Are You a Doer or a Teacher?

There is a saying that "People who can't do, teach". Haha. Where in the world did that ever come from? It is believed that the expression might be as old as the apple and the teacher, described by Shari at Blogcritics.org.

I would vote to restructure the quote to say "Some people can't teach!". I think anyone can "do" something and attain a certain level of expertise, but not everyone can "teach" someone else how to do it. This implies that doing and teaching are really just a different skill set. The doing skillset is wide and varied, but the core teaching skillset breaks down fairly simply to me.

Of course, the obvious requirements are:

• to be knowledgable in the first place and
• have patience and be encouraging (which some of my teachers didn't necessarily have or do!).

But I think the core drivers of the best teacher are:

• the willingness to share something you have a passion for, and
• to enjoy watching that passion transfer into another human being.

If you have that trait, skill, mindset - whatever you want to call it - you will be called to be a teacher.

One of the coolest things about being a guitar teacher is that I can watch a person who came in holding the guitar upside-down and backwards turn into an amazing guitar player in a few years time. It doesn't matter the age, gender, race or upbringing. I've watched 12 year-olds end up amazing players in high school. Guys in their 30's and 40's who never got past the basics enlightened by the ease of learning the fretboard. Kids as young as 5 or 55, working through the physical mechanics required to play "Ode to Joy". They are all like a big vase of sunflower buds... all will flower in their own way, and some will just be magnificent.

Some might argue that teaching guitar is "vocational" and not strictly "educational" and I agree to a point, but who cares? There is something much larger that happens in an environment where information is being shared, processed, understood and built upon. Sometimes it's frickin' magical. The reward is the connection. The 10-4, good buddy.

If you are one of those people who can't teach, take heart. It's not "God-given" or "God-taketh-away". You can develop a willingness to share your passion if you try. Once you experience the magic of watching it transfer into someone else, you'll be hooked. You'll find you can't do it without patience and encouragement, so you'll work on those. Not all the buds will flower right away, but some will just blow you away.

peace.