Where to Begin

Of late, I have been giving quite a bit of thought to what can and can not really be taught. A certain amount of what people that do what I do is more or less walking and chewing gum concurrently. No matter how much class time is devoted to ambulatory mastication, in the end, I think, really it can't be taught.


I am sure there is a more complete discussion of this topic burbling through the back of my head, but for the time being I give you this example:


I guess really this type of behavior has to be modeled and emulated over a period of time, not instructed and assessed at a milestone.

I once, while at an ESTA Essential Skills meeting, saw a syllabus for a community college course in stagecraft. Off the top of my head I would think that such a class would begin with some vocabulary and then maybe material and tool introductions. This class started with lifting and carrying. I wonder if they did it by example in a lab session or if he tried to teach it from the front of a classroom.

After some time it is clear that these kind of things need to be somewhere in the curriculum. I just doubt they can actually be taught.