Friday, May 14, 2010

A new student and a new challenge

I had an interesting phone call this week.

It was from a person who is doing occupational therapy for a client with a brain injury. The client had a heart attack and lost oxygen to his brain for a significant period of time. Prior to his heart attack, he was a mechanical engineer and the CEO of a company. Now, he's trying to recover his cognitive abilities.

The therapist was looking for a way for him to do more theoretical work -- and thought my logic class might do the trick. We had a discussion about the course, the challenges he may face because of his brain injury and I think he's going to register for the course this summer.

I think it's going to be fascinating to see this play out -- I suspect he'll do better than some of my supposedly fully functioning KFAP (kids from another planet) students. He'll at least try the homework, show up for class and he probably won't be stoned while doing so.

I also suspect that he'll know when class meets, be able to understand the concept of their grade as a percentage of the course and have is own book.... unlike this semester's KFAPs.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Which begs the question: what is the KFAP's excuse?

Inside the Philosophy Factory said...

This semester's KFAPs really had no excuses -- but, I think there were similar reasons.... I suspect they were high.

Bridgett said...

As an occupational therapist, I will be very interested in reading about your experience and perceptions!

Inside the Philosophy Factory said...

I had a challenging experience with a student with a head injury when I was a very young instructor -- the problem was that student's short-term memory was really bad. He also had a temper. He was trying to finish a course he had to withdraw from because he was injured during the course.

My new student is in a very different situation. He seems to have good support and isn't taking the course for credit, as he already has degrees.

I'll keep you posted.

What Now? said...

What an interesting situation -- I'll look forward to hearing about your experiences with him.