Education

THE MIND’S FILING CABINET

By Anthony Rebora — December 07, 2006 1 min read
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The Median Sib recounts how, during a game of “explorer Jeopardy,” a learning-disabled student in her class responded that the name of one of Columbus’ ships was the “Cauliflower.” Surmising that the girl meant the “Mayflower"—the wrong answer, anyway, but never mind—she offers an illuminating and sympathetic glimpse into the student’s mind:

Someone once explained that having a learning disability is similar to having a filing cabinet full of papers spread out on the floor. Most of us have filing cabinets that are in order so that we can locate needed information easily and quickly. For the learning disabled child, though, the information is there, but the person must sort through all the disarrayed papers to get the piece of information needed at any given time. For Cheryl, the word "flower" was the key element, but she picked up the "names of vegetables" file instead of the "names of Explorer’s ships" file—and in the process provided a little comic relief for all of us.

The student, by the way, quickly saw her mistake, so apparently wasn’t bothered by the laughter.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Blogboard blog.