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Resource 28: Capability Distribution Curves for Reading/Writing & Driving
The graph to the left shows the standard distribution curve of success for learning to read and write (red) and the compressed distribution curve for learning to drive a car or any other learning that focuses on keeping the rote learning to a minimum (green) with no reading and writing.
This graph shows the comparison of why driving is easier and more equitable to learn compared to reading and writing. The instructor or parent keeps the amount of rote learning to a minimum and focuses on developing ideas and conceptual understanding in a very particular sequence.
What can we learn from this to make reading and writing easier? Unfortunately, the answer is ‘not a lot’. The reason for this is that there are no patterns underpinning the shapes of letters, their sounds and how those letters are combined to create specific words. The lack of patterns (ideas and concepts), underpinning reading and writing at the emergent level, is the reason it takes a learner so long to learn to read and write and why there is such a significant distribution curve associated with learning to read and write.
The Driving Lesson
This comparison also helps explain why learners universally find some subjects
either hard or ‘soft’, as we have seen. ‘Soft’ subjects in school are easier for most students because they conform to the notion of keeping the rote learning and the recall of knowledge, along with the reading and writing, to a minimum and introduce the required knowledge Just-In-Time. Each ‘soft’ subject develops understanding (ideas and concepts) as the main purpose of the learning. ‘Hard’ subjects, on the other hand, focus on remembering facts or linear processes, by rote. This type of learning leverages our least efficient learning system. This results in many learners thinking we are not very intelligent, while driving is one of the most complex cognitive or thinking tasks we ever attempt and everyone learns to drive equitably.
People we consider as ‘intelligent’ do not learn the concepts underpinning driving a car more successfully, than those that society or schools might judge as less able learners.
The lessons from this comparison are profound for educators and learners alike. This simple recipe for equity and success in learning within any domain, is to identify the underlying concepts and introduce knowledge, as it is required, initially using ‘safe’ contexts. Safe contexts are contexts where the learner has an existing language and experiences. This notion may be simple to comprehend, but it will take time for us as educators to make this transition and adopt these practices.