Teach to Learn

We are all teachers at some point. Be it to our kids, our students, our peers.

I am a big believer in teach to learn. I believe knowledge will come faster and in greater detail when it is taught as opposed to only learned from books, coaches and doing. Of course the best is to be both teacher and student.  

Find ways to teach as soon as possible. Learn the basics and create a platform that allows delivery of information. Platforms can come in many forms. This blog is one type of platform. Videos are another. The neighbor. A cat. These are all viable ways to teach information. A large audience is not needed. At the time of this writing, no one will read it. Maybe someone will in the future, but I am writing this for me right now.

My point is being an expert at something is not a prerequisite to teaching. As long as the teacher knows more than the student. While teaching a subject, If the students asks a question the teacher can’t answer, a good and honest response is: “that is a great question but it is out of the scope of this class. I will write it down and answer it at our next class.” And bam. Now the teacher has something new to learn and has new information to teach at the next class. And so it goes. As the teacher increases her knowledge she can teach the subject in more depth and detail. Furthering the cycle and deepening her understanding of the information.  

Here is an idea how to put this into practice. Say I want to learn how to tie knots. Step one is go to YouTube and learn how to tie three useful knots. Knots that are used 80% of the time. Step two is to decide on the important steps to tying the knots. Step three is too quickly put a curriculum together. I can draw pictures of the steps and write out the steps next to the drawings. I can talk about different types of rope or string. I can teach what makes these knots useful. I could write FAQ’s. And step four, teach it. 

What I am going to teach

Chess is a passion of mine. But I have yet to teach it to anyone. So I am taking my own advice. I have volunteered to teach the boy scouts about chess. If a boy scout takes my class and completes all of the requirements, they can earn the chess merit badge. This was my process: I looked up the requirements the boy scouts need to earn the merit badge. Then I looked up all the answers to questions I couldn’t answer on my own. Then I divided the information into three, two hour sessions. And before I teach the class I will do a dry run of the class and look to see how things can be improved. Further, the more of these classes I do the classes will get better and my knowledge of chess will deepen.

I hope something was gained from this post. I have found teaching information incredibly useful to learning something on a deeper and more profound way. And I hope it does the same for you. 

Be well.

David Shirley.