No one probably noticed at the time - it was a relatively obscure publication in a crowed field - but the boon for and bane of visual learners was given birth in that article.
It was in that publication that John Venn, born this day 180 years ago, gave the world his famous diagram. The diagram, usually shown as intersecting circles with data inside, is a way of visually organizing the logical relationship of those datum. The unique thing is that over time the Venn diagram, originally contained within the mathematical fields, has spread to be one of the few tools to cross disciplines effectively. We are all familiar with this sort of thing from our high school math days:
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| Circular logic! |
In English, we inflict this sort of thing on our students:
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| It's supposed to make things clearer! |
For visual learners struggling with the concepts involved with sometimes abstraction relationships between sets of data, the Venn diagram can help clarify things greatly. Sometimes in a surprising way - from the factual to the fanciful:
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| Thrilling! |
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| Clarity is a must at times like these! |
And Venn has made his impact in popular culture with this touching and bittersweet diagram from John Green's bestseller The Fault in Our Stars:
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| Yes, you can start crying now. |
As silly as some of these seem - they can begin the process of seeing relationships between diverse things. Looking for similarities and where points diverge - building patterns - all made much clearer with circles and intersections. So thanks, John Venn, for the diagram that launched a thousand homework assignments - and helping out visually oriented learners like me. Google has also paid tribute to Venn, and I am happy to add my appreciation as well. Happy Birthday, John!
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