Doing and Teaching Are Two Different "Jobs"

Have you heard the phrase "Those who can't do, teach."? I'm sure you have. You might even agree with it.

In fact, this is a misinterpretation (or adaptation?) of an Aristotle quote:

Those who know, do. Those who understand, teach.


Source

Of course, in the time of Aristotle, not many were teachers, and being one required deeper understanding, the kind that made many of their names live on through history. Nowadays things degraded to a point where a phrase like the one at the beginning can be true, in enough cases.

However, there are, to this day, teachers and teachers, and courses and courses.

In some cases, it's so boring, or maybe you don't understand anything, or wonder what use is it for you in real life, that you can barely wait until the ring bell sounds the break.

In other cases, time passes so quickly, you were so absorbed by the lesson, you understood everything and loved the way the teacher conducted it, that you could barely lift from your desk to go into the break.

It's likely two different teachers and two different subjects. But sometimes two teachers on the same subject make you see the opposite sides of it.

I believe doing can be and often is a job, but teaching should be a vocation. When teaching becomes a job it does the student/pupil no good, quite the opposite. The teacher is likely complacent and looking forward to the next "paycheck". Maybe some private lessons too.

I've seen many having the opinion that organized schooling is obsolete and has no place in today's society.

I disagree. What is being taught needs to be reviewed constantly, but that's only part of the equation. I'll give you an example here: my youngest niece has had a Personal Development subject since grade 0 (age 6). My older niece, who is in grade 5 now never had this subject, and they went to the same public school (but different teachers).

Where else organized schooling is generally good in my opinion (there are exceptions), is to teach children and later adolescents to make friends, work in teams, and deal with people they don't like and with bullies in a way that is... acceptable. 😀 Yes, maybe they learn more bad things than good things in such collectives, but I still think it's better than being raised in a bubble.

The question is how does this prepare them for a life of highly online interconnection? Enough, because they are drawn to these activities in their spare time too.

What I would be worried about if I had young children was the reverse: that they are too involved in the online world and have too few or short real-life interactions. And they grow up kind of socially impaired, especially if parents don't have time and aren't careful to make sure there is a balance.

Anyway, how did I decide to create this post?

I've seen a recent tutorial created by a very good developer ("doer"). A tutorial is more of a teacher's "part". If a doer has teaching skills, they can do both. But otherwise, a good teacher is much better, even if the doer knows what they are talking about in greater detail.


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It's a good way to pick what interests you.

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11 comments

Being able to properly convey information is a skill very select individuals master. It's usually something that has to be learned through experience rather than taught by instruction. Advice can help but explaining the process is a key component to being able to teach.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the subject! It is important to understand why some teachers are highly sought after while others are unable to find more students.

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Being able to properly convey information is a skill very select individuals master. It's usually something that has to be learned through experience rather than taught by instruction.

Experimenting and practicing help a lot in the learning process. It's impressive to see this at work, when students who didn't understand a thing from theory, have their aha moment when they experiment.

Advice can help but explaining the process is a key component to being able to teach.

I agree, but that sounds easy, and it's not, to explain a process to the level of the person you speak with. Try explaining Hive to someone in 2-3 minutes in a way that is attractive to them!

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I agree with what you say, sadly nowadays a lot of people do teaching only because it's a sure job where you can't be fired, work 6 hours a day at most and 3 months holidays

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I can't say I disagree. But there are exceptions too. Unfortunately, if they are exceptions, fewer and fewer students learn from them.

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I agree. The teacher's enthusiasm with their teaching is evident to the students. When they love what they teach, they usually make it interesting enough for the students, and the students learn and are more engaged. But when they are just going through the motions, students are usually passive as well. I see a future where AI are the ones teaching in the future. I am curious if they can program it to be enthusiastic and personalized per class.

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Interesting! They can certainly learn the skills to do it at some point.

The question is if we want our future generations to be taught and modeled by AIs or not. That would be a very sensitive topic.

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I think as long as they are not self aware AI, it should be fine. The curriculum can be checked by humans, and we can use actual human teachers as the data where the AI will learn from.

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Teaching is more of a job right now and I still think they are unpaid to an extent. And they have to deal with kids who are influenced by social media so it's a nightmare. It's difficult and I agree that having a good teacher is always better.

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Oh yeah, kids nowadays can be troublesome for a teacher. This is mostly a job, but some of them have a vocation for it, others do not or do not care (anymore).

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That’s why we can always differentiate between a good teacher who loves what he or she does and a teacher who is just doing the job for money sake. A good teacher won’t only teach but will show examples and makes you feel like wanting to know more
That’s what a good teacher does

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Going the extra mile and being interested in the well-being of the students is very important for a good teacher.

I think the teacher also needs to be likable or have the ability to adapt to different types of students, especially in low to middle grades. If a pupil doesn't like a teacher or their methods, no matter how good they are, they won't react well to them.

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I think having a person who is great both will be awesome to convey knowledge but I think teachers are more cut out for it. For me, I view it that teachers are more able to package the information better than doers. Doers often present the information as a matter of fact, which can be great too in certain situations, such as practical aspects.

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When you train someone for a specific job or skill, doers who have teaching abilities are better, because they know what works and what doesn't in the field and they probably present more updated information and to the point.

But for the first stages of learning, good teachers are always better.

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Thank you @gadrian. That is really important to teach children personal development. I took ballet when I was in my 40's to mid 60's and it helped me alot. I took it with a class of teenagers quite often because there were not always adults there. I learned a lot of personal development in the classes. I found it to a very valuable thing to learn - ballet.
Everyone needs to get along and work together because one is basically learning how to dance together and that's what professional ballet dancers do. I found the little bit I did was a god send to me, made me stronger physically and mentally. A little bit of ballet or other dance like jazz, hip hop, tap or any other dance can be very enjoyable too. Have a great weekend! Barb #ctp

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The little one I was talking about who has PD classes at school also takes ballet lessons. 😀 Their parents took both sisters to different activities to see what they liked, and she hasn't given up on ballet. Seems to enjoy it.

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That is wonderful @gadrian. Ballet is hard and it's fun too. It makes you feel better mentally and physically! It's very good for her. Ballet works both sides of the brain and help a persons mind work better too. 😃👍untitled.gif

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All of us must value the teacher who is there because he teaches us how to live a good life and teaches us how to deal with difficult situations and how to overcome them. We should live in the midst of difficulties, so we must appreciate the teacher.

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Teachers have an important role in society. It is better for their students when they have a vocation for it and don't do it like any other job, but that's not always the case.

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Yeah I totally agree with you.

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Most of the time it can really be difficult combining both of them

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(edited)

It can, but I've seen enough cases. Corporate trainings are often performed by employees who have teaching abilities.

I also personally had professors at the university (well, to be exact from the academic standpoint, they were lecturers, not professors, but had their own courses) who had their own software development firms or worked for big software companies.

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Wow. That means those professors must really be doing a whole lot of great work in combining both

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Proper teachers are those who do it also as they are teaching.

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