You can help people learn, but you can't actually "teach" them anything. They must "learn" it. Learning is done through some element of experience. Helping someone learn is about creating that space where they can experience whatever it is you want them (or they want) to learn. Further, we learn the most through trial, failure and re-trial. So, helping someone learn is also about creating a safe place to fail. The stakes for failure are pretty high in general aviation, so a flight instructor is first and foremost about keeping the learning place a safe place to fail.
Today I planned and flew a cross-country flight out to the foothill airport of Calaveras. When we took off I asked my instructor, "...don't correct my mistakes unless I'm about to kill me, you, other people or otherwise seriously damage this plane or other property. Let me see if I can catch and correct my mistakes." He loved this idea. Most of the time, flight instructors are trying to stay ahead of both the airplane and the students. They want their students to enjoy the experience and not scare them off and out of flying (and they also want to avoid killing themselves). Not me. I want to learn.
For the most part the flight out went as I had planned it. I hit the waypoints right on time. I overflew the field and descended into the pattern. The landing wasn't crisp, but it was good enough. The airport sits up on a plateau which plays tricks on your visual perception (and I'm sticking with that story...).
We had a short debrief and then headed back out. On my second VOR turn point, I neglected to change NAV frequencies to dial up the next VOR. Matt said nothing. I tooled along for awhile and then slowly realized something wasn't right. I was flying a heading without the support of the Nav system because it was tuned in to the wrong navigational beacon.
Now I am flustered. And, it takes me awhile to realize that I just needed to advance my last fix based on the time I'd been flying that heading, and I'd know pretty much where I was and how to get organized to get back to Livermore. Matt had this big cat eating grin the whole time. He knew it all along and well before I did.
He created a safe place and he let me fail. That's what makes him a great teacher. I will NEVER make that mistake again. However, had he caught the error right when it happened and said something, I would have corrected the mistake and flew merrily along, but I really wouldn't have learned anything. Not likely anyway.
So, that's my big "ah ha!". Teaching isn't really about teaching. It's about helping people learn. This is true for my kids, my employees and myself.
How do you help people learn? Create an experience. Don't tell them what to do. Hang back. Watch. Listen. Pose questions to help them think it through. When they ask for help, don't help. Ask more questions. Help them think it through.
We are all in a hurry. It's easier to jump in and do it for them. Don't. Let them suffer and persevere a bit.
In any endeavor there are life-and-death moments. This is not only isolated to flying. So, you do have to "grab the controls" sometimes. But, not nearly as often as we think.
Parents lecture endlessly at their kids. Teachers stand at the whiteboard and hold forth with their ideas -- teaching. Leaders in business tell everyone what to do. Corporate training programs hose down participants with endless powerpoint presentations. It's all done in the name of training and teaching. And, yet, nobody is really learning anything.
From here on out I am going to stop teaching and instead help people learn...
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