For centuries, the prevailing opinion was that an old dog can’t be taught new tricks.
This notion started with the Ancient Greeks. Aristotle’s “tabula rasa” likened human memory to a wax tablet. As we grow older, the wax hardens, making it impossible to etch new impressions.
The “critical period” for learning is during childhood. After childhood, the density of neurons in the brain’s circuits becomes stable. Learning a new skill is harder, if not impossible.
Against this backdrop of folklore comes an individual who takes on all that was assumed to be true.
Priscilla Sitienei spent her life in Ndalat, Kenya. Her story was uncovered by science writer David Robson for the BBC series Future.
Priscilla yearned to write about her ninety-years living in Kenya so that generations coming after her would know her story. But more importantly, she wanted to inspire them. There was one major problem getting in her way.
While most children in Western countries start in their fourth or fifth years of life and continue over the next decade to refine skills in grammar, spelling, increasing their vocabulary to forty-thousand words or more, Priscilla never learnt to read or write in Kalenjin, the local language.
Inspired by Kimani Maruge, another Kenyan who holds the Guinness Book of Records for the oldest primary school student, Priscilla went for the first time to school.
The students call her “Gogo”, or grandmother.
Gogo finds children who will not go to school and demands to know why. She says, “They tell me they are too old. I tell them, well, I am at school and so should you.”
Learning to read and write is one of the most complex human tasks: recognising the sounds called phenomes, is the first step. This is builds to fluency and comprehension—understanding the vocabulary in context of the text to interpret the entire meaning.
Priscilla Sitienei is proof that even at an advanced age, learning complicated tricks is not beyond our pliable brains.
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