My tutorial with the I Hate Javascript student went like this: I sat talking quietly to her for ages, patiently pointing to the screen and asking "is this a string or a number"? and starting to think it was all hopeless. But then, when considering why her Javascript program displayed ‘22′ instead of the expected ‘4′ she exclaimed ‘ooh!’ and fixed the error.

We call those Aha moments I think. They are more valuable Gold; more precious than Gollum’s ring. We who teach will sell our souls for them. If I’d not seen it, I could have given up hope and felt no guilt. Because I know the potential for them is there, I am bound (in at least two senses of the word) to keep trying.

I have seen the student twice more since then and she is doing reasonable thinking now. It seems her difficulties were not due to lack of ability but because of what Sister calls a psychological problem and I was calling attitude. I’m not sure which but Im sure its true.

But teaching **is** psychology.

I summoned her to see me today and asked how she got on with the work I set her yesterday.
"I’ve not finished it"
"OK. And have you __started it__?"
She told me it was in the hostel; I sent her to fetch it and made my self comfortable with some work because I knew it would take her some time to ‘find’ it. After 20 minutes she brought a hastily written page. But what it contained was mostly right, the right kind of thinking at least.