Slim Novel 12 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage
35: Educate Brenda 2
35: Educate Brenda 2
Brenda’s Brow's Big Bang was an acceleration-deceleration head trauma. Picture a brain encased in a skull and surrounded by fluid that allows it to move a little. What happens when a person is flung, face forward, to a hard floor? The brow, or forehead, moves rapidly forward and brain is accelerated ahead. But suddenly, the forehead is stopped by its hitting the hard floor but the brain continues forward inside the skull in its fluid for seconds more and then is suddenly decelerated by hitting the already stopped forehead's inner skull, and its front gets smacked hard.
Brenda's brain was thus struck and it affects the pre-frontal part that controls motivation, and Brenda gets changed from a run-of-the-mill Bronx girl who only thinks about boys and clothing and movie stars into a person who wants to know why and how and what.
It is not obvious at first, The healing causes a quieting of her personality. Then a reconnecting starts to stimulate intellect.
It is not obvious at first, The healing causes a quieting of her personality. Then a reconnecting starts to stimulate intellect.
Brenda sits facing Ali in Apt 1A on a Saturday morning.
"Bren, hon, when I was at Harvard, my good ole Unc taught me a lot how to educate a person into a wiz."
"You mean like the guys who can memorize the telephone book by a look?" Brenda's language is improving under Ali's stimulus.
"No, those guys are either idiot savants or tricksters."
"Bren, hon, when I was at Harvard, my good ole Unc taught me a lot how to educate a person into a wiz."
"You mean like the guys who can memorize the telephone book by a look?" Brenda's language is improving under Ali's stimulus.
"No, those guys are either idiot savants or tricksters."
"I know an idiot but idiot savant? Wha?"
"A kind of retard but has one smart bit - super memory or figuring numbers. No, what I mean is I'm gonna educate you so you are high IQ.
"Like Einystein??
"Yeah, but next time say, Einstein. He don't need the Y."
"Ha! Ha! Y? Like why a duct?"
"I've seen The Cocoanuts, Bren. Now, let's stop fooling around. I will clue you in on how to read and remember."
"OK, Ali, I'm yours with gauze. Shoot it to me."
Ali starts off about how to read well.
"First, Bren, your physical state. If you are reading to remember, you don't want a full stomach or sleepy. So before a session no big eats and get a brief repose."
"Hey Ali! You're saying I should sleep?"
"No you dope. Repose. Resting without sleeping. For good reading you gotta be rested to get brilliant. Let's read the opening of Edith Wharton's Summer."
"We tried her in English class. She uses big words no one knows."
"That's what this dictionary is for, baby, But you got a good point. When you get to do your own writing always think about the poor readers, like your high school mates, and use easy language at first to ease them into big words. And only use big words when they count in giving the reading meaning or emotion or interest."
Ali and Brenda each take turns reading and commenting. At end, Ali says "You don't want to read too much at a time. No more than ten minutes. And stop a lot to see and to think about what you read. And when you don't understand and if it's important to understand - re-read until you got it."
"I sure got tit. Ha! Ha!"
"Stop being smart-ass, Bren. You got a built so don't excite envy."
Ali continues on principles of good reading. "You should read in read units."
"Wha?"
"Stop with the Wha. Best to just repeat back with a question mark sound in your voice like say 'Read units?' A read unit is a separate section of reading you can digest in your mind."
"Oh, I get it. Like a bite of food I can chew and swallow at one moment and enjoy."
"Yeah, Bren, a brilliant analogy. Actually a read unit is a paragraph or a section of the writing that ends with a line of dots, or even a full chapter if it's short enough."
"I gotcha, Ali."
"No, Bren, say "I get you' ".
"OK, Sir Boss.
After fifteen minutes on reading, Ali shifts to memory. "Brenda, you don't want to memorize from a book you read, word for word. You want to recall ideas as images. So when you read in Einstein's Relativity about time - A second in time being expanded to, say a minute? - You see in your mind a bubble expanding."
"Gee, I want to know more about this Relativity."
"Here is a little book." She hands Brenda a slim volume that has The Universe and Dr Einstein on its front cover.
End of Section. For next, click 12.36 Helping Dan Die - The Morphine Effect
"A kind of retard but has one smart bit - super memory or figuring numbers. No, what I mean is I'm gonna educate you so you are high IQ.
"Like Einystein??
"Yeah, but next time say, Einstein. He don't need the Y."
"Ha! Ha! Y? Like why a duct?"
"I've seen The Cocoanuts, Bren. Now, let's stop fooling around. I will clue you in on how to read and remember."
"OK, Ali, I'm yours with gauze. Shoot it to me."
Ali starts off about how to read well.
"First, Bren, your physical state. If you are reading to remember, you don't want a full stomach or sleepy. So before a session no big eats and get a brief repose."
"Hey Ali! You're saying I should sleep?"
"No you dope. Repose. Resting without sleeping. For good reading you gotta be rested to get brilliant. Let's read the opening of Edith Wharton's Summer."
"We tried her in English class. She uses big words no one knows."
"That's what this dictionary is for, baby, But you got a good point. When you get to do your own writing always think about the poor readers, like your high school mates, and use easy language at first to ease them into big words. And only use big words when they count in giving the reading meaning or emotion or interest."
Ali and Brenda each take turns reading and commenting. At end, Ali says "You don't want to read too much at a time. No more than ten minutes. And stop a lot to see and to think about what you read. And when you don't understand and if it's important to understand - re-read until you got it."
"I sure got tit. Ha! Ha!"
"Stop being smart-ass, Bren. You got a built so don't excite envy."
Ali continues on principles of good reading. "You should read in read units."
"Wha?"
"Stop with the Wha. Best to just repeat back with a question mark sound in your voice like say 'Read units?' A read unit is a separate section of reading you can digest in your mind."
"Oh, I get it. Like a bite of food I can chew and swallow at one moment and enjoy."
"Yeah, Bren, a brilliant analogy. Actually a read unit is a paragraph or a section of the writing that ends with a line of dots, or even a full chapter if it's short enough."
"I gotcha, Ali."
"No, Bren, say "I get you' ".
"OK, Sir Boss.
After fifteen minutes on reading, Ali shifts to memory. "Brenda, you don't want to memorize from a book you read, word for word. You want to recall ideas as images. So when you read in Einstein's Relativity about time - A second in time being expanded to, say a minute? - You see in your mind a bubble expanding."
"Gee, I want to know more about this Relativity."
"Here is a little book." She hands Brenda a slim volume that has The Universe and Dr Einstein on its front cover.
End of Section. For next, click 12.36 Helping Dan Die - The Morphine Effect
No comments:
Post a Comment