Stephen Hawking is one of the best examples of a Teacher and "Doer"
I recently saw a comment online reiterating a well-known quotation that I hadn’t heard in several years: “Those who can’t do, teach”. In essence, this statement makes the suggestion that teachers and professors are generally those who have been forced into that position because they failed to succeed in their area of expertise in the general workforce. Having always admired many of my teachers and professors and having taught classes myself, I was deeply disturbed and alarmed by this comment. Not only do I disagree with it on many levels, but I believe the exact opposite to be true: Those who have been successful in some regard should be working harder to pass this knowledge on to others who will aspire to emulate them.
I can say without hesitation that the best teachers I’ve had in high school, college, and as mentors at various companies have always been the people who grasp a strong understanding of the technical aspects of their subject area, while also having the compassion and patience required to teach and to help others succeed. Take a hypothetical example: Suppose you’re an economics major and you are taking a business accounting course – how confident in your learning would you be if the professor had defaulted to teaching because they had been a horrible accountant? Now, consider the prospect of taking a course where the professor spent 3 decades as a senior accountant for several large corporations – I’d feel a lot better about that class.
Thankfully in the world of higher education, most professors are what you would expect – experts in their field. They are often doing research in topics closely related to the courses they are instructing. This doesn’t necessarily make them good teachers, but it at least means that they are well versed in the field they are lecturing about. Unfortunately, this rule does not always trickle down to high schools and secondary schools, or even to after-school and summer programs. Those are the areas where we desperately need people who are knowledgeable and truly passionate about the subject areas they are teaching. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t feel that all current teachers are teaching against their will. It’s quite the contrary; most of my high school teachers were inspiring and truly excited about the subjects they taught. I was lucky. In many schools this is not the case – America’s education system (I can’t speak for other countries) is struggling because there are not enough passionate teachers – especially in technical fields such as physics and chemistry.
While it’s not practical for all current technical professionals to drop what they are doing and to teach instead, we do need them to work harder to influence our youth. DaveYoung, another blogger on the e14 Do-It-Together Blog, is a shining example of this. This summer, he founded and ran a new summer program called BlueStamp Engineering aimed at allowing aspiring teenage engineers to experiment and to build real projects. This is precisely the kind of thing that we need more of – professional engineers (and technical experts in other fields too) taking time out of their work to teach children from the perspective of somebody with extensive experience in the industry.
The benefits of turning “Doers” into teachers are farther reaching than just the positive impact that it can have on students. I’ve been teaching people about electronics for years via hundreds of video tutorials, blogs, and guides. This past year, I taught children at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum about Engineering and Archtitecture, I guest lectured on open source hardware at Dave’s BlueStamp Engineering program, and I led sustainable design workshops at the Harlem Children’s Zone. I do these things because I see the impact that it has on these kids – and it never ceases to inspire me. We often overlook the amazing creative capabilities of the youth population, when in reality we need to be recognizing and encouraging them by exposing them to people who have had highly relevant experience in the subject areas that interest them. What’s more, teaching can be fun! I love every opportunity where I get to educate somebody about the things that make me excited (generally electronics and open source).
Those who can do, should teach… otherwise, we may soon run out of new people who can “do”. So, get out there and inspire young people!
