There’s a great saying and it teaches a lot — “You learn more by listening than by talking.” But like I have found with many sayings that hold so much truth, they shouldn’t be taken as absolutes. Sometimes, the thoughts don’t gel (or become so obviously wrong) until they are spoken. You can learn a lot by speaking IF you also listen to what you are saying.

When I was very young, a math teacher had me redo a division problem on the board and told the class to watch me as I worked. It made me very self-conscious and I assumed that she was about to point out what I was doing wrong. Instead, she blurted out “There it is!” and I reacted kind of like that Mother Panda to the sneeze in the video you shared with us. I had smudged out a number I had written in chalk for reference before proceeding so it wouldn’t be there to confuse me as I proceeded. The teacher was pointing out something I did without thinking about it that would prevent the rest of the class from making mistakes they were prone to.

Maybe that was the start of it, but I began to not only pay attention to when I succeeded or failed at anything but WHY I succeeded or failed with the idea of passing what I knew along. Let me interrupt this with a description of a Beetle Bailey cartoon I saw once. Beetle was asked to hand the cook the pepper shakers so he could refill them. Since the shakers were empty Beetle couldn’t tell which were the salt shakers and which were the pepper shakers. The cook pointed out that the holes in the lids of the pepper shakers were much larger than the holes in salt shakers. The next scene we see is Beetle leaning with anticipation towards Sarge as he ate and Sarge asking Cook nervously why Beetle was acting even weirder than normal. Cook replied that Beetle was waiting for Sarge to pass the salt. Beetle was so thrilled with his new knowledge that he was anxious for any opportunity to use it and share it with others.

So, back to my story. I was anxious to remove any road blocks I could from other people’s lives by sharing knowledge that helped me. It became a real drive for me. Like Beetle, I stood poised to bounce upon any opportunity to share what techniques I had learned. What I found was that people in general wanted to learn from their own mistakes … or were comfortable with their own ways and methods even though there were far more efficient ways to get qualitative better results. One of the biggest pay raises I ever got was when a company realized that I was avoiding drafting errors that everyone else was making. I was on a job assignment elsewhere and they sent someone to find me and convince me to come back and teach their people how to do what I can do. So, I quit the job I had and went back. I was told by the head of the department that he had been pressured to bring me back and he had done what he was told by bringing me back. Then he pointed to a drafting table in the far corner of the room and told me to go over and sit down and stay there … that no one wanted an outsider telling them how to do their job.

After years of the same kind of experiences, I have stopped wasting my time paying attention to how I do what I do. I just do. I leave it on the subconscious level so I can no longer express or share my methods. It was a waste of time to prepare for something I would never use. A lot of my drafting techniques are obsolete now due to computer aided drafting. At a time when they could have helped people be more productive, no one much cared to hear them. And it is true that, with each new drafting program, there are still a lot of techniques to use it better that I have learned and could probably share … if someone wanted me to.

I do occasionally get my opportunities to share what I know. A few years ago, I discovered that a young woman on the WB’s Smallville message boards was preparing to go to school in the field I studied in college — architecture. I started giving her advice of helpful reading materials and organizational tools through a series of e-mails. I was happy about having the chance to do it and my ‘pupil’ was happy about what I had to share with her. So, I told what I was doing to my co-workers and my bosses said that e-mail conversations with a younger female were improper and they would fire me if they didn’t know me better (or need me to do the work). I told them it was mentoring. They told me that “mentoring” was a myth and that teaching a child (17 year old) was the job for teachers and parents. I replied that her parents weren’t in the design field and had never been to architecture school and that I had a unique point of view that her teachers might not have. I offered to let them read every e-mail I had written and received for appropriate content and copy them on all future e-mails. They declined, but re-iterated that what I was doing was wrong and they wanted it stopped. At that point, I had pretty much shared what I had to share anyway … but later hearing Hillary Clinton’s “be a mentor … be a friend” public service spots really struck a nerve.

Maybe that’s why I post here. I’m (usually) not targeting anyone in particular with my comments and people can take it or leave it and I don’t ever need to know.

There is another thing I would like to share before I go back to sleep and maybe it explains a little about why I haven’t been successful as a teacher or mentor. The word is personality. There are some basic problems with methodology where I am currently working that costs the company thousands upon thousands of dollars. But, like at previous jobs, I have been sent to a corner where I won’t be seen or heard. Any attempts I have made to make people aware of better ways to get the job done are met with an immediate defensive posture. They aren’t open to it. So they brought in another temp who sees many of the same things. He raises the same issues and I hear him talking and everyone laughing and, three or four times out of ten, he gets a chance to make the change he suggests. He breaks down their defenses by humor and personality and, in the end, they will do what he suggests … not because they agree or care, but because the guy is just so likable. When he comes to me and talks about my experience and expertise and about how he would like to be on my level but knows he never will be, I tell him what a powerful gift he has — to be heard and to make change. Marketing and sales are sometimes more powerful tools than knowledge and experience. Being a teacher takes a gift … a knack of opening up people and unlocking a desire in them to learn something new.

