A few years ago, a student came to see me because she was having trouble passing the Praxis exam, which was delaying her student teaching and her ultimate career goal. She had taken the exam three times and had met with another professor to get help, but nothing was working. During our conversation, out of frustration, she said something to the effect of, “I’ve used flash cards all my life, and they’ve worked, but now they’re not.” My immediate thought was, “We have failed her.” She had taken a class with me, and, while she had not done all that well, she had certainly passed. And she did so using flash cards.
