You know as a kid…… at least in the generation I grew up with, you looked to your elders – you know the 30 and over crowd – for information. They knew everything. As the old saying goes they were old and wise. Then one day my Grandmother sat me down and told me this secret….. she said “I’m only old and wise because I never stopped learning.” Wait what? You mean I have to be in school for the rest of my life? To me as a kid that’s what I heard anyways. How untrue that was. Or was it? I am in my 40’s now and yes have been in and out of school nearly my whole life. Am I done with schools? Maybe, but most likely no I am not. there are still things I want to learn. Do my kids look to me as that old and wise person? Apparently this generation knows better….joking…. of course they do. Because to them I am smart. To them I do know things they don’t. As it should be. Am I smarter than a 5th Grader? Not even close. No way no how could I have ever gone on that show and won.
Does that mean I am not smart. Not even close. But there are things that I do know and I know very well. Am I a good instructor? Well you would have to ask my students about that one. But I have heard from students at Lambda that they did like the way I explained things, so I am going to say I am not a bad instructor. Could I be a better one? You bet. Will I? Yes I will. Because like my Grandmother told me you should never stop learning. It doesn’t even matter from where you are learning either. I have learned more from students that I was helping or even teaching than I could have ever learned from just Lambda or any other course alone. Even my kids have taught me a thing or two. One of the TA’s that I work with mentioned in class the other day that his daughter has debugged his code. My first thought was of course, dang that is one smart little girl. But although that may not be a untrue statement it goes more to show what type of environment she is growing up with. He wasn’t afraid to ask her for help.
When I was still in the Navy someone very wise once told me that kids who grow up in a home where the adults show that they don’t know everything or aren’t afraid to ask for help or even try to learn something new tend to be better in school. Growing up I hated asking for help. It showed the other students that I wasn’t as smart as them. Usually that wasn’t actually the case. It was more I needed it explained in a different way so I could make sure I had the right understanding. Looking back now I can see that there were a lot of classmates that struggled as well.
I can’t be that old and wise women that I want to be if I don’t admit that I don’t know something and then go and learn it. If my 12 year old Step-Son is the one that needs to show me how something is done then not only will that teach me something but it can also boost up his confidence that hey, he knew something his Step-Mom didn’t.
As an instructor sure I know what I am teaching at least a little better than my students, but that doesn’t mean that I am not still learning. JavaScript and Python continuously kick my butt. But knowing this means I prep for my lessons a little harder than maybe some of the other instructors do, but it also means that in preparing my self for the lessons I am also reinforcing what I have been taught. I do have to answer the questions that they are going to ask, but I am NOT afraid to as any TA that might be in the class if I missed something, or tell the student I will get back to you on that. In fact, I love it when my code fails. It shows them that even their instructor makes mistakes but it also gives them a way to see how I go about solving it.
So when life or class throws you those lemons, go out get what you need to make that lemon aid. Even if you have to go get a 6 year old to stir it up.