I’m just back from visiting a relative in a brain injury rehabilitation unit. My sort-of-sister-in-law had a stroke less than a month ago and although still unable to care for herself is making steady progress. Fortunately she has not lost the ability to speak (or her sense of humour). She has some great stories about her hospital mates. And yes, I was taken back to that incredible TED video of Jill Bolte Taylor who was able to stay aware of what was happening when she had a stroke.

While we visited she was able to give us some stories about her treatment and the therapies that are helping her to relearn some old skills and adapt to the new life that she has. Her words and demonstrations made me consider the quote mentioned at last week’s Ulearn08 Conference in Christchurch. I think Steven Carden quoted this Alvin Toffler idea it in his entertaining keynote,

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

Which is a paraphrase of this,

The new education must teach the individual how to classify and reclassify information, how to evaluate its veracity, how to change categories when necessary, how to move from the concrete to the abstract and back, how to look at problems from a new direction -how to teach himself. Tomorrow’s illiterate will not be the man who can’t read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn.    – Apparently the real quote from Herbert Gerjouy when interviewd by Toffler

I’m a great one for telling everyone else how to deal with change. I even held a round table discussion about it at Ulearn. Today I was refocussed.

“… how to look at problems from a new direction -how to teach himself …” I watched my sister-in-law hoist herself upright and maneover  into an electric wheelchair. She picked up an errant leg and plonked it on the footrest and tucked an out of contol arm onto her lap. Then she walked (wheeled) us off the premises so that she could carry on relearning.