CHAPTER II


 TEACHING ADULTS



 Teaching adults is different from teaching children. Adults
generally learn faster and tend to be more cooperative than do children.
They are learning what they want to learn and they can see an immediate
reward for their efforts. Adults try harder for they can see the social,
occupational, and financial results that will accrue to them. Learning
is easier for adults for their brains are better developed and their
mental ages are considerably higher than those of children. A dull adult
with an I.Q. of 85 learns considerably faster than an average child of
six or seven. Contrary to popular opinion, you can teach an old dog new
tricks. And he will learn them faster than a puppy will!

 Adults are more sensitive than are children. They do not react
to failure in the same way that children do. They are less able to take
criticism and are apt to 'clam up' or 'blow up' if their self-concept is
threatened. It is important that they succeed right from the beginning.
Many of them have had past failures in school. They will not repeat
those experiences, so for insurance it is better to begin with materials
that are somewhat easy rather than to take a chance and put them on
materials that may frustrate them.

 Illiterate adults are especially sensitive. They are embarrassed
by their social condition and ashamed of their illiteracy. Often they
try to keep it hidden from their own children. Some pretend that they
can read but "they have misplaced their glasses." Many of them were
brought up in homes where no one could read or write. Some will have a
few magazines around the house and a great many of them will say they can
read the Bible (but they have merely memorized some often-heard passages).
As much as possible, go along with their pretense and help them to save
face in front of others. Try to empathize with them rather than offer
sympathy. They don't want people feeling sorry for them for they are
proud people.

 Illiterate adults learn fastest from materials that have personal
meaning to them. Helping them to read signs, letters from friends, or
materials that they have composed orally, makes for high interest and
active participation. Labeling objects in the classroom will prove help-
ful. Bringing in pictures of highway signs or making such signs is use-
ful. Some drive cars (with or without a license) and have learned to
recognize some signs by their shape. This makes it easy to teach them to
read the words on them. They have a real need to learn to read such signs,
and the satisfaction of that need will motivate them to continue learning.
They also have a need to read the titles of some of the popular television
shows and the names of some of the products that are advertised. These are
easy to teach for the producers of these shows use sound educational tech-
niques to teach people to remember the names of the shows and of the