When the taught becomes the teacher

My son, Nick, announced to me this morning (before I even had a chance to get coffee) that since I had been teaching him typing and other essential skills, he was going to teach me how to use the Wii controller.

I guess it's something I need to know if I'm ever going to make it in the real world. ;)

So I played along. First I had to wake up fully, get my breakfast and coffee. I can't be expected to get right to work without proper nutrition just as he needs fuel before getting started on his schoolwork.

Before I had even fully cooked my breakfast, he had the Wii up and was tapping his foot impatiently. I had to wonder if I was that way with him. Is he making a point, even if not meaning to?

Let's get started, Mom

Finally my education was under way. He had me start off with an “easy” game where I would not die if I made a mistake. He has definitely learned his teaching style from me. He genuinely did not want me to get frustrated if I did not learn this skill very quickly.

He pointed out where all the buttons were. There are two controllers and each has a number of buttons and rotation tools. The one in my right hand (the Wii remote) has a main button on the top of the front with a directional tool, a button on the back, and several more buttons in the middle and lower part of the front. The other controller (the nunchuk) had a directional tool and two buttons on the back. In other words, there are a lot of buttons to remember, just like on the keyboard. Unlike the keyboard however, one button can do several different actions depending on what your situation is in the game.

So, after playing the game a while I decided I definitely had a lot more to learn. I type really well now (and am a professional at hitting the delete key to retype really well). But I have years of practice under my belt. This kid of mine learned the Wii controllers after the first hour or so of using them. It almost confirms my theory that kids born these days have an innate knowledge of electronic stuff.

More than just one lesson to learn

What it taught me the most is how it is easy to become frustrated when learning something that is not natural to us. I had to remember which buttons did which skills and which rotation tool would rotate what, and it was all so confusing. So if I relate that to teaching my son reading, well, he has to remember when “c” says /s/ and when is says /k/ or the occasional /ch/. AND then there's the times when “ch” says /k/. Yeah, that's confusing. Reading came naturally to me but not to Nick. And the Wii remote came naturally to him but not to me. It is the different way our brains work for sure.

How a dyslexic mind works

In the book, The Gift of Dyslexia I learned how many people with dyslexia think. It is by far the best description I've seen. The author, Ron Davis, is dyslexic and has that creative kind of mind that allows us readers to step inside a dyslexic's mind and visualize what it is like to think as they do. It is quite amazing. Davis describes it as picture thinking, but in 3-D and in constant motion. So Nick can be looking at the screen but can see the controllers in his mind and know which buttons are where. It is quite natural to him. He picked up typing rather quickly as well (when his only task was to hit the letters the game told him to hit). But with reading, (besides all the rules and contradictions to those rules) the letters need to stay put for him to understand them. His mind wants to move them around and rotate them. That's where the dyslexic mind becomes a problem.

Davis was frustrated with his inability to grasp reading but didn't let it get him down. His teachers were using their same old tricks to teach him but nothing was working because his brain worked differently. Davis invented his own way to understand the letters and make them stay put so he could read. He did this when he was still in grade school. Maybe he saw this reading thing as a challenge that he must overcome. Maybe he saw it as a puzzle to figure out. Whatever motivated him to overcome the obstacle of reading, he just did it.

Most dyslexics are very creative and develop some amazing ways to cope with this difference in the way their brains work. Some of the most amazing talents in history (and in the present) have struggled with dyslexia but have not let it get in the way of their success.

Learning to not let frustration get in the way

So I guess what Nick taught me was not how to work the controllers but that I need to learn how to not let my frustration with learning them get me down. I need to see it as a challenge and find my own way to master them. (If I just had a dyslexic mind it would probably be easier.)

Have you ever had to come up with a trick to teach yourself something when the traditional way wasn't working? What were your obstacles and how did you overcome them?