George Hernandez
February 7th, 2014
English 002
Learning Cardinal Directions
Teaching children about directions
isn't the easiest thing someone can do. This is because children tend to have
problems remembering which way certain directions are supposed to go. I know
this because I suffered through the same issue as a kid. Growing up, I had
trouble remembering where my left and right was and when my elementary school
teacher would talk about where certain countries where with North or West, I would
have trouble remembering where each was exactly. Since I had trouble
distinguishing where north and south were, me and my friend, Ernesto, came up
with the acrostic Never Ever Smoke Weed.
At
the time, we've always heard the terms North, East, West, and South, but having
to remember where they were was challenging for a child like me who was at
elementary school at the time. It felt as if schools (such as mine) didn't put
much effort in finding a way to show children what directions go where.
Instead, it felt as if they chose not teach a method since that’s not the
lesson being taught in class. Though, it could have been that teaching this was
a challenge for them to find an easy method of teaching children cardinal
directions. This is just speculation, however. I can’t determine why our
teacher would avoid teaching us an easier method to understanding
As
i grew up, I’ve noticed how my friends and classmates would struggle on
differentiating between West to South or even North to East. Originally, I
thought this was only an issue between a select few, but it felt as if it was
common for kids my age to find it difficult to remember where each direction
went. There was a time during my middle school days where my geography teacher
would talk about the events of both World Wars and tried to use a globe to help
us locate certain countries. Using a globe to help us learn where these
countries were located was helpful, but I felt like there were still others who
were having trouble remembering where exactly each country was located. So to help out my classmates, I raised my
hand and suggested my teacher to use the acrostic Never Ever Smoke Weed to the
rest of the class. To my surprise, it helped the class out a lot more.
After
class, my teacher spoke to me about how effective Never Ever Smoke Weed was in
the class and was curious to know how I came up with such a simple device. I
told her how the device was made in elementary school when my teacher would
talk about history in where she would bring up the events of slavery and point
to us different countries and states involved, but would always use cardinal
directions to show us where each country involved was located. However, she
didn’t teach us a method of remembering where each location was, so that’s
where the acrostic was born. Surprised, my history teacher was wondering why
she never thought of such a simple device. It was then I told her that the
device could be used for her other classes as well. So long as the device is
simple, it’ll not only become easier to understand, but easier to remember as
well.
Even
if you're already aware of the concept of Never Ever Smoke Weed, then creating
acronyms like this benefits those who have trouble remembering or even
understanding its device. The acrostic allows for you to understand how you can
understand your cardinal directions, but it can also help you create your own
device to help others understand various ideas. When Ernesto and I came up with
Never Ever Smoke Weed, we created this to help us better understand something
we couldn't properly remember, in this case the cardinal directions. If two
children can create something as humorous and helpful as learning the
difference between North, East, South, and West, then imagine the possibilities
you can create.
