Posted by noa on October 19, 2000, at 16:42:39
In reply to Re: I spent 1st grade with desk facing the wall, posted by Flutterbee on October 18, 2000, at 7:37:24
I just thought of another book to recommend to you, Flutter. It is "In the Mind's Eye" by Thomas West, who by way of dealing with his son's school problems, discovered his own ADD/LD issues. He tells the stories of great visual thinkers like Einstein who had awful early school experiences. His thesis is that for the past couple thousand years, society's idea of what "smart" is has been tied to the ability to read and write and use language proficiently, because that has been the primary mode of working with information, and that language highlights sequential abilities. On the other hand, he believes we are at the beginning of a new age, when sequential language-based knowledge has less and less dominance, due to computer and other technologies, where visual, systems-based, extemporaneous knowledge and skills are needed. He also thinks a lot of people who have school problems due to ADD or LD might have a capacity for the more visual/systems/simultaneous way of thinking and can do things that are hard for people who fall into the more traditional sense of "smart".
poster:noa
thread:46368
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001012/msgs/46784.html