Arman Chowdhury had a powerful insight about self-teaching on Twitter:
Self teaching is one of the best teaching methods out there. It allows you to go in the process of gathering the theory & applying it for yourself. It’s a longer process than just getting a mentor. But the rewards in the future are much higher.
I think he’s profoundly right. (My response is below.)
No one can actually teach you anything. You have to DO the LEARNING yourself. This is the ugly truth about all the “shortcuts” and “hacks” people pin their hopes on. YOU have to LEARN it for YOURSELF.
Some background.
We home-schooled each of our four children for their first several years of schooling. So naturally, I invested a lot of time researching the subject. Then I applied the things that made sense.
In other words, I have the practice and experience as well as the theory. (And yes, the kids are grown now; each is quite successful in their own right.)
To be sure, the kids did not “teach themselves to read.” Their mother was their teacher through that formative stage. Their mother’s teaching was a necessary but not a sufficient condition.
They learned to read only because each child invested time and effort into applying the lessons delivered by their mother.
One of the books that helped a lot was The Seven Laws of Teaching.
Now, you won’t find anything mind-blowing in there.
It’s just a solid, well-conceived, well-written series of essays on the fundamentals of teaching – and learning. And the one indispensible component is this:
The learner must be the one to apply the effort to learn.
I’m as eager to save time and effort as the next guy. But I’ve learned the hard way that there is no shortcut to learning.
No teacher can do it for you. No shortcut can do it for you. No hidden technique can do it for you. No hack, no secret, no pill, no chant, meditation, mantra or yoga pose.
There is no substitute for your own effort.
If you don’t do the work, you won’t learn.
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