I was in 9th grade, and it was the first day of school. I was sitting in my last class of the day, geometry, and my teacher, Mr. P, talked about crossword puzzles and the brain. After an entire day of going from class to class and getting this orientation of high school, it seemed so unreal and refreshing to be discussing something that was seemingly unrelated to geometry. Mr. P was this older man- super funny and he actually made geometry fun, enjoyable, and interesting. It was a great semester. Hands down, he is one of my favorite teachers and probably the best math teacher that I've ever had.
So, this is what Mr. P said: He told us this story of how he and his wife would do the crossword puzzle each morning. When they became stumped by some of the clues, they would take a break and set the puzzle aside. Later, completely out of the blue, Mr. P's wife would have this epiphany and have an answer to one of the clues. So, we spent the entire hour discussing whether or not the brain subconsciously wrestles with problems while we are not consciously thinking of them. In other words, is your brain thinking of a solution when you are not?
I had my own epiphany the other night. I was sitting in bed, late at night, reading a book. Suddenly, a metaphorical lightbulb went off in my head. See, I had received comments from KB and DM about my current draft of my qualifier. As usual, I am still struggling with figuring out exactly what it is that I want to say and how to organize my paper. The pieces seem to be there, but like a puzzle, I have to rearrange them so that they make sense. Anyway, as I was reading, I had my own epiphany and suddenly, I knew what I had to do to make my paper better. I grabbed a notebook, outlined, and quickly reworked my paper. I had been so busy this past week that I had not been consciously thinking about how to improve my paper. Had my brain been thinking of a solution all along? I could not help but to think back to the first day of 9th grade, geometry class, and Mr. P.
So, I think I've figured out where to go next in my paper. I'm going to rework it this weekend and send out new drafts to KB and DM on Monday. I hope that I am close to getting this signed off. See, a qualifying paper is anything that 2 professors will sign off on. The annoying thing is that I don't get to decide when I'm done. This is in contrast to a class paper, where I decide when it's done and just turn it in for a grade, any grade. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
So, this is what Mr. P said: He told us this story of how he and his wife would do the crossword puzzle each morning. When they became stumped by some of the clues, they would take a break and set the puzzle aside. Later, completely out of the blue, Mr. P's wife would have this epiphany and have an answer to one of the clues. So, we spent the entire hour discussing whether or not the brain subconsciously wrestles with problems while we are not consciously thinking of them. In other words, is your brain thinking of a solution when you are not?
I had my own epiphany the other night. I was sitting in bed, late at night, reading a book. Suddenly, a metaphorical lightbulb went off in my head. See, I had received comments from KB and DM about my current draft of my qualifier. As usual, I am still struggling with figuring out exactly what it is that I want to say and how to organize my paper. The pieces seem to be there, but like a puzzle, I have to rearrange them so that they make sense. Anyway, as I was reading, I had my own epiphany and suddenly, I knew what I had to do to make my paper better. I grabbed a notebook, outlined, and quickly reworked my paper. I had been so busy this past week that I had not been consciously thinking about how to improve my paper. Had my brain been thinking of a solution all along? I could not help but to think back to the first day of 9th grade, geometry class, and Mr. P.
So, I think I've figured out where to go next in my paper. I'm going to rework it this weekend and send out new drafts to KB and DM on Monday. I hope that I am close to getting this signed off. See, a qualifying paper is anything that 2 professors will sign off on. The annoying thing is that I don't get to decide when I'm done. This is in contrast to a class paper, where I decide when it's done and just turn it in for a grade, any grade. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
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