Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach

The lessons I learned from Jerry about work and his approach to solving problems have
helped me in every project I have undertaken as a student, worker, and teacher.

1. Learning skills make sense when you are doing real projects. You learn best when you
   have a reason to learn.


2. Whether it is a hammer, an idea, or an approach to teaching, you have to know how to
   use your tools.


3. Experience, particularly directed experience, is the best teacher.


4. Reflect on and value your experiences, they are the basis for knowing.


5. Do not depend on memorized formulas.


6. Step back from a problem. Think about what you are doing. Figure out how to solve it.


7. Do not be afraid to do what you know is right.


8. Remember, the solution is there, if you learn how to see it.

Because of what I learned from Jerry and my other “best teachers,” this is a “why to”
rather than a “how to” book. I believe that teachers, and most people, will figure out much of
the “how” as they think about and try to apply the “why.”

JOIN THE CONVERSATION—CREATIVE MALADJUSTMENT

Mahmoud Elder, a New York City high school teacher, was a student in both the

undergradute and graduate social studies education programs at Hofstra University, so he

clearly found something of value in the experience. However, Mahmoud was disturbed by

this essay because he felt it encourages teachers to break rules and challenge authority.

He is concerned that if teachers break rules, students will feel justified in breaking them

also and the result will be chaotic.

Questions to Consider:

1. What is your attitude toward obeying and breaking the rules? Explain.
   2.How do you view Jerry’s approach to teaching? Why?

SECTION B: NUTS AND BOLTS OF TEACHING 1

To help us examine the mechanics of teaching, I want to introduce you to a guide developed
by the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. At the start of the war, the United States not
only had a severe shortage of mechanics, but it had an even greater shortage of people who
could teach other people how to be mechanics. The Air Corps Technical Schools developed
a guide for vocational teaching (Air Corps Technical Schools, Vocational Teaching (Tempo-
rary), M-26, Department of Mechanics, April 9, 1942) that is clear, easy to follow, hands-on,
student centered, and, I think, still useful today. I want to thank Eric Simons, a former stu-
dent, who discovered it among his family’s artifacts. Many of the “Nuts and Bolts of
Teaching” activity sections will discuss ideas from the Air Corps manual.
Although many of its ideas remain fresh, there is language in the document that is anti-
quated, especially when it refers to gender. The manual clearly would be different if it were
designed for use by the contemporary United States military. In the passage that follows,
while the manual originally said that “he must know,” I substitute “teachers must know.”

38 CHAPTER 2