Notebook
date: July 23
The
night was hot. The traffic flow was equivalent to sitting at a perpetual
red light on the freeway.
Destination:
A convention at one of those sky piercing high rise buildings in
downtown Houston, Texas.
Time:
3:00 p.m.
I
expected a lecture, certainly not a film, and particularly I did
not expect a film on world renowned psychic Edgar Cayce.
The
years have dulled my memory. I cannot remember the exact wording,
after such a long lapse of time, but the concept is there. On that
film, Edgar Cayce claimed if someone slept on a book, that person
would wake up knowing what was in the book.
That
seemed ridiculous to me. If all we had to do to learn, would be
to sleep on a book, then we would be a world of sleeping people.
Universities would cease to exist. Memorization would be an archaic
process. The world would be engulfed in "perpetual naptime."
And yet......
Time:
2 years later
The
bunsen burner glowed with an orange fire. The chemicals inside the
beaker produced a blue fog. I stared at the intense beautiful blue
color, I knew the color in the beaker should have been yellow. Something
had gone terribly wrong my experiment.
The
lab instructor passed by, her eyes enlarged with a look of panic.
She told me, I believe she actually yelled, "Turn off that
burner before the whole lab explodes".
I
do not like explosions, so I followed her instructions.
"What
did you do?" she demanded.
Me,
what did I do? How should I know, my lab partner had poured all
the chemicals into the beaker.
"Why
is it blue?" I asked.
"Go
to the library and find out", she responded.
I
had no clue how to do this. How do you start looking for blue fog?
I spent the weekend in the library, while the real culprit, my lab
partner, went off to the beach for two days. I would rather have
been out in the sun riding my bicycle or walking by the lake, but
it was not to be.
I
suppose that others could learn from my mistakes, so my advice to
you is, "Never, ever ask a question." Professors expect
you to answer your own questions. I suspect they don't know the
answers themselves.
My
task at the library was made even more difficult by the fact that
the lecture class on Tuesdays and Thursdays was designed to give
us insight into the chemicals we were mixing. The lab class was
designed to perform experiments based on the Tuesday/Thursday lectures.
The
problem was, and it was a huge problem, my professor had picked
a textbook for the class without looking at it. Lucky me! The textbook
was meant for a graduate students and I was a complete beginner
in the field of chemical reactions.
THE
PROFESSOR STEPPED OUT OF A MOVIE
My
professor looked like someone who had just stepped out of a 1940s
movie. He wore a bright yellow suit. I have never seen anyone with
a yellow suit, but he did look suave and sophisticated in it. However,
his class and the lecture were something akin to reading hieroglyphics-translation
"completely incomprehensible."
UH
OH, FIRST TEST
There
is a time in every class, a time that sets your nerves on edge,
a time when your brow begins to sweat and your heart begins to beat
faster. That time had come. It was "THE DAY"... the day
of our first test.
I
have this theory that the closer you sit to the front of the classroom
the better your grade is. It is like pecking order among animals.
The most fit animals...I mean best students...sit on the font row
and then the further back you go the lower the grades are. I suppose
that people who don't know anything like to hide in the back of
the room unseen, unheard, and forgotten.
On
this day of testing time, I found myself sitting on the last row.
It wasn't my fault I had to rush across campus from my previous
class and by the time I got there, there were only seats on the
back row. Perhaps my position in the back should have given me a
hint about the possibility of getting a good grade, but I can only
say this in hindsight.
The
classroom was terribly overcrowded. There were around 100 students
in a classroom made for not more than 40. We were crammed in there
like sardines in a King Oscar can. There was scarcely room to breathe
much less room to move.
I
am always nervous no matter how well prepared I am for a test and
on that morning I was very nervous. The test was handed out. I heard
my fellow students groan. I looked at the test and my eyes got big
with disbelief. I read question after question. There were no answers
in my head. It was like reading something in a foreign language.
I had no idea what I was supposed to answer. I must admit, I was
in shock. I was accustomed to being the top my class. And I was
about to take a might fall.
Our
desks in the room were so close together that it would have been
extremely easy to copy an answer from another student. The only
problem was, no one knew any answers. I struggled to regurgitate
everything I knew about chemistry hoping to pick up a point or two.
One
by one students left the room. Eventually I gave up too. I knew
I was about to fail. It was a horrible condition for me. Me, "Little
Miss A Student" was going to fail. The sun in the sky seemed
less bright, the day seemed engulfed in shadows. I was used to being
the top of the class. Not today. It was not meant to be.
THE
MAD RUSH
There
was a mad rush of students towards the office to drop the class.
I have been around long enough to avoid the panic factor. If you
have ever taken classes at a large university the wise student knows
that the professor had just used scare tactics. The first test is
a weeding out process. There were too many students and to give
a test no one could answer was certain to clear the room of excess
students. The class would drop down to a normal size and then we
could all get on with the business of learning.
A
month passed and it was time for the second test. I HAD to score
high on the test or I too would have to quit. It was late as I tried
to study that night. My text books were scattered on the floor as
I lay in a pile of papers. The chemistry book cover was extremely
distracting. It was designed in blue and orange which any artist
will tell you are complementary colors, the most active a color
can be. The words on the cover jumped around constantly even in
peripheral vision.
SLEEPY
TIME BABY
But
the main problem was that I was sick. I couldn't keep awake because
a fever was causing me to be very drowsy. As my temperature approached
104 degrees, I finally gave up. I knew absolutely nothing and I
DID NOT CARE., Orpheus, Greek goddess of sleep, took over as I drifted
off to dreamland....but....and this is the whole point of the story.....I
fell asleep on top of the chemistry book.
I
had not been able to study at all because of the fever the night
before. But something happened as daylight began to glow. When I
went into the classroom, I felt the most ill-prepared for any test
that I had ever taken, I was certain I could not pass the test.
When the test was given I knew everything.
I knew EVERYTHING about chemistry. I knew every answer, it was so
easy. Answers that I should not have known were just popping out
of my head. My hand was writing as fast as I could. Where did the
answers come from? I made a perfect score on the test. I had not
missed one thing. I was 100% correct while most of my classmates,
the ones left after the disastrous first, they failed again.
The
important observation for me was that I knew why I knew everything.
Words that I had heard on the movie screen two years before...those
words were true. I had fallen asleep on the book and I had absorbed
everything. I could have quoted word for word what was in that chemistry
book.
LEARN
BY ABSORPTION
As
irrational as it may seem, there are times when you do "learn
by absorption." It may not work every time. But it absolutely
does work some of the time. I knew nothing when I fell asleep and
I knew everything when I woke up. The chemistry test score proved
the power of learning by absorbing from books.
Thank
you Edgar!
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