Made to Stick

Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath, presents many ideas that may not be innovative, but are certainly presented in such a way as to seem as such.  One of the main ideas that stuck out to me was that of the “Curse of Knowledge.”  The “Curse of Knowledge” is basically the idea that once we have learned something, it is hard to imagine that other people don’t know it as well.  As teachers, this leads to problems in explaining things to students.  We, the teacher, already know how to solve the problem, but we have to put ourselves in the shoes of our students to figure out how best to explain it to them.

Made to Stick seems to be a book that aims to help everyone, not just teachers, explain problems and concepts to people, or students, in such a way as to make an indelible mark on them that they won’t forget.   According to the authors, by making our concepts simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and related to a story, we can insure that what we are trying to teach our students will, in fact, “stick”.  While I did not have the chance to read the entire book, rest assured it is on my reading list for the summer.  From what I have seen from Chapter One, it should be on yours as well.