Doc Meek

Posts Tagged ‘“hopeless”’

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LADY AQUAMARINE HIDES SECRET SHAME

By Dr. J. Collins (“Doc”) Meek

Once upon a time an undersea lady of noble blood pined to become a mortal. Finally, miraculously, her wish was granted. She became mortal and soon joined a women’s precision swim team.

No longer burdened with royal demands and expectations, Lady Aquamarine (now simply known as Andrea) entered upon her human adventure with great gusto. Her undersea swimming talents made for high success on the women’s precision swim team.

Still, mortality was a real challenge in many ways. This created moments in her life that were difficult and joyful, both.

She and her team rose to the top of their rank and were known and lauded far and wide.

Painful Secret

But alas, the Aquamarine Lady had a painful secret. Very painful. Although she was lauded and loved by everyone, she covered her heart in shame within herself. She spoke to no one of her carefully guarded secret…

Life went on.

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One day, she was talking with her mother (Lady Amelia of the North Sea) and told her that though she was highly successful as a precision swimmer (of course!), she was failing as a mortal because she could not read. Her mother reminded her that a return to her former undersea life was not possible.

“I Am So Ashamed”

“Why don’t you seek some way to learn to read?” her mother asked innocently. “Impossible!” exclaimed Andrea, thoroughly discouraged. “I’ve tried everything and nothing works. I’ll never be able to learn to read. I am so ashamed!”

“Better seek out the Old Man of the Sea,” her mother intoned and dove back into her accustomed watery domain.

The Old Man of the Sea was elusive.

Hope at Last

So Andrea asked her mortal friend Andilusia, “What can I possibly do?” Andilusia said, “I’ve heard there is a doctor who helps hopeless cases. The mothers love him because he gives them hope for their troubled children.

Andrea sought far and wide for this hopeful doctor. When she finally found him, she pleaded with him to help her learn to read. He asked her, “What is the one thing on earth you love most?”

Andrea immediately related her adventures as a precision team member. “I love the work and I love the team and I love the challenges.”

Then, for seemingly no reason, she blurted out, “But what I love the most is swimming in the aquamarine waters of the South Pacific islands!” She didn’t tell him this was in her former undersea life of course. She was afraid he would not believe her aquatic story.

The good doctor simply said. “Was it the warm waters that you loved?”

Aquamarine Hues Can Speak! 

“Yes,” mused Andrea, “And mostly the incredible aquamarine hues!”

“You have no idea of the magnificence of the aquamarine hues,” she said, almost weeping.

“Well, it is obvious then,” said the good doctor, “we need to have those inspiring aquamarine hues teach you now to learn to read.”

“What!?” exclaimed Andrea, not willing to believe the good doctor knew that lovely-hued waters could talk with her as in her former undersea life.

Colored Overlays a Big Surprise

“Here,” said the good doctor, “Look at these gel colored overlays that are used to cover spotlights in the world of dramatic productions, presentations and plays.”

“Oh,” blurted Andrea, “Sometimes they put spotlights on us when our precision swim team is performing, especially in the evenings.”

Andrea immediately sought out one of the technicians who operated the spotlights for the team. He showed her an array of gel colored overlays, and she quickly picked several that were an exact match with the aquamarine waters of her South Seas experiences.

Andrea placed one of the aquamarine gels over the first page in a book she longed to read.

The “Small Black Marks” on the Printed Page Now Made Sense!

And she could not believe her eyes! The normal blur of quaint black marks on the page now shimmered gently in a quiet sea. She noticed that some of the quaint black marks (now softened by one of the aquamarine colored overlays) seemed to speak to her softly, seemed to make more sense to her now.

“My love of precision swimming now gives me a love of reading that I never ever thought I could achieve!” she rejoiced.

She wept for joy.

Defeats Dyslexia

With time, she learned individual words and phrases and loved to make sense of the whole sentence, then the whole paragraph and then the whole story.

And so, thanks to the colored overlays she was now using every day, she went merrily on her way! She got on with her life with great precision and great happiness.

Once thoroughly defeated, Lady Aquamarine now thoroughly defeats dyslexia.

