BLOG #06 - The Best Way To Learn (Teach)
When I was still a teenager, fresh in the martial arts, I can remember the first time one of my martial arts "senior brothers" told me to teach a particular young man some of the basics I had been taught. I couldn't quite know how it would propel me, as a student. After all, I was still a newbie, and I did not really understand what I had been learning beyond how it looked to me as I was performing my training. Let's face it: I was still a little awkward, and insecure about my form, so I wondered how I could actually help someone else without creating the same "bad form", in them.
The student did not last for very long (this is normal), and I have to admit that I did not see any improvement, within myself, but I did have other opportunities, after that. Over the years, as this occurred, I started gaining a few things:
1. My self-confidence grew
2. My ability to see my own errors began to expand
3. My understanding of certain basic concepts deepened
4. My technique knowledge was increased
In general life, we are all often given the opportunity to pass on knowledge and information, which is usually something that another has passed on to US. In each instance, there is the same seed for self-improvement. In fact, whatever it is that a person is able to give to another person MUST actually be in that person's hand, in order to actually "pass it" to the next. Each hand that touches a thing affects it, whether in trajectory, temperature or just energetically. Likewise, that interaction between the hand and the thing affects the hand, somehow. It's just impossible for it NOT to. Picture a relay race, of sorts, only not necessarily running with a baton. The most important part is the actual passing of that object or information.
It's as stories handed down from generation to generation, in olden days: The stories endured, but always found some additional coloring, due to the storyteller's experience of the story in his generation. In each generation, the story's teller learned to "embody" the story, so that it might endure. In most cases, there as a lesson within the story. Would it not be reasonable to assume that lesson "took hold" within the storyteller, and may have even found its way into the mentality of that culture & generation? I think so, and that goes to my point that the effect is usually mutual between the hand and the thing it touches.
Deeper still: The adjustments we make as we are learning something new are usually subconscious, to a degree. When we teach others something we have learned, we tap our own subconscious and relay it to the surface of our minds in various ways, until the recipient of that information has an "Aha!" moment, and gets the point. Whether that moment resulting from that variety of ways comes quickly or through many iterations determines just how much energy you expend in that subconscious-to-conscious relay.
As a final example, let's dig up an old chestnut: "Teach a man to fish…":
Think about it. If you simply did a thing for someone, it does not take the same energy as it would to teach them to do it for themselves. Sure, it may eliminate the stress, for the moment… but when they start to come back to you EACH TIME, to do that simple thing, it may become much more stressful for you. If I were to frame this example with the martial arts, it would be like going in to fight off a bully FOR your child, rather than giving him the tools to fend off the assailant. And from my personal experience with my own personal bullies, it is the tools that make all the difference. The payoff? You as the provider of the tools gain the peace of mind, and appreciate certain aspects of the lesson (interaction with the child) that will last a lifetime.
As for the chestnut: There are teachers, and there are Great Teachers. If teaching one man has benefits, can you imagine how much more one benefits by teaching many more? Mastery is gained by such activity as the sharing of knowledge.
What would YOU master, in your lifetime?
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