to reinforce what they learned. So now, through use of as many senses as possible, that bring about retention, and the actual implementation, that provides a successful outcome, and is now reinforced by a positive emotional experience, that then really empowers the person, and then develops trust in what they have done.
It is a learning process that many people, much more intelligent, than I could ever be, have long known. I am just an observer, reporting on simple things that I know to be true. I am not so much a writer, just look at the mess I make of my writing
I would rather think of myself as an effective communicator, in spite of my poor writing, and a good teacher of many different things.
In teaching, I try real hard to get that light bulb in everyone’s head to light up. For me, when I have seen that reaction from people that I have mentored or taught, the feeling I get is so satisfying it is hard to express in words. If you haven't gotten to the subject of Joe Cool on the web page, I shared with you; please check it out. I teach things to the average Joe, that can be equip them to understand the basics of air conditioning, and handle most common problems that a home owner may encounter from faulty service of their A/C units, including general maintenance of their units, to deliver efficient and satisfactory service.
I wrote that simple course in 1995. I received many comments about the things I taught there; such as, I hate you! "You make these things seem so simple than what I am learning from the course I am taking in college.” Many people, when they subjectively look at what I write about stuff here, may think I am not going to read that long reply, they miss out; because their own foolishness, bias or whatever excuse they make for their decisions to read or not read.
To give you an example of what I accomplished, in the Joe Cool teaching, you have to understand that it is a college level text book coverage of nearly 700 pages; reduced to the bare bones essentials of 12 pages and approximately 1-11/2 hours of easy to read and understand information delivered in probably 5th.-7th. Grade reading level. The book and course of study is now worth approximately $20,000 at a place like Lincoln Technical Institute.
I am not degreed. I just know how people learn stuff, and I try to put it in a rational, as best as I can, simple presentation, that most people can understand. I try to write things on a 4th. -8th. grade reading level. It’s not because I think people are not smart, but because the simpler, I make things seem, the greater their likelihood, of following through and coming back for more. I appreciate your observations, and I think I rambled a bit too much on this subject.
Nuff said! Sofia, just try to relax, and use the approach I suggest, and I promise, you will make remarkable progress.
TC