She has 5 cigarettes in the ashtray at one time and then in the evening can't remember how to use her lighter.
That's an email I received this morning from a CMC faculty friend describing his visit with his mother who has Alzheimer's. She is a sundowner, he explains. In the morning she can accomplish routine tasks, but by late afternoon her memory fails her.
I am imagining him now, re-teaching his mother patiently every evening how to use the cigarette lighter.
Learning may be difficult for us in the end,
but it never ends.
And learning is often uncomfortable for us as adults.
In CMC's Beginning Kayaking course in May, there were three young couples, all in their fit 20s, and me, 43 years old and out of shape.
I thought if I never learned how to roll (being upside down underwater in your kayak and having to right yourself), that would confirm that I could never learn anything again.
At the end of Tuesday night's class in the Hot Springs Pool after some of my classmates had gotten a roll and the rest of us had only frustration, our instructors Charlie and Conner made us end on a good note. We had to finish the evening doing any maneuver we could do well.
And when we were leaving, Conner said to me,
Good job, Suzanne--you're almost there. You're going to get a roll on Thursday.
There I was, a moderately well-adjusted adult, clutching onto those words of encouragement like they were a life vest.
I continued to visualize the roll night and day and watched YouTube videos over and over of kayakers explaining rolling.
At that Thursday night's class in the Hot Springs Pool with Conner and Charlie and their patience and encouragement, I finally got my roll.
All the awkwardness of being an adult student and the flashbacks of being a dork in school were worth it.
I was a learner. I had learned.
When the Office of Innovations in Teaching and Learning offers technology workshops at CMC, the faculty and staff who attend appear confident and secure in their identities.
But now I wonder if any of them feel as insecure about technology in our workshops as I felt in the kayak.
(And how many of our traditional students, with their advantages of youth or hipness or athleticism, may be hiding pangs of insecurity and may be starving for any words of encouragement we can toss their way.)
Yesterday at an administrative meeting of the E-Learning Consortium of Colorado (ELCC), we were discussing the importance of offering training opportunities for faculty. Cheryl Comstock of CCC-Online summed it up:
Our faculty are also our students.
As our students, please let us know how our office can improve your learning opportunities at CMC.
You can visit our faculty/staff technology workshop schedule at any time here:
My friend who is visiting his mother with Alzheimer's just emailed me back about her daily struggle with knowing, forgetting, and re-learning how to use the cigarette lighter:
When mom can figure out the lighter, she chain-smokes.
May we all be chain smokers today.
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