Okay, one more … then sleep.

A man went into a hardware store to buy a saw. He told the salesperson that he had several trees to cut down. The salesman told him that he would save a lot of time if he bought a chain saw. The man took his advice and bought the best chain saw the store had. The next day, the man brought it back and complained that it had taken him all day to cut down a very small tree. The clerk said he wondered what was wrong with it. He pulled the cord and the chin saw immediately started. The man jumped back (like a Mother Panda who’s baby had just sneezed) and shouted, “What’s that terrible noise!”

A lot of people go through life equipt with powerful tools for accomplishing things, but never learn how to start using what they have.

Hey Allison

Your an awesome actress and i can’t wait to see your new movie Alice & Huck and i’m really looking forward to the episode of Smallville you will be directing. But if your really concidering teaching, and you fill that is the next step in you life and career then i wish you all the luck in the world. And as far as your challenge. The only thing i’ve ever really been good at is art mostly drawing, so i will try and teach my nephew how to draw. This should be a fun and interesting experience. Also i think this could be an interesting topic for a new mack event document the results of your teaching attempt as well as your filling’s thought or experience from this challenge and post them on here.

Michael L

I like what David said. Teaching takes personality, which I don’t have. *lol* Sure I could forge one, since I don’t have an actual identity, but committing myself on one mask is impossible. I’m too erratic and fidget to mold in. A path too fixed for a mobile of my caliber. Maybe it also takes time as well as character. In the mean time, teaching is beyond me.

I had this kindergarten teacher named Mrs. Nagel. I particularly remember her always wearing blue-jean jumpers & reminding me I am a “valued human being”. Somehow even at age five I still understood that her words carried weight & I should believe her. Anyhow, we had a piano in our classroom and she would often have us sing this song that went “Forgiveness is the very best thing to show that you are friends.” Even to this day, when I find a bitter spirit creeping into my bones, I remember that little melody and shake it off, remembering all the mistakes I’ve made & valuing reconciliation.

I just found your website today, and I dig it. You have a nice little community going here. Maybe you’re already doing a bit of teaching, even if informally. Teacher’s are influencer’s, and if you want to challenge people’s minds/lives to expand in new ways, I say why not?

I’m struggling to figure out a way to go back to school for a Master’s degree and to get a teaching certificate…I’ve always wanted to be the crazy sciencew teacher that everybody remembers fondly. I think that teaching is is the most important job there is, adter parenting. It takes a lot of character, emotion and responsibility to do it well. I bet you’d be a fantastic teacher, Allison.

I’m more into learning at this moment…

Well, i’m a teacher so… teaching is what i try to do when i’m at work.

Sometimes it’s really hard to do, because they( students) don’t want to listen to you, sometimes you are not inspired enough to translate your knowledge into words,…

But other times it’s wonderful! when you can see their improvements, how they want to show you what they have learned.

Being tested by their questions are scary but at the same time it’s awesome. They are putting you in jeopardy but they are learning!

If they ask it means that they are interested in what you are saying and want to learn.

It’s not easy to teach when people don’t want to learn

It’s invaluable when you have a good teacher. I’ve always found that the hardest way to learn something is to teach yourself without any outside help. When I used to have guitar lessons when I was a teenager I used to fly along the learning curve, but these days when I try to learn a new song or a new piece I really struggle. It’s the same when trying to learn a new language – I still try to pick up the basics out of a book before I go away anywhere, but it helps when you have someone to imitate and who can demonstrate things to you. I’ve even taught a handful of people to play the guitar myself and they pick it up really quickly when you can show them exactly how to do things – so it appears I can teach others but not myself. What’s the old phrase? “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach”.

“I left that evening feeling so inspired and exhilarated; feeling so clear about what I am doing and why.”

YES! This is exactly it. Something amazing happens when we make that connection with other souls and see our authentic selves. You are sharing something that is the very core of you. It’s an act of teaching, but also an act of self-realization. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing that. I admire you as a growing soul. Namaste.

