IdeaJones

Tag: idea

  • Happy Halloween!

    Happy Halloween!

    Happy Halloween 2 IdeaJonesI have fond memories of Trick or Treat. I could only do it when I was very young as we moved after that to several places where we had no close neighbors, but when I was five, Halloween was a very big deal. The selection of a costume was crucial as Halloween only came once a year, which meant it would be an eternity plus an eon before I could choose another costume, in Kid Time.

    When I was five, I wanted to go as Mr. Ed. If you’re younger, you may be interested to know that there were once shows on television that featured talking horses, talking cars… the 60s were an interesting time. Anyway, Mr. Ed was the talking horse and star of his own show, a beautiful Palomino with a somewhat goofy, sometimes dry sense of humor (at five, you don’t realize the horse’s voice comes from an actor reading lines).

    I was madly in love with Mr. Ed and wanted to marry him, to my mother’s consternation. She tried explaining that it would work because he couldn’t eat at the dining table with us (we didn’t have room for a trough), and he couldn’t sleep in my bedroom. I shrugged that off and said we’d figure out something, and I could sleep in the barn. Mom said again that I couldn’t marry Mr. Ed. When I asked why, she said it was because he was already married. There was already a Mrs. Ed. Being a good girl, this meant he was off limits. Note that she didn’t try to say it wouldn’t work because Mr. Ed was a horse. In our family, we were used to believing six or more impossible things before breakfast, like Alice in Wonderland.

    Anyway, to help assuage my broken heart, she told me I could go trick or treating as Mr. Ed… but we couldn’t find a costume. Nowhere in Santa Cruz, and not even in the neighboring towns, which we tried. I was down, but Mom, who usually made my costumes (it was a big deal that she tried so hard to buy me one in respect for my being disappointed in love and all), said she would make me a costume. Although she was talented, she said there wasn’t time to make a horse head. Was there anything else I might like?

    I thought about it and told her I wanted to go as a tomato. All these years later, I don’t remember what it was about tomatoes that was so appealing, but I was determined. If not Mr. Ed, I wanted to be a tomato.

    She tried. She really did. Mom was a talented seamstress with a lot of inventive flair, but her best efforts left me looking more like an unfortunate medical condition than a healthy, ripe tomato. And it was the night before Halloween. In a burst of desperation, she declared I would be Santa Claus. Santa Claus? On Halloween? That just made no sense (whereas marrying a horse or being a tomato seemed altogether rational). She finished my costume and I wore it to school the next day, where kids laughed and asked me why Santa Claus. I explained that I was supposed to be a tomato but it didn’t work, which just confused everyone more.

    Came Halloween evening. Forcing a smile, I trudged out with the other kids and parents to go Trick or Treating, dreading having to explain at every single house that I was really a failed tomato. At the first house, the woman who opened the door exclaimed, “Santa Claus! That’s great!” She called everyone in the family to come see the little Santa. Versions of that happened at almost every house. People told me over and over how funny, how cute, how brilliant, even how scary (from someone who was already dreading holiday shopping) it was to go out on Halloween as Santa Claus. And I took in a real haul of candy. I was showered with Pixie Sticks, chocolate bars, even handfuls of coins. I made out like a whiskered, red-suited bandit.

    That’s the thing about Halloween. It can surprise you. May your surprises all be happy ones.

  • Learning Tips From A Tutor — Change It Up!

    I’ve been a literacy tutor for years, both formally (paid professional) and informally (volunteer), and have picked up a few tricks for learning, which I shared with a friend who came here from another country and is studying for both the GED exam and a work exam that could mean a better-paying job. For both of these, he needs to master information so he can recall it and use it under stress (exam pressure and being timed).

    The work test is a licensing exam to drive “big rigs,” tractor-trailer trucks. He needs to master a pre-trip checklist that he’d perform for the licensing test, and again before each driving assignment. When we saw each other last week, he was feeling some anxiety about the test and remembering all the items on the checklist. I suggested he try some methods for increasing retention, including this one, which he found helpful:

    When trying to learn a list, whether it’s a list of words, a list of names and dates, or a list of operations you have to perform, change up how you learn the list. Just as the nose gets accustomed to a scent that doesn’t go away and stops noticing it, the brain can get bored with repeating the same thing over and over and largely check out of the process, so while you’re repeating it, most of the brain is ignoring it as something that isn’t changing and therefore doesn’t need attention.

    Change the list. Try it from the last thing backwards to the first. Then from the first item to the last. Then find a point in the middle and go forward from there, or backward. In his case, instead of going through the checklist from the front of the truck back to the tail lights, he began starting at the tail lights and going back until he finished at the headlights, or starting in the middle at the front of the trailer, doing the list for the trailer, then going through the checklist for the cab. Changing it up forced his brain to continue to notice it. It was always slightly new, and therefore couldn’t be done on autopilot. His brain had to pay attention.

    This is a lumpy, awkward process the first time you try it. Your brain wants to get through something and be done with it. It doesn’t want a thing to keep changing. So expect this to feel like trying to start off walking with a different foot than you usually start with, or use your left hand when you’re right-handed.

    He reported back that his retention had improved a lot. He now feels readier for the test, and if the examiner gets a phone call in the middle of it, interrupting the flow, my friend is ready to continue on from that point after being interrupted — something that throws people who learn a list from beginning to end in only one way.