The case of the alchemist
A chapter from the
memoir “Leaving Home , Going Home , Returning Home : A Hebrew American’s
Sojourn in the Land of Israel” tells the story of how Dov learned to read his
first book at the age of 18 years. With this success and inspiration from
hundreds of students like Dov I produced the video “ Improve Reading Speed and
Comprehension”.
Dov was an attractive, tall and blue-eyed 17-year-old Sabra
with
gingi (reddish) hair who could have easily been a male model
if he
wanted to. He approached me with what seemed like a simple
question:
“Can I go to college next year?” An American guidance
counselor
he was working with had told him that there were now colleges
in the USA that catered to students with learning
disabilities. Dov
would otherwise not have considered attending college. If there
ever
was someone who did not look like they had a learning
disability, it
was Dov (proof that looks don’t really tell). I asked Dov why
didn’t
he just try applying to college in Israel, and he told me
that he had
not lived in Israel for many years, but instead actually grew
up in
Africa. English was as much his language as Hebrew. His
father had
a business there since Dov was young and had only recently
returned
to Israel. His mother, who once came to a session with Dov,
wore
the most beautiful African blue diamond you could ever expect
to
set eyes upon. Business must have been good. “Then what’s the
problem, Dov? Why wouldn’t you succeed in college?” He raises
his
head and says, “I never read a whole book in my life and no
one can
tell me why!”
I stare at Dov in disbelief. I never met a student who said
anything like that before. Dov wondered aloud if he could still make it to
college
or if it would be a waste of time. He then asked me if I
could
solve his reading problem, keeping in mind that college
starts in the
USA after the summer. I saw myself in Dov’s earnest eyes when
he
made this plea. Both of us were immigrants at one time or
another;
Dov immigrated to Africa, and I to Israel. I couldn’t help
but reflect
then on how moving effects schooling. In my case, I had to
take college
level classes where the language spoken was not my native
tongue.
One of my other clients told me how he had moved from
location
to location as many as seven times before even completing
high school.
Unfortunately for him, his father couldn’t comprehend how
these
constant moves might have an impact on his son’s success in
school.
I asked Dov to read for me while checking his
psycho-physiological
parameters for stress and relaxed concentration.
Interestingly enough,
Dov showed no signs of being under psycho-physiological
stress when
he attempted to read, unlike what I would expect in clients
with test
anxiety, ADHD, dyslexia, and the like. Conversely, Dov would
fixate
on a word, sub-vocalize, and repeatedly skip back to where he
began
reading. I recognized this behavior as regression, which in
fact is a
common error to make for those who struggle with reading. In
this
case, regression occurs following each time the subject
spends an inordinate
amount of time struggling with a challenging word. After
focusing on that single word for so long, the subject ends up
losing
his or her place on the page, sometimes falling back whole
sentences.
No wonder why Dov never finished a book in his life to date!
Fortunately, Dov found about my work. I assured him that
adjusting
his problems with reading would be possible, even if he had
to begin college in just a few months. All he had to do was
learn
some techniques in speed reading, build up his vocabulary,
and use
biofeedback to relax and improve his overall ability to
concentrate.
Building a stronger personal vocabulary was particularly
essential for
Dov, for it was apparent that as he was fixating on
individual words
and struggling with interpreting them in the context of a
passage.
He was expending all kinds of energy in understanding the
words
he saw and that yielded little or no lasting reward because
his vocabulary
memory bank was low. Instead, if he recognized the word
quickly, he would absorb it and spend as little time needed
to read it
or regress on the word. With speed reading techniques, Dov
learned
to differentiate important words to a subject matter from the
less
important words and bypass them. Like throwing wheat into the
air
and have the chaff blown away. This in turn reduces increases
reading
speed as you have fewer words to read. By the fifteenth
session,
Dov had a surprise for me. He completed his first book ever:
The
Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Behold, a young lad who had just
read his
first book ever at age seventeen! After this success, Dov
felt like he
was ready for college. I could not have been happier to have
had the
opportunity to help him make it all happen.
Following his completion of our sessions, I couldn’t help but
wonder about his book of choice. Why The Alchemist, I had to
ask?
Why not something popular like The Hobbit or Harry Potter? He
merely replied that it was interesting and that I should give
it a try
someday. I was intrigued. While I wish he had told me more,
having
him give a book report after reading just his first book ever
was
probably a little too much to ask. Four years after helping
Dov, I
started to write this very book, and I still could not help
but wonder
there in the world. I looked it up on Amazon.com and found a
video
of the author himself, Paulo Coelho, thanking his readers for
twenty
years of support for making his book a success all around the
world.
If he only knew what I knew about Dov, I thought. After
reading
For The Alchemist is about a boy leaving Spain to follow his
dream and
see the world, even though the boy fully understands that his
journey
will entail some suffering. The book is about
self-empowerment and
finding treasure within, turning negatives into positives
along your
journey to find your true self. The book is full of
adventure, comic
charm, wisdom, and it reads like a fairy tale all in just 167
pages.
To this day, I sometimes wonder if Dov ever wrote Mr. Coelho
a letter telling him how much The Alchemist made a difference
in
his life.https://sites.google.com/site/betterreadingcomprehension/
https://sites.google.com/site/israelmemoir/
