Robert Memering wrote: >I don't believe in your "different" brain, I think it's a >weak excuse. > >Robert > > Actually, the fact that different people learn differently is now well-known, and educators (the new, better ones) are now trying to learn how to cope with this issue. My own experience in various fields bears this out for me. Some people think visually, some textually, some verbally, some mathematically, etc.
If John has trouble understanding something from a text, and needs someone to lay it out verbally (or, as Alro Guthrie would say, "colour 8x10 photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one") then I'll take him at his word. My wife is like this with our renovations--until I can visually show her with a diagram or model, she doesn't "get it", yet she's quite bright, with a solid career. And, to be frank, a lot of the computer texts out there--and I'll include the first TeX book I ever bought--are pathetic for a beginner to grasp. Many (most?) do NOT approach the topic starting with a good overview/background concepts chapter. Gregory's follow-up comments on how TeX works, and how it doesn't "launch", already goes worlds beyond the intro in most books (that is, this kind of explanation should be the first paragraph in a textbook/manual on any topic). Just my 1.6 cents' worth. Rainer Heilke
