Rocco's got a point, Rob. Have you ever considered it? You certainly have the background. One thing a teacher can't afford is a humble opinion. That means both of us are qualified.
But Russ, that would mean one believes in teaching as a means to learning, whereas I suspect, from my own experiences, that it isn’t really like that at all.
If anyone bothers to read the intro. to my website they’ll see I credit a certain Barbara Farr as my best teacher, ever. It stems from the day I pulled out my Desert Eagle in the classroom and she said: Robert, if you wish to make a statement, try words. No, that’s not true at all: in Scotland we had mostly crow, starling and lots of thrush which, I’m assured, is quite uncomfortable but never desert eagles. Must have imagined that bit.
But getting back to the lady in question, her way was to let you write and write and write, and ask you what you wanted to do with your life. At the time, the only subjects that appealed to me were English and art and, in my fantasies, photography. Unfortunately for me, though art was a subject right up to Highers level, in academia, it was frowned upon as rather a loser’s choice and didn’t rate well in the published regional glory tables at the end of each scholastic year, a consequence of which mindset was that I allowed myself to be discouraged from following my instincts. We were far more malleable as kids in those days than is the present lot; good for them!
Anyway, my reply to her question, influenced no doubt by the great amount of travelling about I already had under my belt by then, was that I’d be interested in travel writing. Obviously, that’s why I took up engineering, something I loathed but which kept me out of the conscription racket. In retrospect, it was a mistake: I should have paid with two years out of my life for nothing and then taken myself to art school, but we didn’t think like that then, and I sure didn’t have independent money at that age! So, teaching: no, it’s about learning, as she showed me, and you do that for yourself. I have never seen any validity in the stance of those who, when people have a problem, declare: RTFM! One learns from experience – usually – and a few moments with the dealer who sold you the tv is far more productive than hours with any manual. I find. Having just written that one learns from experience, that’s not to deny that one can also make the same mistakes over and over again, even see them coming along, waving, towards one… oh those model ‘possibles’!
Humble opinions, IMHO, are mostly humbug; were they genuine they’d never get posted.
So no, Russ; teaching,
for me, would be a hypocricy too far.
;-)
Rob C