You should be able to teach other people, amirite?

I'm a fond believer that our education system isn't geared towards teaching. It's geared toward getting people to pass a test. These are 2 very different things. My first year learning how to program, my teacher said: "I doubt you will pass this year" because I was struggling and doing things wrong and the exercises during the year, I usually messed up. But... because I did things wrong at first and then corrected myself, I had a much deeper understanding of the material than the people who just followed the textbook verbatim. I passed that course with the highest grade possible in the end. Against the expectations of the teacher. Teaching, is mostly letting people do their thing, letting them fail and then trying to point them in the right direction. Teaching is not "I will explain step A to Z and if you follow those instructions, you will pass" That's not teaching, in my opinion.

by Infamous_Thanks_3800 2 days ago

"guys, I will show this once, pay close attention!" -Suicide terrorist instructor

by Infamous_Thanks_3800 2 days ago

I feel like if the person has to do the task multiple times their teacher isn't really doing anything useful

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Huh?

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Like what do you even mean "should be able to teach"

by Anonymous 2 days ago

What? That's a fairly normal phrase. Should / be able / to teach Aka "I think teaching is a vital skill people should have". I've seen "should be able to [verb]" all the time, it's completely grammatically valid and coherent.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Help someone learn to do a thing? What is confusing?

by Anonymous 2 days ago

What is confusing about being able to explain things to people?

by Anonymous 2 days ago

You tell me, you're the one who just failed at it.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Except that you didn't say that people ‘should' help others, you said that they ‘should be able to' do so. Which are two completely different things.

by Status-Crow 2 days ago

Eh people should be more willing to teach without the perfect circumstances. Thats empathy for others and not making it about the teacher's ego.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Not confusing, just vague and generally unhelpful. You might as well say "People should do good things."

by Steuberdoyle 2 days ago

That's vague. Read something again if you don't understand it

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Knowing how to do something and knowing how to teach something are completely different skills that doesn't inherently overlap. Knowing how to teach, having patience for somebody learning and being intelligent are all completely independent of each other. Also "but it shouldn't take time if the teacher thinks about how other humans learn." is objectively false. Everybody learns differently, the notion that somebody is capable of teaching anybody is objectively false.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Yes, but it should be obvious if you're explaining something to someone and it's not helping them at all. Different learning styles and methods should be obvious to an adult. We shouldn't need special trainers because adults don't try to communicate well

by Anonymous 2 days ago

This response makes zero sense

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Why? If you're teaching someone and they're not getting it a smart adult should be able to adapt how they're expressing it

by Anonymous 2 days ago

That's an entirely different skill than knowing how to do something. You can be incredibly smart and still be a poor teacher.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Right, but a smart person adapts and gets better. Don't just quit or assume that's how it is .

by Anonymous 2 days ago

You are insufferable. I can see why people don't want to teach you things.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Why? If you're teaching someone something and they're still confused, change the method. It doesn't seem complicated unless the teacher is lazy.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

And what responsibility is on the student to engage? You seem to think teaching is a one way transaction. A student needs to engage.

by Sea_Loquat3128 2 days ago

Knowing someone learns differently and being able to adapt to their style are two different things. Communication is a skill all its own. Basically all humans have skills they're good at and ones they struggle with.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Yes, I'm saying an adult should be able to change their strategy. It's a sign of intelligence to adapt and not just give up

by Anonymous 2 days ago

In many of your responses, it sounds like you're putting all the onus on the teacher and little on the student. It's not solely up to teachers to ensure someone learns something - it's a two-way street and the student still has to do a lot of heavy lifting. This may include looking at lessons in different ways if they're not understanding something. A lazy student won't learn anything, even from the best teachers, if they aren't willing to do some critical thinking for themselves.

by tiaswaniawski 1 day ago

Ok but even adapting can fail??? Being able to see the need to change strategy doesn't mean you magically know what will actually work.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

