You Make a Me Sweat

Plugging in...

When you read the title, think Italian accent "you make a me sweat". It was uttered to the Tutor one fine day while teaching a classroom of twenty-five how to use Lotus. Oh. You don't remember Lotus 123, the pre-cursor to Excel, the darling of Cambridge Massachusetts? No matter.

The gentleman of Italian descent was having difficulty following the Tutor's instructions, mainly because English was his second language. Little did the Tutor know he was a brilliant engineer who worked on an oil rig. So why is that important to the story? The Tutor was informed by one of the man's colleagues not to "help" him catch up, that the colleague would assist him and the Tutor could continue teaching without interruption.

When lunch time rolled around, the colleauge approached the Tutor and explained why the Italian gentleman/engineer was so reticent when touching the keyboard. The Italian engineer held a position on the oil rig such that if he pushed the wrong button while on the oil rig, it could blow the rig to kingdom come. He was so accustomed to not touching anything until he was postively certain of the outcome, that he brought this focused attention to learning the spreadsheet program.

So. The Tutor stopped making the man sweat, his colleague helped him out, and the Lotus class was a success.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: before calling for help - is it plugged in, do you know which key to press, and is it turned on?

Unplugged