‘How are you not getting this? Just do exactly what I’m doing!’
We can often forget (either because so much time has passed or we choose to) our ineptitudes as a beginner.
It can be difficult for a master to sympathise with a beginner. They’re on level 100 and the novice is struggling with lesson 1.
Patience is a virtue to common folk but I think it is a necessity for being a teacher.
Like software developers trying to see the experience from a user’s point of view I think it would be beneficial for teachers to enrol as students.
Why?
Because yesterday I tried to learn ‘Something’ by the Beatles on the ukulele and I got overwhelmed.
For context I have never played the ukulele before and between trying to take the information in and execute it I was floundering.
Thank goodness it was a YouTube video and I could rewind rather than annoy the instructor to death.
I had forgotten the difficulty and stress associated with learning a new skill for the first time.
I hope I remember it if I ever find myself teaching.
Thomas Duggan 