Funny that you should challenge us to teach this week. I am actually a teacher who is on break this week. This will be one of only a few weeks that I am not trying to teach students about the beauty that is the art of making music. It is an amazing thing to see a sliver of your passion ignite “neo-passion” in another individual.

once you’ve got that episode under your belt, I suggest looking into teaching a summer course at a local college. they only end up being 3 months long. if it doesn’t go well, it’ll be over quickly. if it DOES go well, then keep at it!

I wonder; does teaching yourself count?

I have so many different things that I would like to learn, too many to mention in fact! Yet I plan to teach myself all of these things, I can’t explain why, but I find it more comfortable to teach myself. I think it has something to do with not achieving anything in school; all of the qualifications I have, I taught myself after leaving school. Now, I’m not trying to say that the teachers were incapable of teaching me; it was more the fact that I was unteachable. (Which is a polite way of saying I was an ass!)

It’s only when life kicks you in the “man-business”, do you realise the true value of what most people take for granted.

Anyway, I think I know what you mean, my business plan is to teach other small and new businesses to be the best that they can, and there is nothing more exhilarating than when another person utilises a skill that you have spent time and energy teaching to them!

I think this could really be fun, I just hope that whilst teaching myself, I don’t get any unruly students!

Sorry Ross UK,

I in no way meant anything against you for the use of the quote. I am familiar with it but for maybe the first time I realized how insulting it can be to a noble profession. I have known a lot of teachers that shouldn’t be let in the classroom except to serve as a horrible example, but for those who can do and can do very well and forego that to educate others … it just seems amazing that we can get so used to a cliche that we don’t know what an insult it can be. I’d give examples but that would only hurt more than it helps. I apologize for how my comment might have come across.

Teaching really feels amazing….it makes you feel better when you’re helping another person, it helps you to discover some things you didn’t know about yourself, you help the other person and you also help yourself, because you’re expressing and teaching all you know and the other person is listening to you, listening to all you’re saying to not make the same mistake you did, and it makes you happy because you know that all that you learnt not also will help you, it will help other people…….learning and teaching are two important elements in life that will help us to become the person we always wanted to be.

I’m glad you had such a wonderful and fun day Allison! Take care and live life!

Teaching is such a way to really challenge yourself because that is the time that you will really know if all you have learned did you REALLY learn it? Or did you simply let it pass? And I agree with whomever said in a comment that you learn more by listening than by talking. And that is true cause you’d be shocked at what exactly you CAN learn if you just be patient enough to listen to that other person. But I don’t know if I’m the only one in this but I find it easier for myself to write what I have to teach than say it verbally. I don’t know what it is but I can’t seem to verbalize SO well. Except when it comes to math and stuff then I HAVE to verbalize.

But allison awesome challenge and let me see if there’s an opportunity for me to do it.

xo

Maria

Hello,

To me, teaching is one of those skills that you have, or not, at birth. For some people, becoming a teacher is sometime the default way. But for some, too much rare to me, it is a real behaviour. They have the power to learn you things within beeing boring.

Once someone said to me : you can’t give more than you receive. Maybe it is another way to say that you near to listen before speaking.

Have a nice life.
Thank you for that blog. I read it as much as I can to try to improve my english Real english, not the one from school books !

Bertrand – France

Finally! One that would be easy for me!

So you mean you are considering becoming some sort of teacher? As in the dramatic arts somewhere?

“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”

I’m good at watching TV so I’ll share my knowledge about how to be good at it now:

Lie on couch. Turn on TV. Snacks enhance the experience.

Done.

Good for you, Allison. This is my first year as a full-time English teacher, and while it can sometimes drain me of all energy and life, I come back to the moments with my students where I know I’m making connections. Last week was National Banned Book Week and my Freshman English class went and watched a presentation in the library at school. They received a list of the top 100 banned/challenged books since the year 2000, and because of that, I have a few students who have decided to read as many of the books on that list as possible.

Slam poet and former middle school teacher Taylor Mali wrote an amazing poem called “What Teachers Make.” It’s kind of long to post here so I’ll give you the link instead. Any time someone questions the importance of teachers, I always point them to this poem.

http://www.taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=13

I have to disagree with Taylor Nikole.

Cereal = 3/8th cream, 1/8th cereal and 1/2 sugar.

Take 2 and call the doctor in the morning.

hmm david?
lol

If Allison teaches donut making, I want to sign up. I bet she has a holistic approach to making the donuts. If I could master the “sing as you fling” technique then I could quit my day job.

[Actually, I stay away from vats of boiling fat since competing in a Halloween party event at a fast food restaurant when I was a kid -- bobbing for French fries.]

[... and that was ON TOPIC! I was teaching everyone how not to tell a joke.]