Patch listens. She follows as best she can. She absorbs everything that makes sense about the machine, but she's also watching Peter, learning about him, and about what he's trying to do, how he's trying to do it. When he finally winds down a little, that's when she speaks. "Ok, first off, wow. I think you might be the smartest person I've ever met who wasn't an actual college professor." Based on this one interaction. He'll probably very quickly eclipse that opinion as she gets to know him better.
"Here's the thing, though. You're way smarter than I am, and you need to keep that in mind. I could only follow... maybe half of that? Some of the things made sense, and some just flew right over my head. Drawing parallels sometimes helps. Like when you compared these little motors here to those vending machines that grab your drink for you, I got that. Try and do more of that. And maybe try to pause a little more to ask if there are questions. I can see how passionate you are about this, and how easy it is for you. That's amazing. That's exactly what we need, being stuck here, but not everyone is going to be on your level. I think most of us won't."
She's trying to be encouraging, and she probably wouldn't criticize a teaching technique under normal circumstances. These aren't normal circumstances, though. No one ever taught him how to teach, and his ability to do so is going to directly impact their chances of survival.
"Like this bit here." She points carefully to the mechanics that feed the raw materials into the heating and extrusion elements. "You started off comparing it to a pasta machine, which is great, cause I have one of those... but then--" She sweeps her hand and widens her eyes. "Lots of very big words I don't know, and I got completely lost. So, can we try going over it again?"
no subject
"Here's the thing, though. You're way smarter than I am, and you need to keep that in mind. I could only follow... maybe half of that? Some of the things made sense, and some just flew right over my head. Drawing parallels sometimes helps. Like when you compared these little motors here to those vending machines that grab your drink for you, I got that. Try and do more of that. And maybe try to pause a little more to ask if there are questions. I can see how passionate you are about this, and how easy it is for you. That's amazing. That's exactly what we need, being stuck here, but not everyone is going to be on your level. I think most of us won't."
She's trying to be encouraging, and she probably wouldn't criticize a teaching technique under normal circumstances. These aren't normal circumstances, though. No one ever taught him how to teach, and his ability to do so is going to directly impact their chances of survival.
"Like this bit here." She points carefully to the mechanics that feed the raw materials into the heating and extrusion elements. "You started off comparing it to a pasta machine, which is great, cause I have one of those... but then--" She sweeps her hand and widens her eyes. "Lots of very big words I don't know, and I got completely lost. So, can we try going over it again?"