Introducing Joey: The Autodidact Among Us
How well do you understand people who navigate their world by asking and answering their own questions?
Unsplash+: credit Plant Volumes
Preface: In February 2023, I released a novel where my 14-year-old protagonist, Alfred, is neurodivergent and, with the help of “Coach,” builds a more connected life. His lessons are shared in “Alfred’s Corner,” with this being his first piece:
Alfred’s Corner
The question I was asked and the world as I see itmedium.com
One of Alfred’s friends is the start of a new series which I now introduce.
Joey
Meet Joey. Joey is one of Alfred’s closest friends, but it didn’t start out that way. Alfred considered Joey to be slow. Joey wasn’t quick to pick up chess, and Alfred is an excellent player who created a chess club. Joey isn’t swift at solving Algebra problems, and Alfred loves a good math challenge. For Alfred, simply nothing distinguished Joey… until it did.
That was because Alfred didn’t understand Joey. It took him a while to understand that Joey is the type of person who doesn’t do well in conventional settings — like classrooms or chess matches. What Alfred was soon to discover was that Joey is immensely curious.
Joey asks and answers his own questions, and by doing that, he discovers his world.
Alfred first became aware of this trait on one summer day when the two boys were out walking their dogs. Here was their conversation:
Alfred: Joey, do you ever get bored in the summer? Even though dogs are great, don’t you just miss school a little?
Joey: Not one bit. I always have something to fill my time. I fix things. I go onto YouTube to see how things are made. I read about things I want to know something about, which is not the same as what our teachers want us to know about.
Alfred: For example?
Joey: Can you name an invention that happened during the civil war?
Alfred: No.
Joey: Neither could I. But then I read about it. Did you know that balloons were invented by a self-taught scientist — Thaddeus Lowe — and it was the first example of aerial reconnaissance used in war? Lowe set up a balloon on the White House lawn and then went up in it. President Lincoln was so impressed that he sent him straight to the U.S. Army Balloon Corps.
Alfred: Are you teasing me?
Joey: I’m not. There really was this unit. The people in the balloons relayed information to the officers in the field using the telegraph, which had only been invented around 15 years earlier. A lot was invented back then.
Alfred: Wow. I had no idea. This is what having freedom allows you to find.
Joey: Yes. I no longer care that I’m not great at math. I find my math skills when I need them — like when I’m building something. Then, I can measure and calculate with the best of them. But I care that I feed my curiosity.
The Autodidact
Joey is an autodidact, which is a big word but a simple idea. According to Merriam-Webster,
After just completing a novel where my protagonist is neurodivergent, why am I proceeding to explore autodidacts?
I believe this is a quality to be celebrated and has not been well understood. Also, many of us have some small degree of autodidactism. Others are full-force and undiluted. I’d like us to understand how Joey processes his world so that we can understand this trait better.
Many famous autodidacts have lined the halls of American history — even if we wouldn’t have called it that back then. Ever heard of Abraham Lincoln? Benjamin Franklin? If you track authors, how about Ernest Hemingway? Ray Bradbury? My new favorite old author, Charles Dickens, was said to be an autodidact. I could go on, or you can exercise an autodidactic tendency and Google it. Or engage with ChatGPT.
Me? I am going to explore this trait through fiction and Joey. So join me if you’re curious. And if you have some autodidactic tendencies, share them with me in the comments section.
For now, though, let’s welcome Joey and get to know him.
Key Message: There are many ways to learn and process your world, and doing it in a self-taught manner is a fine way to go. Joey will help us to understand more.
I guess most teenagers are autodidacts nowadays (hashtag YouTube), but they’d probably hate to be called anything that has to do with teaching, self or not. A world where how-to videos earn millions of views must be a world of people keen to learn things on their own. The question is, how developmental is what they are teaching themselves, and what it is they’re doing it for: just to kill time, to learn a new skill and apply it? Curious to read what Joey’s teaching himself, and what he’s doing with it.