I took English II with Donna Mueller during my sophomore year of high school. During the first week of class, she presented us with a list of Latin bases and meanings for us to learn. The idea was that we could figure out the meaning of a word if we knew the meaning of parts of the word. For example, omnipotent has two base words – omni meaning “all” and pot meaning “powerful.” So, omnipotent means “all-powerful.” Her goal was to help us improve our vocabulary and better understand the meaning of words we would encounter in our lives.
She was a volunteer first responder with the local ambulance district. She applied one of the bases we needed to learn to the real world. She told us rect means “to make straight.” She told us about this marvelous thing in the body called a rectum. She explained that the rectum takes our poop and compacts it into a straight line, so it’s easier for us to push it out of our bodies. She then told us that if “anybody ever tells you to get your shit straight, tell them you don’t have to because your rectum does it for you.”
She said this to a room full of 15-year-old sophomores. Needless to say, this stuck in my head.
I graded quizzes for her when I was a senior. Every week, the sophomores took a quiz on the Latin bases and meanings they learned. Every week, she put rect on the quiz. I can’t begin to tell you how many students answered only 1 question on that quiz. I bet you can guess which one.
More than learning some vocabulary and having a terrific story to tell 25+ years later, I learned that you do whatever you have to do to get information stuck in your head. So I started making similar associations to learn the bases and meanings. For example, Miss means “hatred.” I remember that by associating it with the primary female bully in my life at the time: Miss Corey is hateful. In college, I made colorful associations to help me memorize some of the organic functional groups.
I use this idea when I teach my chemistry classes. I tell my students a combination reaction is when two people meet and start dating (because two things come together to make a single new compound). I tell them a decomposition reaction is when that couple later breaks up. I encourage them to make whatever silly association they need to help get the information we are learning in class to stick in their head.
I also tell them the story of rect and hope that I planted the seed that was planted in me at 15. Maybe I give students one more tool to help them succeed in their education…and life.