[stahorn]

I took up social dancing in my 20s, including salsa and Argentinian tango. I think that it is a very good way to experience the difference between being very good at something and being able to teach.

I've been on courses with some people that are clearly exceptionally good at dancing but are a bit lacking when it comes to teaching. Then I've had the pleasure of having teachers that, while still very good at dancing, would not win the high level competitions. When it comes to teaching though, they are just wonderful to be around. They are exceptionally good at spotting what you are doing wrong and giving you an explanation of how to fix it. Not only that, but they make you feel good about learning.

One concrete memory I have is from a cuban salsa dancer trying to teach me, a poor northern European, how to move like a cuban. His frustration was very noticeable and not making it easier for me! Then an example of the other type of teach, is the crazy Australian tango dancer that not only had fantastically fun and simple workshops, but also spotted and explained simple fixes. When I was struggling with a move, he told me to rotate my foot, which I did, and I stopped struggling. When us attendees in the class talked about some high level move being complicated, he said that it is not at all complicated, and showed us how it's simpler than it appears.

[vacuity]

I think teaching requires not only that you understand how to do something, but also what someone else's incomplete understanding is. You need to address the root cause as to why the other person's understanding is so lacking, like your examle with the tango dancer, instead of pointing out that a move is wrong and not giving the tools to prevent it. There may be many paths to reaching similar understandings, and a teacher needs to be able to tame this sprawling diversity. That's one reason why we don't just get blog posts or films that are exceedingly short, because if everyone could just understand a dry delivery of the core points instead of needing to think through multiple examples and reasons, we wouldn't be so pressed about teaching.

[mitchitized]

> I think teaching requires not only that you understand how to do something, but also what someone else's incomplete understanding is.

This 100%. I have been playing guitar since around 1972, and am really good at it. I will never offer lessons to anyone, at any level, because that is a completely different skill than just being able to play a guitar.

I also know instructors at bootcamps that are not master programmers, in fact more than a few don't meet senior-level expectations; but they are exceptional at explaining the basics, triggering those "lightbulb" moments in their students, that makes them a far better instructor than someone with vastly more experience and expertise.

[yarekt]

Great insight, it actually aligns with the conversation above: Yes, teaching is its own skill regardless of the subject matter, but to teach you really have to understand the subject matter really well, and isn’t at all related to “doing it well” in some cases.

For example, in film, being a great director requires a deep insight about acting, so they can explain what’s needed from a performance to an actor. A director may know what they need despite being unable to perform it themselves.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

All my best teachers were trained as teachers, and weren’t necessarily content experts.

One of the worst teachers I ever had, was a genius Calc II teacher, who was an abusive asshole, and would humiliate students for asking questions he deemed as “stupid.”

Since a significant part of my learning, is asking “stupid” questions, this did not go well for me, and I took an Incomplete. I had a 4.0, to that point.

> “The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.”

From a poster in one of my tech school classrooms.

[tomthe]

It is not sufficient to understand the content very well, you also have to understand the state of the mind of your pupils very well.

[fma]

If you consider professional sports as an example, the best coaches were not the best players and vice versa. The saying "Those who can't do, teach" is such a shallow representation of reality perpetuated by those who can do neither.