I was doing laundry last night and realized the US has an
interesting concept in execution here.
There were two gentlemen waist deep fixing a dryer. One man was from Africa and the other was
American. The American was teaching the
African how to fix the dryer. He was
quizzing him on which end of the drum goes back in first and giving him
pointers on how to make the rebuild easier.
I saw the same thing with the construction worker from Cincinnati. He had two men from India with him and one
local Afghanistan man. He was teaching
them how to build, repair, and evaluate.
The Americans sit back, watch, and give pointers while letting their counterparts
do everything else. I don’t know if this
is America trying to teach the world trade skills or Americans just being
lazy. What are your thoughts?
I learn by doing. If someone tries to teach me by showing me, or even lecturing it doesn't sink in. It's the doing that helps me most. So I think it is a style of teaching, or learning. Why else would people be so frustrated by manuels and instructions on set up?
ReplyDeleteFrank Lloyd Wright was really big on learning by doing. I find I am the same both in learning and teaching styles. Show me everything, or have me read about it, okay, great, I'll try to remember when it comes time to use the knowledge. Walk me through it and have me actually do it and I'm far more likely to connect the dots when it comes time to apply what I've learned. That's how trade schools often operate & get people a working knowledge of and ability to practice trade skills. It's the idea behind apprenticeships and internships. I also recently read about PBL (project based learning) schools that work under the idea that students will better understand what they are taught if they are applying the knowledge to practical applications through projects, etc... I mean, these kids are doing some serious stuff that includes research, math, reading & comprehension toward projects that can actually be taken further into real-life application! Go read about it if you want - I think it's pretty neat. Kind of wish I'd had that as a school option. :)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, all that rambling about how that's a great way to teach & learn aside, there is forever the joke about the "supervisor" on construction sites, etc, who really isn't doing much more than standing around and maybe pointing at things now & then or grunting a command or two. In your specific set of situation/locale/circumstances I'd say it could easily be a toss up for teaching vs. laziness. ;)