To Teach is to Learn *

I went to, what I consider, a pretty progressive high-school. For example, kids were given a tabloid newspaper listing of courses and allowed to choose their following year - you'd be given a choice of say 8 or 9 science classes and you had to pick 4 of them. Or you'd have to have English 9 (or whatever grade you were in) and then three other English classes. We had a quarter system so we had four 10 week sessions which seemed like just the right amount for a class and perfect if you had a student or teacher you wanted to get away from. With seven classes a quarter and only 5 per day they were in full rotation so you never got stuck with PE after lunch or that kind of thing.

One of the classes I took (for credit) was Tutoring. The bad news, my grade was determined by how well my tutee improved and no matter what I tried, some kids just couldn't be tutored so getting a lower grade because of them stunk - but hey, that's life right? Always a lesson to be learned.

Today's inspiration has me nodding my head as I recall teaching percentages to one kid, and basic algebra to another. And after teaching another, I realized how much better I understood the basics too.

There is an old saying that goes "those who can't do, teach" ** which used to infuriate my mother (who has a B.Ed). Her point was that it didn't apply to all teachers - and I agree. A hockey player who no longer has a chance at the Stanley Cup can still be an excellent coach, but the saying doesn't apply to teaching English or French for example. And by teaching, you can 'do', because by repeating the lessons you can become better a something - be it math, or english, or knitting, or even sports.

Oh I could talk about teaching for a long time - but I'll spare you - it's almost time for Christmas Break (or Winter Break as I think it's now called) and the teaching lessons are very light right now so I'll say "class dismissed"

* Chinese Proverb

** (read this for an essay on the phrase, and teaching)