CHRIS’ CRISIS

CHRIS’ CRISIS
A number of years ago, our teen-age son Chris determined he wanted to be on the honor roll. He had never paid much attention to that before, and was never motivated by such things, until his grandmother enticed him with a $20 dollar bill if he succeeded. Money has always spoken to Chris, so he applied himself. He always had the tools, just not the interest. One night at 2:00 a.m. Chris came to our bedroom wanting to talk. Would someone explain to my why teen-agers won’t communicate on any level in daylight hours, but they want to talk at 2:00 a.m.? He was concerned because his being on the honor roll hung in the balance of one class: American History. He was very discouraged because it was becoming evident to him that he was not going to ace a particular test which insured an A in the class. My wife laurie asked Chris if he knew what would be on the test. He assured us that he knew exactly what would be on the test. The class would be asked to write down the 50 states and their capitols. He knew the correlative capitols, but with each time he tried to write down the names of the states, his retention decreased. He was becoming distressed and learning a principle that usually comes about in middle school or junior high...stress. Generally, as stress increases, productivity decreases. I say generally, because there are those rare exceptions such as basketball megahero Michael Jordan who seem to continue to reach heightened productivity when stress does the same. Laurie asked Chris if he remembered the song The Fifty, Nifty, United States, which he had learned in the fifth grade. He responded that he did. Laurie said “sing it”. In doing so, there were all the fifty, nifty, states in impeccable order. She admonished him to go to bed and the next day when the test began, sing the song to himself. He followed her advice and aced the test, insuring his financial reward from his grandmother. How did this work? The data was logged in his brain, but when the order of music was added to it, it came forth with extraordinary clarity.