What’s Your Learning Style?

A: I say, Helen, what’s your favourite learning style?

B: … a learning style? What exactly do you mean?

A: How do you study best? Each of us has our own unique learning style. For example, are you the person who says ‘I can’t think when it’s noisy’ or ‘I learn best by making lists, outlines, and charts?’

B: Well, no.. I prefer reading or note-taking …. And I like to learn sitting up … It’s important to the success of how well we’ll learn and how well we’ll take in the information.

A: I see… Well, I normally use one to three different-coloured high-lighters. Highlighting can help me later when I’m reviewing. Instead of reading the entire section (зд. раздел (книги) полностью) I just concentrate on the highlights. … and I study better at night than during the day… and then you go to your exam … it can be difficult, even overwhelming and you may feel hopeless, as though there is nothing you can do. I’m taking one tomorrow morning.

B: Oh, there, there … just go to bed and get a good sleep. … eat a good breakfast in the morning and relax!

THE SCHOOL ROUTINE

(from ‘Lace’ by Shirley Conran)

  (Abridged)

Judy (‘a self-made young girl’) had to work hard to win a scholarship for a course in German and French in a language laboratory. She meets Kate, Maxine and Pagan who go to an expensive private school.

‘What’s your school routine?’ Maxine asked.

‘Morning bell at seven, breakfast at seven-thirty, lessons from eight to twelve,’ the girl mumbled, as Kate cut her lamb chop into little pieces. ‘Voluntary sport from two to four-thirty and after that, study time till six-thirty. Then supper and lights out at ten. No work over the weekend. Church optional.’

 ‘It is revolting,’ said one of the girls with deep sincerity, ‘like your French.’

‘…Have you met the headmaster yet? No? …I went along to visit him with Mama… I noticed that he didn’t even read my school reports. Just as well, since they were absolutely grim… I got the feeling that he was fishing for anyone he could get. He’s obviously in it just for the money, don’t you think, Kate?’

Kate nodded. She was slowly eating a chocolate biscuit. 

Pagan said, ‘I’m rather surprised my mother sent me here, except it is supposed to be the best school and my grandfather’s paying the bill, not her.’

She wiped a bit of bread around her plate. ‘Also, dammit, I certainly need polishing up. I mean, I’m not good at being tidy or wearing nice clothes or knowing what to say to people at parties or doing any of the things that grown-up girls do.’

Kate said, ‘We’ve been here a week and so far we’ve hardly seen the headmaster; his apartment is on the other side and it has a different front door. He seems to live an entirely separate life from the school. I’m certain he has better meals than we do, because you can sometimes smell things like roast duck coming out of the kitchen. Not my idea of a headmaster.’

 ‘A couple of Brazilian girls have already been here a year and they say he’s got a fearful temper,’ Pagan added. ‘But there is only one thing he really explodes about, and that’s if you leave school at night. Apparently he has hysterics - and you’re expelled!’

 There was an awed silence. Being expelled was a fate worse than death. The shame would pursue you through your whole life.

 ‘We also had hours and hours of homework at St. Paul’s,’ said Pagan. ‘Each assignment was supposed to take you only twenty minutes, and at the bottom of your work you were supposed to put how long it took you, so naturally everybody lied because they didn’t want to look dumb. If your essay took three hours, you put down twenty-five minutes.’

‘My mother complained to the high mistress once,’ said Kate, and she sat Mummy in a little low chair opposite her huge commanding throne and said in her low voice, ‘Of course, Kate must work in her lunch hour or leave if she cannot keep up.’

‘The high mistress was a huge, commanding figure. She moved like a ship. You couldn’t believe she had legs.’ said Pagan. ‘She wore pince-nez and her hair in a grey bun and very old-fashioned orange sweaters. She thundered at us in a low majestic voice.’

 ‘Why did your mother send you to that school if she was frightened of the headmistress?’ asked Mary.

‘Not headmistress,’ said Kate, ‘High mistress. I went because my father had wanted me to have… the best.’

Kate’s father had wanted her to have the sort of education he hadn’t had himself. She had been sent to St. Paul’s because Kate’s father had read that royalty went there. Kate’s father always wanted the best, so Kate’s mother always asked for it, even when shopping. When she was buying a dress she could never decide which one suited her, so she always asked the assistant, ‘Which is the best?’ And naturally the assistant chose the most expensive, which was all right, because the more things cost, the better they were.

Kate’s mother was also influenced by royalty.

Kate was driven to school in her father’s Rolls-Royce. The chauffeured car set Kate apart from her classmates. They didn’t have a different dress for each day of the week, and they travelled to school by bus or on the underground. Kate always made the chauffeur stop the Rolls at the end of the road and walked the rest of the way to school.

This subterfuge was general knowledge, but her fellow schoolgirls thought it right and proper that she should avoid showing off; showing off was a major school crime.

Maxine turned to Judy. ‘Why did your parents send you to the language laboratory and not one of the finishing schools?’

‘They didn’t send me anywhere. I didn’t tell them I was entering for the exchange scholarship, because I never thought I’d win it – and when I did, my mother was furious. She thought I was too young to leave home and anyway she can’t understand why I want to learn foreign languages, but our minister persuaded her that I ought to use the talent that the good Lord gave me,’ she grinned. ‘But I don’t think I’m going to be an African missionary. I’m going to Paris.’

Eagerly, Kate questioned Judy about the language lab.

‘Yes, the courses are really concentrated,’ Judy answered, ‘and it’s just as well because I’ve got one year to learn fluent French and German. All the other students are in just as much of a hurry. They’re all older than me, really old – some of them are over thirty! If they need an extra language for business, they fly here from all over the world and sit all day in little booths with earphones. My German isn’t yet good enough for conversation.’

Notes

1. headmaster n  – a school principal of a private school.

headmistress n– a female school principal of a private school.

2. minister n – a member of the clergy, especially of a Protestant communion.

3. exchange scholarship n – an amount of money that is given to someone by an educational organization to help pay for their education. After a period of studies ends up it is given to another applicant who shows outstanding academic skills. 

Proper Names

    Judy /'Gu:dI/                            Maxine /mxk'si:n/

    Pagan /'peIgqn/                         Paris /'pxrIs/

    Kate /keIt/                                  St. Paul /snt 'pO:l/