And why will none of them ever stop EXPLAINING when I've said "Yes, yes, I get it, you don't have to say any more?"

I was asked to not return to a temp job -- a job doing editing and desktop publishing, which I DO FOR A LIVING -- because the very first day I was there, when they were showing me the ropes, I DIDN'T WRITE ANYTHING DOWN. They didn't think I could handle the job b/c I didn't write down how to open and use PageMaker. Their loss.

That's jackass, Steph. I always had people at temp receptionist jobs flabbergasted that I understood how to work the phones the first time, but that tended to make them want to invite me back.

Maybe I look ditsy and unreliable. I dunno.

Actually, when I started at my present job, lo these many years ago, apparently my co-workers were kind of nervous about me working out, because when they trained me -- you guessed it -- I didn't write anything down.

After a couple of months, when they finally confessed this, all I could do was laugh. Their chief worry was that I just kept saying "Okay....okay....okay...." as they were explaining stuff, instead of asking questions or, I dunno, not understanding stuff. I can't help it that I pick things up quickly.

t edit Heh. It occurs to me that this post reads like "I can't help it that I'm JUST THAT GOOD," which is not what I mean. I pick things up quickly, but that's really in terms of learning the mechanics of how to do something -- learning to do something WELL takes a while. Sometimes a long fucking while.

But like, can't they tell the hour after the training that you really did get it? This is why I call jackass on them.

ION, I don't think I can eat cheap Chinese food anymore. I swear, I've been fucked up on MSG all night -- all logy and kind of tingly and weird.

But like, can't they tell the hour after the training that you really did get it? This is why I call jackass on them.

Yeah, they were being jackass. Too bad for them.

Also, I cannot stop posting!

A thing I forget is how "good at school" and "smart" really are different skills/aptitudes that don't necessarily intersect.

I was just having this conversation with my mother about how everyone thinks they understand education because they went to school. Turns out? Being a student isn't the same as being a teacher.

Can you blow this up to a big giant banner and put it up in ever school in the US?

Cause I had to go to school to learn about cognition and pedagogy to become a teacher. And I'm good at what I do and I do challenge my higher level kids and pull the other kids along. I've never had a child or parent say that my class was too easy.

But I do have people all the time (mainly administrators) who act like they are pros at teaching because they had 13 years of k-12 experience. hint to parents: never start a conference with "When I was a kid...."

Moreover, smart and competent don't necessarily intersect either. Smart is pretty useless without competence.

Smart is pretty useless without competence.

Oh, but there are many kinds of competence, too. Along with the many kinds of smart.

Absolutely, couldn't agree more. I'm thinking especially about people who are designated gifted and who never learn how to do school. And they end up not being able to do life very well either (socially or in a job). But they've got their mensa membership; they get to go to meetings to bemoan how the world is doing them wrong and how smart they really are and the rest of humanity can't see it because they are too stupid.