……………………………

J Collins Meek, Ph.D., shows children and adults how to defeat dyslexia, ADHD, and many different kinds of learning problems. He is in private practice in Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA. He is an expert at creating innovative protocols to help children and adults triumph over learning difficulties.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010. Today I am grateful for our human capacity to learn to be calm even under severe duress. Generally speaking, animals do not have this capability, unless trained. We need self-training or outside training of course too, or at least some practice.

Image & text below from:  http://watchandtrain.com/dogtraining/blogs/thoughts/archive/2008/03/10/alpha-roll-one-mistake-when-working-with-aggressive-dogs.aspx

“Approximately half of my private dog training caseload involves aggression directed towards other dogs or people. While more difficult than basic or advanced training, my success rate for helping a dog overcome aggression is very high. I practice very measured, systematic strategies to lower dogs overall anxiety and help them learn to be comfortable in situations that currently make them aggressive. I only recommend, and use, positive reinforcement techniques.” – Jeff Millman, dog trainer

We humans have much more control over our emtions, generally speaking, than say, dogs do. We can actually hear Coach Lou Holtz when he says:

“Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.” – Lou Holtz, from:

Life’s Little Instruction Book, Volume II: A few more suggestions, observations, and reminders on how to live a happy and rewarding life, by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Thank you, Coach Holtz and Jackson Brown!

Doc Meek, Wednesday, November 17, 2010, at Strathcona County Library, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA

J. Collins Meek, Ph.D. (Doc Meek)
“What if you are smarter than you think?”
Learning Specialist https://docmeek.com

For brain health, ensure heart health (short video):
http://www.amiraclemolecule.com/themeekteam
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Ph (801) 971-1812 (Jeannette); Fax [801] 282-6026

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Amazingly . . . one teacher can do quite a lot

In a book called Strategies to Inspire Active Learning: Complete Handbook, designed to help teachers develop classrooms where students are more involved their own learning, Dr. Merrill Harmin (2002) reported a retrospective study done in Montreal, Canada.

The researchers located a neighborhood that was not good. It was known for its unemployment, poor housing, drug usage and violence. Then they located an elementary school in the middle of that neighborhood. No one expected anything good to come out of being educated in that school.

Sure enough, as the researchers located adults who had attended that neighborhood elementary school, going back over 25 years, they found that most of these adults were not in decent housing, were unemployed, and were suffering from addictions of various kinds.

Such negative findings were “predictable,” given the nature of this decadent neighborhood and the tough job teachers had in that school trying to provide a decent education for the children.

However, there were some nice surprises.

What did Miss “A” do?

Some adults who had attended this “hopeless” elementary school lived in decent housing, were employed and were not addicts. This was amazing, given the bad start they had in elementary school.

An even greater surprise awaited the researchers as they connected each adult back to the teachers they had had in this elementary school.

A very high percentage of the successful adults had all had one particular teacher in Grade One. They named her “Miss A” in their study.

“Miss A” was just a regular “ordinary” teacher. However, she did not accept the idea that a poor family and a bad neighborhood equaled education without hope. She defied the immediate evidence and concentrated on the children in her Grade One classroom

She couldn’t fix the families and she couldn’t fix the neighborhood, so she concentrated on what she could influence: every student that walked though her door and became a member of her class. She mentally reminded herself, every day, “No child is ever going to leave this classroom not knowing they have value.”

She concentrated on every child having dignity and respect, regardless of their behavior or academic performance. And she concentrated on the idea that every child could learn more and more, as time went on, about managing themselves, educationally and behaviorally. She helped them develop their own small community in her classroom, and they helped each other learn.

The story was told of a visitor to her class. She noticed that the kids were actively involved in their own learning, and not slouching and discouraged like so many of the other students in other classes. They seemed cheerful and bright. The visitor walked over to the desk of one particularly hard-working boy, looked at his excellent work, bent down and whispered in his ear:

“My . . . you are a smart boy.”

The boy looked up at the visitor, and said cheerfully:

“We’re all smart in here.”

Well said.

Doc Meek, April 28, 2010

Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA; South Jordan, Utah, USA