Learn to teach, and teach to learn

The twenty-third newsletter is about two sides of the same coin

Do you remember that one awesome teacher who really inspired you when you were younger? They steeped you in the enthusiasm to learn, ever encouraging your curiosity, empowering you to keep asking questions. Especially ones that don’t necessarily have answers.

I can vividly remember one specific biology teacher in high school. Thinking about the whole of my school life, he easily stands out. He was eccentric, hilarious at times, but most importantly, insatiably curious. Because of him, I look back on that period with gratitude and a smile on my face.

But, thinking back, I also remember that he was one of very few teachers that inspired me like that. I’ve often wondered why, of all the teachers I’ve had, so few had that burning fire that inspired so effortlessly.

I believe it has to do with his curiosity, and the interconnectedness of learning and teaching.

Kindred verbs

Learning and teaching are two sides of the same coin. They are empty and meaningless without each other, intertwined like the black and white of the Yin-Yang symbol.

Of course, the two verbs ‘learning’ and ‘teaching’ mean something different. We teach to, and learn from. Sounds like a one-way street. But I would argue that without attempting to teach, we’re not learning as effectively as we could. And without an eagerness to learn, we’ll never be that inspiring teacher.

To really understand (learn) a subject, we have to be able to explain it in simple terms (teach). And to be able to teach effectively, we have to be a perpetual learner and insatiably curious. 

How teaching benefits learning

Teaching is the most effective way to learn, and there’s a mechanism behind it; elaboration. 

If you really want to learn something, restate it in your own words. See for yourself if you understand the topic so well that you can talk about it loosely.

The next level would be restating it for the benefit of someone else to understand. That will really test your comprehension. Because now, you have to make it clear in a way that someone else can follow. It’s a huge challenge, and it’s a challenge that is worthwhile.

Teaching will help you to digest the information, connect it to things you already know, and make it your own.

When you passively consume information, an illusion of learning can exist, where you think you get it. But when it’s put to the test, and you have to repeat it (in simple terms), you’ll quickly realize whether or not you understand it.

[Richard] Feynman was a truly great teacher. He prided himself on being able to devise ways to explain even the most profound ideas to beginning students. Once, I said to him, "Dick, explain to me, so that I can understand it, why spin one-half particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics." Sizing up his audience perfectly, Feynman said, "I'll prepare a freshman lecture on it." But he came back a few days later to say, "I couldn't do it. I couldn't reduce it to the freshman level. That means we don't really understand it." — David L. Goodstein (Feynman's Lost Lecture)

In a sense teaching is a selfish pursuit, because it’s the ultimate way to learn. Everybody should teach to learn their subject more thoroughly. It’s the sign of a great student.

How learning benefits teaching

Coincidentally, the best teachers are students.

People who are extremely interested in something usually overflow with passion for their subject. They’re addicted to everything that has to do with it and want to know as much as they can about it. And they can’t help sharing their enthusiasm.

When teachers are infatuated like this, just by virtue of example, they light a fire in the people they teach. Getting close to them is enough to catch a flame.

There’s another aspect of being a student that improves the quality of teaching; being humble enough to know that you don’t know anything (like Socrates)..

There’s a tendency for people who are accomplished in a certain field to forget this. They might feel that they have reached a level of mastery and don’t need to learn or question their knowledge anymore. They might start telling other people ‘how it is’. 

When you believe that you’ll never be ‘the expert’ because there’s always more to learn, you’ll allow your students to learn with you instead of from you.

A perpetual student is the ideal teacher.

My biology teacher was both.