The Spelling and Learning By Linda Stowe
I have always been unsure how to spell the word gauge because I can never remember whether the U or the A comes first. Today, I used the word in connection with the word cause and realized I had created my own mnemonic. From now on, whenever I need to spell gauge, I’ll remember the cause and know the order of the letters.
This reminded me of the time I learned to spell license. It was in a journalism class, before the days of the internet and spell check. Our instructor suggested that if we simply remember that C comes before S, we’ll always spell license correctly. Ever since, a flash of that discussion runs through my mind whenever I write the word.
Overall, I’m a pretty good speller, but I’m not always aware of the reasoning behind how I know each word. I wonder what it is about the human mind that makes some learning moments stand out so clearly while others fade into the background.
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Polly here. Those learning moments.
Every so often, we stumble into a moment that sticks. It is that tiny flicker of learning that never leaves us. It could be anything. Maybe it is a clever tip we saw online. Or it could be a word we finally spell right. Maybe it is that abstract something-or-other that suddenly makes sense.
It’s funny how specific lessons linger. We might forget the steps in a math formula. But we’ll remember that “C comes before S in license” or that “gauge” follows the pattern of “cause.” It’s as if our minds reward connection. When something clicks, it finally leaves a popcorn trail we can follow forever.
These little bits of understanding remind us that learning isn’t a straight line. It’s a whole big hodgepodge of revelations. We remember the odd ones or the emotional ones. We remember the ones that are somehow important to us.
Maybe that’s the beauty of it. Learning isn’t just about collecting knowledge. It is kind of like we form a relationship with it. Every word, every fact. It becomes a part of us.
