I’ve been thinking about my mum lately – she’s never touched a computer, save maybe to dust it, and now she’s taking a computer class. This morning I got what I hope is the first of many emails from her…well done mum! Week 1 – she was inspired. She was telling me that there were about ten people in her class, many of them older and slower than her, so she felt pretty good about the pace and being able to keep up with the new concepts she was learning. Week 2 threw her off. Six people dropped out of the class – according to mum, the six slowest people! Great, I thought, she’s the fourth quickest person in her class at a minimum. But for mum, her confidence was rocked a little. No longer did she have a safety net of hiding behind the slower learners, no longer did she have the benefit of them asking questions that saw the teacher repeating instructions over and over – according to mum, now she is the slowest in the class, struggling to keep up with the others, slowing everyone down.

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