Yay, Jeff! I applaud your courage and tenacity. It's much easier to just accept that you're not a great teacher. You decided to not give up and become one anyhow. Bravo!
Doug Franz Coatesville Community Bike Works
-----Original Message----- From: thethinktank-bounces@lists.bikecollectives.org [mailto:thethinktank-bounces@lists.bikecollectives.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Burton Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 12:21 PM To: The Think Tank Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] How to Teach "Hands-off"
Personally I think you can teach or your can't, so not all volunteers can successfully be put in that position, especially socially awkward ones.
As a generally socially awkward volunteer, I put in many many hours teaching basic mechanics. I don't think I'd be much good as a teacher in many other contexts, but with small groups of keen learners people often left smiling and even more keen to wrench.
I found it useful to have many ways to describe things, and also had a lot of success having people try stuff even before I'd do much demo, then doing demo to show a little trick to make it faster/easier or to get better leverage etc, then having them finish the work. I don't have much patience otherwise, but it came pretty easy once I got an idea of just how many ways people can learn the same task.
Anyway, I just think teaching bike mechanics is pretty well suited even for people that might not be much good at it otherwise, your misfits might surprise you.
Jeff _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit: http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o rg