It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I have always struggled with ropesight. Very recently things have improved – to the extent that I can now treble to doubles methods without having conniptions. I sometimes miss what is going on, but if I take a deep breath, remain calm and resist the urge to go into panicked over-drive, I can usually sort myself out or else ask the conductor and have enough wits left to implement the reply. But it has been painfully slow in coming and is not yet fully formed.
My breakthrough came when I gave up trying to see what was going on and accepted that I would have to rely on other strategies to survive methods. My brain could not process what my eyes were seeing so I decided to concentrate on listening and feeling. This required many hours of practice on a simulator. The result is rough and ready and can produce some uneven striking, particularly if there are other less experienced ringers in the band, but by relaxing and not attempting to continue to do what I was manifestly failing to do, it allowed me the space for something to emerge on its own. When I stopped looking so hard, I began to see. A welcome development but along the way, although a few sensitive people supported my efforts, I also met with mutterings, eye rolling and, at times, an undermining of confidence that I would ever be able to make this work.
As a teacher by profession, I found the negativity disappointing. Learners usually know more about themselves than teachers give them credit for, especially adult learners who have decades of experience of their own strengths and weaknesses. If we decide that something is not working for us, then despite our inexperience in the particular field in question, we are experts in ourselves and although others may find it ridiculous that we cannot understand something that others find relatively straightforward, banging on at us about it is unlikely to be very effective. It will only drive us away because we do not have to endure unhelpful feedback if we choose not to.
To give an example, some time ago a targeted Call Change teaching session had me ready to walk. 6 experienced ringers rang, the learners sat and watched. The calls came quick and fast and then, in turn, we were expected to say who a ringer, chosen at random and not recently mentioned, was following. Furthermore, some of them were deliberately looking in the "wrong" direction. For me it was hopeless. I said to people that I did not have much supporting ropesight. I can't tell who is following who. All I can do is try to keep track of the ringing in relation to myself. Randomly asking "who is the 5 following?" or "who is leading now?" was near impossible for me. Even sitting on the side lines watching 6 ropes going up and down I could not tell. I knew whoever was leading must be following the tenor because the back bell had not moved. That should be the easiest to spot, but stare as I might, I could not tell who was leading. The ropes were moving but my eyes were not sending any meaningful message to my brain. The only way that I would be able to tell you what bell was leading, was if I remembered which bell had been called to the lead as in "2 to 3, 3 lead" or a particular ringer was staring hard at the tenor ringer. Otherwise, I was not joking when I said "I have no idea". Not "I am not quite sure" but "I have no idea." "Look and see" I was urged. I looked but did not see.
All I was aware of was a big neon sign pointing at me which read "Idiot". It then flashed a message "You are stupid" quickly followed by "You will never be successful" and "You have no right to be in this room." I resolved not to go back to expose myself to such a negative experience.
I did not know why I couldn't see the pattern of 6 ropes dancing, but I knew that I couldn't and staring at them did not make them slide into focus. It just made me feel hopeless. I had thought that call changes were at least one area of ringing where woeful ropesight was not too much of a handicap if you kept your focus. It seemed that I was wrong.
Hence, a plea to all teachers. Some learners have specific blocks. If they tell you that they have a specific block, then do not insist that they will overcome it if only they tried harder/someone instructed them more loudly. We develop strategies to get round our individual difficulties. Often our funny methods are harder than doing things the conventional way. I fervently wished that looking at ropes going up and down made sense to me, but for a long time they did not. Putting pressure on me in a very public way was not going to magically "cure" me. Rather, some creative ways to manage without ropesight until it eventually emerged would have been appreciated.
When teaching, it is important to take a step back from any intervention that you are attempting to make and consider the effect that you are having. Are the negative effects outweighing the positives? Obviously, no teacher intends to confuse and demoralise a learner, but should it inadvertently happen, what should one do? If you see that your learner is "floundering intelligently" then fair enough, but if they are just "floundering and in danger of drowning", please chuck them a life belt. Otherwise they will not come back and that is a lot of effort spent training them wasted.
But teachers, please don't beat yourself up about it. Learning to teach is as much a life-long journey as learning to ring. We all make mistakes along the way and need to be humble enough to recognise when things have gone wrong and try to do better next time.
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