I am not a professional woodturning teacher, but I have _given many
turning lessons plus teaching in other fields. I find students of some
experience (intermediates?) are the most difficult and least fun for me
to deal with. Usually widely read, they ask questions that are
interruptions disguised as statements and they disagree by loud,
'learned', and disparaging asides to embarrassed nearby students.

The serious beginners are a delight and the advanced honor me by
thinking that I might add a tiny specific bit of info to their arsenal.
The former want to learn and the latter know more than I. Neither need
to impress or be impressed, so both are a pleasure to deal with.

Most all of us teach in some way or other. Tell us about your favorite
and least favorite types of students. Be kind, tell us your least
favorite (most wordy) rcw poster another day.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter



http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

As a not very good tutor, I have only experience of imparting knowledge
to 5 persons in as many years, in my workshop. I have spent many
hundreds of hours talking about and describing woodturning to groups of
ladies and gentlemen in other associations and clubs and of course
young people in schools which was pleasurable.

The whole idea of giving tuition is wonderful but fills me with dread.
In the worst scenario the one who did not let on that he knew VERY much
more than I, and was testing me out on behalf of a friend! The best
was an absolute beginner who had never ever seen a lathe before but
"just wanted to try" and is now as hooked as the rest of us!

Regards,
Peter Charles Fagg
Freshwater, Isle of Wight,
United Kingdom.
www.petersplatters.co.uk
Each can do but little!
But if each DID that little,
ALL would be done!

(Arch) wrote:

I am not a professional woodturning teacher, but I have _given many
turning lessons plus teaching in other fields. I find students of
some experience (intermediates?) are the most difficult and least fun
for me to deal with. Usually widely read, they ask questions that are
interruptions disguised as statements and they disagree by loud,
'learned', and disparaging asides to embarrassed nearby students.

The serious beginners are a delight and the advanced honor me by
thinking that I might add a tiny specific bit of info to their
arsenal. The former want to learn and the latter know more than I.
Neither need to impress or be impressed, so both are a pleasure to
deal with.

Most all of us teach in some way or other. Tell us about your favorite
and least favorite types of students. Be kind, tell us your least
favorite (most wordy) rcw poster another day.

Favorite: The one who just sucks your mind dry and sends you back to the
books for answers. *You* also do some learning.

Least Favorite: The bump on a log!

"Lobby Dosser" wrote in message
newsBsfe.2042$w81.346@trnddc06...

Most all of us teach in some way or other. Tell us about your favorite
and least favorite types of students. Be kind, tell us your least
favorite (most wordy) rcw poster another day.

Favorite: The one who just sucks your mind dry and sends you back to the
books for answers. *You* also do some learning.

Least Favorite: The bump on a log!

Isn't that the truth! The most fun are the ones who challenge the teacher's
depth and often, breadth of knowledge. Kids used to get on me for talking
physics at the power tools, fractions at layout or botany at the wood
supply, but a lot of them ended up bringing homework questions to the shop,
so they must have found out that the old man knew something after all.

A bump is a bump, and bearable as long as it's not digging into someone's
buttocks. That's where I drew the line.

(Arch) wrote in news:12166-427E5047-145@storefull-
3178.bay.webtv.net:

snip
Most all of us teach in some way or other. Tell us about your favorite
and least favorite types of students. Be kind, tell us your least
favorite (most wordy) rcw poster another day.

Let me turn this around for a minute.

As a student, I want to understand why, not just how. The justification,
not only the declaration.

As a teacher, I want to stimulate curiousity, exploration, understanding.
I challenge, and expect to be challenged. As a student, I expect the same
from the teacher. A question is a challenge to understand, not a threat to
the authority or expertise of the instructor. Even if it is not delicately
phrased, as it often will not be.

This often irritates the bump on the log, if s/he is lazy of mind, or
disinclined to be involved, over time.

The joy in my teaching adults is that they are most usually involved in the
activity of their own choice. That could not always have been said of
youth, in many venues.

An aside: One of my older friends is a retired sea captain, 40 years on
the Pacific Coast. When he came ashore, he had to learn all new default
methods of working with people. It has taken him time to adjust, but he
does pretty well now, realizing that he is no longer Master & Commander.

Thanks, Arch. I'm newish here, and rather enjoy your musings.

Patriarch

I would have to say a student that approached the subject with an open
mind. Age, experience, etc. are of no consequence if someone is ready
to learn. I have been doing professional woodwork for about 30 years,
but have come far enough down the road to know no one person knows it
all. This certainly applies to me.

I have found the following to be true: The more one thinks they know,
they less they actually know because of their ignorance of the subject.

I still learn something to do with woodworking almost every day after
all this time. An open mind is certainly the key.

Robert

Arch wrote in message on
Sunday 08 May 2005 01:45 pm:

I am not a professional woodturning teacher, but I have _given many
turning lessons plus teaching in other fields. I find students of some
experience (intermediates?) are the most difficult and least fun for me
to deal with. Usually widely read, they ask questions that are
interruptions disguised as statements and they disagree by loud,
'learned', and disparaging asides to embarrassed nearby students.

The serious beginners are a delight and the advanced honor me by
thinking that I might add a tiny specific bit of info to their arsenal.
The former want to learn and the latter know more than I. Neither need
to impress or be impressed, so both are a pleasure to deal with.

Most all of us teach in some way or other. Tell us about your favorite
and least favorite types of students. Be kind, tell us your least
favorite (most wordy) rcw poster another day.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter



http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

My favorite student is one who walks into the classroom convinced that he
(generic 'he') needs to learn the material I am presenting. Once the
foundations are laid for this student, I stop being an instructor and
become a tour guide because they will 'light up' on their own. You can see
the light flicker on by watching them enter the classroom (they are
chatting happily about the course material) and listening closely to their
questions which now begin to edge ahead of the material.

The least favorite is the clueless expert. I wait for that one to get in
trouble (usually sooner than later) and then have a more humble and
presumably less gifted student correct the problem. Publicly. That's
usually been enough to re-adjust the experts attitude.

I'm more often in a class than at the front of it. But when I am in front of
the class, there's a reason.

Bill