Teaching cannot induce learning

“If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others. One who ceases to learn cannot adequately teach.” – Tryon Edwards, Dictionary of Thoughts

Do you think that teaching something to another person can help you to lean or master a subject or process?

In the blockbuster movie ‘Lucy, Lucy herself asks a telling question, “What should I do with all these information that is welling up within me – Applied Mathematics, Quantum Physics etc.” and the professor gives the most trite of the responses, “pass it on!” The prokaryotes, the unicellular organisms since the advent of life on this planet has carried out this function of passing it on! As the fatuous beings grew more convoluted the idea of teaching came intro picture but I refute the assertion that teaching catalyzes learning.

The chief impedance on the way is arrogance. The pedestal of a teacher is quite exacting and at the same time equally respectable. Not all people can remain what they began their lives with. Gobs of us are so yielding that we often tend to condone to what we shouldn’t. The moment we rise to a podium we often become supercilious and look down upon others with a condescending attitude.

Spider man said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” To be a teacher is to accede the responsibility of a million tender lives, which in no case can be compromised. At any unseasonable instant should the teacher be available for his or her pupil. This life-time commitment saves no time for the progress of the teacher. A subject is too vast to be palatable and thus without enough leisure time learning in constrained schedule is not fruitful.

Learning is the most innovative act in the universe and never in an epoch will the same cliché be repeated. Mastering a subject demands ingeniousness which is not possible in the mechanical teaching-learning process. I may regurgitate flawlessly ‘my textbook’ without even knowing of the whereabouts of my neighbor!

Owing to the mechanical form of teaching and learning, the intimidating challenge it poses and the pitfalls of becoming haughty (which altogether curbs the possibility of any learning) it is evident that re-iterating the known will not add anything to that which already exists – for to gain something novel, one must do something out of the box – which at least is not teaching I must say!