Study Aid

Well, this semester is coming quickly to a welcome close. With it, though, comes an abundance of midterms, assignments, and papers. I am starting to feel a little schizophrenic with the classes I am taking, because, even though they are all major classes, none of them really overlap in subject matter. Everyday I feel like having to pick which hat I need to wear: should I be Hannah pretending to be an expert on the influence of Raphael in the work of 16th century Flemish Mannerist artist, Bernard van Orley, or should I be Hannah writing new research about the effect of primitive fear reflexes in viewing the work of contemporary artist Jenny Saville?

This past Thursday I was studying for a midterm in modern architecture. It involved the memorization of about 70 buildings, name, architect, location, movement, essential information, and how each contributes to the history of architecture. Seventy. And I was quickly running out of time. With an hour to go, I struck upon a moment of genius: I got Ollie to memorize them with me. Why didn't I think of this before?

Me: Ollie, say "Empire State Building, by Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon."
Ollie: Empire State Building. Shreve, Lamb and Harmon!
Me: Empire State Building...
Ollie: Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon!

Genius, I tell you. And it totally worked. There was no way I could forget cute little baby voices reciting architects and building names during my test.

Moral of the story is that I need to make better use of my children's sponge-like brains, and that even my kids can teach me a thing or two.