those who can't, teach

"Those who can't, teach."

-old adage that oversimplifies teaching and is really, really wrong

In order to teach, you need the following prerequisites:

• Understanding: you cannot teach well what you don't understand well.
• Empathy: you need to be able to assume the point of view of someone who doesn't know what you know yet and not hold that against them.
• Curiosity: you need to want to know what can they already do on their own without your help.
• Compassion: you need to understand that growing pains exist.
• Ingenuity: you need to be able to adjust because not everyone learns the same way, nor do they necessarily learn the same way as you.
• Patience: you need to understand that not everyone gets it on the first try or even the twenty-second, and sometimes, it's not time yet for a particular skill.
• Wisdom: you need to know when you're the expert and when your student has just taught you something.

This is a short list of prerequisites. Not on the list? A teaching credential. Teaching is a profession, but it is also a way of communicating and a way of viewing the world as a place where people can grow. (Also not on the list: skilled marksmanship, but that's more political than I want to get today ...)

Do you have what it takes to teach well? I bet you do or could develop those skills because those who can, teach.

Have a great day.

buffering

Imagine thinking you will get from the beginning of this blog post to the end without interruption.

Now imagine it a different way.

Imagine you begi         n  a sentence on           ly  to have it break apart. Then, perhaps it works for a while, and you get used to the fluidity and ease of movement. Your eyes begin to follow the expected path, from left to right, when                 it                         br                  eaks          up agai n.

Now imagine living like that.

Imagine you're just trying to go to the store, to school, to work. It should be a short trip, right? You walk or you drive or you take the train. There are expected delays, like traffic lights or waiting for the bus to come on schedule.

But then, you get pulled                 over for a busted                                           tail light. Again.

Or you get followed, and you                   don't know why, so you         have to change your travel plans                   for                           your own safe                                ty, because you don't know what their                            plans                                       are for you.

Or someone who matches                   your descript               ion did something, so you need to be checked                                                           out, just in case.

You                        would be              come    accustomed                    to living with interruptions, and when they didn't come, you would wonder when they would arrive. You couldn't get used to smoothly moving from one place to another because

you would never know when the situation would get back to normal or messed up or as messed           up as nor                  mal. You would have to be on constant aler                                 t.

This does something to people psychologically. If you made it to the end of this blog post, I am mildly surprised; if you gave up on it, I'm not. It is a bothersome thing to be interrupted constantly when all you want to do is go from Point A to Point B smoothly and automatically. If you have no idea what this blog post is about, I am very happy for you; some people have to live like this blog post was written. If you understood it, I'm sorry.

We've arrived at the end safely. May your other journeys be smoother than this one.