“Suppose that the trial in experiment 1 with 0.25 g of Zn is repeated, except that the inverted
graduated cylinder is replaced by inverted test tubes, each completely filled with 60 mL of water. Based on Figure 1, how many test tubes will be needed to collect all the gas?”
graduated cylinder is replaced by inverted test tubes, each completely filled with 60 mL of water. Based on Figure 1, how many test tubes will be needed to collect all the gas?”
Did that question process in your mind? Could any of us answer it without spending too much
time reading it over and over again? Giving ourselves a headache over something that holds no value to us?
But you have to pick one answer. Oh, and by the way, you only have 30 minutes to answer 60
questions just like it, which means you have to process the question and mark the right answer in 30 seconds. Do you feel incompetent yet?
Since we were children, we were handed a bubble sheet and told “you must meet this score to be good enough.” We go through an education system that tells us unless we fill in the right dots on a sheet of paper, we are a failure; we are thrown into a system that is built around tests that are less about the contents and more about knowing how to take the test itself.
It is an unfair system.
But what about the one in five of us who have ADHD, dyslexia, autism, or a different learning
“disability?” What if our brains simply do not thrive in a verbally focused environment? What if we physically cannot process words as fast as they want us to? What if we are just not wired like that?
They tell us that we are weak, that our visual minds aren’t enough for this verbal world.
We need to be asking “Why is it that the world around us seems to have no room for the visual
and the spatial thinkers?” instead of asking “How good are your test scores?”
Little do they know, we hold a superpower that the “average” human does not.
We see the world in a new light; we recognize patterns, see details others do not, we solve
problems outside of the box, we naturally create entire worlds and concepts within our minds.
Now that is powerful.
Especially when Art is the foundation of all things created by humans.
Everything around us was first an idea, a sketch, a design.
So why is the abstract something our society cowers at the thought of?
Every great creation was once envisioned by a visual thinker and brought into the world, from
the bed you wake up in, to the cup you drink from.
We see the world in a new light; we recognize patterns, see details others do not, we solve
problems outside of the box, we naturally create entire worlds and concepts within our minds.
Now that is powerful.
Especially when Art is the foundation of all things created by humans.
Everything around us was first an idea, a sketch, a design.
So why is the abstract something our society cowers at the thought of?
Every great creation was once envisioned by a visual thinker and brought into the world, from
the bed you wake up in, to the cup you drink from.
We are losing the people we need because we are pushing them out of the education systems
with tests and discouragement.
We are not allowing visualizers to unlock their full potential because we knock them down
before they get the opportunity.
How many times have we been told “Art careers are pointless. Become a doctor, make a lot of
money, don’t waste your life away.”
They couldn’t be any more incorrect.
Creating something with so much meaning is far from wasting your life away.
We need designers, we need engineers, we need architects, we need therapists, we need artists.
Pushing out visual thinkers not only hurts us, but it hurts everyone in our world.
You are worth so much more than the bubbles you mark on a piece of paper.
Written by Olivia Threlfall
