Yeah, I know. It's not a word. I made it up. I made it up to describe something that really gets on my nerves. I know why it happens. And I could write for a long time about it. And I can be guilty of it myself if I am really tired. But there are some people who do this on a daily basis.
Discardation happens to me from other people in a lot of different situations and I hadn't encountered it very much outside of the classroom as a teacher until I started my own business and had people completely discard parts of my emails. Then write partial responses. To which I had to respond requesting the rest of the information. This started to happen so much and become so time consuming. For example they had written to me and asked me about many things so I answered each item:
I noticed the cover page was missing, can you send me copy of that? Yes I intend to follow up with the agent in the next few days. Can you call the accountant about the error? And please let me know if you want me to write the article they requested or do you want to do that?
I would get an answer to an email like that which looked like this...
You can write the article if you want to.
I have noticed that people usually do not discard the last piece of information or they have these trends. My attorney will usually answer the first and the last item.
My brother will discuss the last item.
My husband will discuss the last item.
I got so tired of it, I decided to bullet things. When I did, suddenly every single item got addressed. WOW!
A very similar thing happens when I write newsletters and articles. And the blog post very recent to this one about cancer cures.
I noticed a very different thing occur when I write posts articles and newsletters. People tend to pick out one thing that really resonates with them and respond only to that thing and its usually a complaint or comment that I don't understand something or some sentence that I explained 3 sentences before. in each of these circumstances, I have addressed exactly what they are complaining about and had agreed with them already several paragraphs prior. But they get so upset that instead of remembering what I had just written, they assume I must have now changed my mind or something. For example:
I don't understand what it's like to see a loved one deal with cancer. I said in the first paragraph that my grandmother and mother both dealt with breast cancer and that I was next in line for it.
I don't want to see a cure for cancer found. Wow. All I said was that I wanted people to understand the differences between cure, a better cure and prevention.
I am against the cure for cancer. I don't' think I ever said that. I spent several paragraphs discussing the reasons for the post were to help people stop supporting "treatments" and more ineffective drugs and start learning the difference and become educated about treatment, cure, better cure and prevention. Why on earth wouldn't I want a cure for cancer when I am next in line for it genetically and statistically?
Most of the complaints I got about that post were answered or rebutted already in the first quarter of the article. And in every single complaint I did not disagree with them, they just forgot the first half of the post.
And of course there are plenty of examples of this in articles I write. I explain the science behind things in what I write about then people write to complain that I don't know what I'm talking about and that it is made up stuff. I explain in the first paragraphs usually, the simple science behind it that can be found in any basic textbook but that was at the beginning of the article.
So again, in writings, people discard the front end.
It's more important when I am selling on ebay and I am explaining in the details all about the item. Then I get questions about the item. And where did I ALREADY answer those questions? Yep, at the beginning of the description.
This happens so often that I have started bulletting all my auctions. When I did. The questions stopped.
When I speak to 2 certain people in my life, they almost certainly will miss the first few sentences that make the rest of what I am saying make sense. Like in this statement...
That store that was closing where we got your shirt has closed now. So I don't know where we will get that kind of shirt again. I went to store X and they didn't have it so I was wondering where you think I should go to find it? He will say, why don't you just go to the place where you already get it? GRRR. Because they are closing, as in gone out of business. Oh, you didn't say that. Grrrr. I did but that was 4 sentences ago. MY BAD~
So through the years in dealing with this I have put much thought into how this affects our learners. As a teacher I saw this behavior in the same students and not all of them but the ones who displayed it in the beginning, continued to do it and be the only ones who did it. They would read directions and then ask me what to do about xyz, which was the first item addressed in the directions.
In essay questions which asked for several answers and then to state this or that and then summarize with this, they would randomly choose what items to answer and leave out the rest. Or they answered only the first few items or questions. This would cause lower scores and lots of confusion in their lives constantly.
Many of you might write to me and say...That's ADD! Yes, that is a symptom of ADD but I am extremely familiar and close with ADD and all of its manifestations. And real ADD and the over diagnosing of it and the difference between it and sleep loss which are very similar and the research world is working on trying to find out which comes first.
But this discardation of information would explain why the same people in my life do this. It also tells me that the people who write and do this are also doing this everywhere else in their lives, not just with me.
I have learned who in my life does this and have compensated and asked to see if they are listening before I speak. If I write it, then they have a question I calmly ask them to please re-read the beginning. I ignore people who write to me with comments or questions that are clearly addressed in the beginning of a post or paragraph, letter or note or article.
Right or wrong I have come to believe that if you are an adult and you are constantly missing the beginning, then you are most certainly suffering the consequences of this in your life. This makes it your responsibility to diagnose this for yourself and then behave accordingly instead of asking other people to take up your slack. If they are children, we need to help them learn about this behavior so they can begin to compensate for it and go back to the beginning before reaching outward to others for the answers to their questions.
I have my beliefs about this. Sometimes, it is impatience....like I am so interested in this activity that I want to get on with it (especially in lab or outside with an activity with rules) or maybe my posts that are so interesting :)
Sometimes it is an inability to pay attention. The beginnings of things just drop away as the reader, listener follows along. Some lump this into sensory integration disorder. Or that this is an ADD or lack of sleep or lack of brain energy thing. This can be due to so many things like stress or deficiencies in vitamins and minerals and other nutrients, dehydration or habit and yes processing disorders.
I see it in me when I am overly stressed or I haven't been sleeping. I have to work harder and go back and reread to make sense of things.
If you have a learner whom you see does this. Work with them. This is a simple problem to solve with training and repetition and reminders. Over the years you will be helping them to calm and clarify and stop the confusion for the rest of their lives. Yes, it might take years. I used to be one of these people. It only took me about 8 years to stop it but then I started as an adult. I saved this part for last so everyone would remember it instead of writing to tell me I don't understand what it's like.
