Let Me Explain

E keeps telling me I should teach - I'm not sure any school would have me, but I'd certainly admit that I love explaining things.

This is an aspect of myself I have inflicted on family and friends unconsciously for decades. It only since I became a parent that I've understood what a compulsion this is for me. I watch my son explain something to me he's only just learned - from me.

He cannot help himself - because I have the same compulsion. I want to explain it, even if I just found out about it a few seconds ago. Frequently because I just found out about it a few seconds ago.

My pat line is that I'm great at explainings things - I'm but just bad at understanding things.

In my current profession - these traits get me invited to present topics to groups, and subject me to public correction.

In some settings that is a bad thing - but the overall goal is to find stuff out. I love finding things out - and there is nothing special about that quality. A moment of discovery - the instant that you realize you really understand something is a great moment.

I've said a truly sickening number of times that after I read Richard Rhodes book The Making of the Atomic Bomb I felt like I could go out and teach a class about building bombs. That's the mark of quality instruction - you end with concepts and details working together in your head.

A book is not a classroom - and despite the absence of a true instructor, I learned a ton.

What made me think about all this was listening to Salman Khan - someone who clearly enjoys explaining things even more than I do.

Khan runs the Khan Academy - a free library of online courses where he explains pretty much damn near everything.

Here he is talking about how he got started out and what he's learned about learning and teaching.
He describes the moment of discovery as an unbeatable high, you gotta love that.



I admire what he's done. A website that offers opt-in, free instruction where the end user is in total control.

He reads testimonials of people who struggled in regular classrooms, but have excelled under his instruction.

There's no one superior way to learn things - but the emergence of new techniques (or the refinement of existing ones) is just a glorious thing.

Rockin'.