So try a few. Too many people give up and never think about what the student needs

by Anonymous 1 day ago

My point is more that even the "teacher" role may ultimately fail or be better off suggesting a resource or someone else to teach. People deserve patience and respect in all communication, unless they're like egregiously rude, but that's not quite the same as saying you should be able to teach people.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

So .. i know when i explain things to people it doesn't help them at all. I don't have the skill in teaching to do it any other way. That's why i don't teach people: i have reasonable abilities in several things, and teaching very much is not one of those. Personally, i think its an insult to teachers and those who teach to assume i can do their job well.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Why wouldn't you get better at it? If you see the person is confused just explain it in a clearer manner? Many people teach someone something once for two minutes and then assume it's someone else's job. School teachers main power is they're willing try.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Knowing what the clearer manner is is the skill. I don't have that skill for a variety of reasons, among them being that i do not have the time and energy to learn a whole other job's worth of skills. I simply disagree completely with your last sentence. Ive made a good faith effort to teach people things for hours at a time, and the effect of me trying to teach them is just that they get more frustrated. Perhaps, based on your framework, i simply never had someone explain the skill of teaching in a clearer manner.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Get ready for the "you should be able to be taught by other people" when OP fails to teach something to someone next week.

by margarettaabshi 1 day ago

Not really my goal to run the world. Just want more people to willingly help others and use their noodle to do it in a way they see a result

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Is it the hyperbole? Some people get upset by that but this is unwarranted

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Intelligence level in no way equates to teaching ability One could argue the more intelligent a person is, the less likely that they will have the emotional or social skills needed to relate something to an average person

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I don't think so. If you can't explain something to another person simply, you're more pompous than smart.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Intelligence is nice but without the wisdom to apply it correctly you're just shunting facts into an ocean.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

You never know what people will apply today or twenty years later

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Why ‘should' they be able to do that? Especially if they aren't particularly interested in actually doing so? Teaching anything beyond very basic things generally takes a lot of time, which is time that many people would not be able or willing to spend on teaching others. Especially when, most likely, they don't have a particular skill in teaching. If you want to learn something beyond the very basics, that's what classes and such are for. That's the primary resource here.

by Status-Crow 1 day ago

It's normal to care about others? If you see someone struggling it's not normal to ignore them, treat them like they're annoying, or claim you need a special degree.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

You don't need a degree to develop skills. Certification can be important for extremely sensitive professions (engineering, medical, etc.), but skill =/= degree. It just means being proficient at something. And sometimes people struggle with communication and teaching, neither are as simple as you seem to assume.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Teachers get taught how to teach whereas the rest of us are just muddling along

by alvahebert 1 day ago

I wish that would be skill you can just have, but this is why we have to train teachers for years (and even with that some can't teach to save their lives). It's not something the average person can just 'do'.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Being able to teach someone something isn't a sign of intelligence. Teaching is a skill that must be learned, practiced, and developed. Some people will have more of a natural knack for it, just as with most skills Teachers are, in fact, skilled workers, despite how people like to talk about us. And teaching is a skill we have. You don't have to be a teacher or go through a teacher education program to develop that skill, of course, but it will need to be developed.

by franco96 1 day ago

I think more adults can explain things well and choose not to do it and just say it's too hard. If you never try to help others of course it will be hard.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I work in IT. I had to "Teach" a high-level executive how to unmute their computer. 3 times in one year. When asked for the 4th time I sent a coworker because I couldn't handle the amount of stupid. They got let go 2 months later for not being able to do their job. There wasn't a 5th time. Think of the dumbest person you know. Then realise that half the country is dumber than them. Teaching isn't hard, but it's really hard to teach a dog geometry.

by Sea_Wave_9315 1 day ago

I was an Army AIT Instructor for 3 years. 75% of the time, it was like that scene from GotG2 where Rocket Raccoon is ing to Groot how to use the bomb. Here is the scene.

by Healthy-Crab 1 day ago

The missing skill is memory; the frustrated teacher doesn't remember not knowing and can't fathom a different mindset.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

You really think people have such poor memories?

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Those that cant do teach.

by Anonymous 1 day ago