I'm too busy, too selfish, don't feel like it, can't find the time, looks like too much work...the list goes on and on. We have excuses by the bushel when it comes to why we don't do what we don't do it. And why should we do it, you ask. Why should everyone teach- at least once?
Several reasons. I'll start with the fact that everyone knows something. And most of us know a few somethings really, really well. It's our job or hobby or simply a huge interest of ours but for whatever reason, we know A LOT about that subject. We gobble up articles, watch videos, listen to podcasts and go see demos becuase we're eager to learn as much as we can about this certain subject. We're rolling around in facts and surrounded by piles of information.
What being forced to teach someone else some of the stuff you know is to make you take that huge, messy pile of knowledge and sort it into smaller piles. It's taking the beach in the painting and stacking the pebbles in one pile, the short pieces of driftwood in another and so on. Because when you teach, you are forced to organize your jumbled thoughts and ideas into comprehensive, organized, carefully composed smaller pieces. Then you need headlines to group those ideas under and before you know it, you're able to tease threads of ideas throughout the whole and find similarities in areas you hadn't even relaized existed.
The human mind loves sorting things. Like goes with like. Teaching makes you not only sort and organize what you know, it also makes you imagine what it was like before you knew it all. How did that feel to first learn this? People don't learn by being stuffed with facts. They learn from doing, from hearing stories, from seeing visual aides. Teaching makes you look at your gorgeous, exciting subject and imagine how you can expand your excitement to others. Using your imagination to help others learn. Imagine that!
The painting for this month's blog is The Spit, oil on 18x36" panel. To see more of my work, visit my website!
