5 Pillars of Great Teaching: Pillar 4 - Embracing Many Paths to Greatness

This post is part 5/7 of a series on How to Pick Good Teachers to Accelerate your Learning.

Pillar 4: Embracing Many Paths to Greatness

There’s a tendency among those with Skin in the Game (Pillar 2), to see their path as the only path to success. They teach things as if the way they did it is the only way to do it and all other paths are wrong. Great teachers embrace the truth that there are many paths to greatness. They don't mold students into their own image or try to create an army of robots that speak, act and sound the same. The best teachers help their students not only achieve success in a domain, but help them express themselves in the artform. They help students find their own way.

We often see people teach things the way they got taught and then get surprised when their students don’t understand like they did. The best teachers use their Expert Knowledge to find unique ways to explain concepts to different types of students.

There’s also the danger that the teacher will try to portray their intuitions and experience in the field as the true way of relating to that field. The problem with that approach is that they developed those intuitions because they had certain psychological, physical and personal characteristics that colored the way they saw the topic. When a teacher tries to impose a way of thinking or relating to a subject on a student, or the student forces themselves to adopt the way of a teacher with very different psychology, physicality and personality, the student often alienates themselves from the topic. When this happens their students’ results drop and their love for the discipline drops as well, as they no longer relate to it in an authentic way. Take the case of  a very creative student in maths, who likes elegance and clever solutions, who has a teacher who’s extremely pedantic and prefers complex proofs and calculations, or a football (soccer) coach that loves to defend and suffocate teams, with a team full of players who love to create and play attacking, flowing football.

Now, this is not to say that teachers with different characteristics can’t benefit students. Teachers who embrace many paths to greatness are attuned to their students personality and way of relating to their domain. These teachers turn students into well rounded top performers, not by stifling their natural way of relating to the discipline, but by allowing the student to tackle their weaknesses or learn a different philosophy of playing while still preserving their natural approach, allowing students to integrate new material that might conflict with their current intuitions in a way that makes sense to them. In this way, the very creative math student can become more rigorous in his approach and the flair football player can learn to track back and defend when the team needs them.

Teachers who embrace the truth that there are many paths to greatness allow their students to develop their own learning style and love for the discipline. I experienced this first hand during my time in competitive high school debate. I used to think that great debaters had to fit a certain mold: be very emotive, fast talking, always use certain words in their speeches and, of course, have lots of hand movements. I had the good fortune of working with three coaches during my formative years (Alex De Jager, Thomas McLennon and Quintin Moodley) who helped me find my own way. They saw that I had a natural way of presenting persuasively:  when I was calmer, more relaxed, not rushing through lots of material and not trying to be overly energetic or loud. They helped me embrace my own way of debating and speaking that led to a relatively successful debating career. It also gave me confidence in my public speaking abilities, which has benefited me to this day, as I don’t try to “put on a show” or be someone else, but rather I stick to my own style when I speak in front of crowds or in meetings.

Next, read about the fifth Pillar of Great Teaching, Long-Term Focused.

Which part of the article did you find most interesting? Let me know on Twitter (@avthars) or email me (avthar at avthar dot com) if you’d like to discuss it!