Some things haven’t changed since I was a kid. When asked for volunteers, my hand tends to go up. In this case, graduate students at the University of Southern Mississippi were doing studies on the Brain using exercises comparing their peers and participants from the lifelong learning branch who were at least fifty. Sounded like fun to me and I passed fifty a while back, so I signed on. The mental exercises, interspersed with mathematical calculations, were engaging except for the one that I should have been able to do blindfolded with my hands behind my back.
The poker-faced grad student said, “Name as many words as you can that begin with “B” before the timer goes off.
“Butler,
Ball,
Bat,
Basket”
Six years of teaching kindergarten and I’m struggling with this? The grad student’s face is a blank.
“Button,
Barrel,
Book,
Baby”
Didn’t I teach second grade the “B” words for fourteen years? The grad student face is impassive.
“Bottle,
Boy,
Bobbin,
Bet”
I am Bamboozled. Why am I not just rattling off words? The grad student calls, “Time,” and writes down the number. His face is impervious. Why didn’t I think about “Blog”?
Continuing the other exercises was a breeze. I remembered the five things he had told me at the beginning of the session. The multiplication of four-digit numbers by four-digit numbers – no problem. I enjoyed about forty-five minutes of brain teasers.
And then we were through. He didn’t want my math paper, said it was just to occupy my mind between things so I didn’t overthink. Evidently, he could let his feelings communicate with his face now that we were through. He grinned. “You did better on this than many of our grad students!”
Now I thought of two more “B” words – Boast and Brag.