Daily Prompt – Teachable Moment
by Michelle W. on February 10, 2013

“You have to learn a new skill. Do you prefer to read about it, watch someone else do it, hear someone describe it, or try it yourself?”

I agree that these are the basic methods to learn skills and all of them have their place in modern society.

But I believe there are more ways to learn.

Much more.

So without further ado, here is my handy guide to other ‘ATM’ – Alternative Teaching Methods – put that in your Mad Skillz Bank and cash it player!

Please don’t thank me, it’s the least that I can do. Plus your money is no good here, unless it is provided to me discreetly in small denominations of unsequential bills in a brown paper bag.

If you simply must thank me or would like to contribute other Alternative Teaching Methods (patent pending, so get in there while the patent is still pending), feel free to fill out the Comments section below.

Hypnotherapy or The Power of Suggestion

[Hypno! Techno! No, Hypno! No, definitely Techno!]

They use this kind of gubbins technique for smoking, pulling the weeds out of your garden, getting you to love your children after they’ve thrown their food over your nice new carpet/Italian leather upholstery, dieting, getting up for work in the morning or voting in a Local/General Election. Maybe we can hypnotise ourselves to learn things but not by waving some kind of silly watch about under our noses and counting backwards from three million. No way José. We need something else. I find that excellent hypnotism tools can usually be found under the guise of McVities and Ben & Jerry’s. The only major drawback in using these specific tools is that I’m going to have them anyway, regardless of whether I’m cured or not. Curse you Ben and especially you Jerry.

Osmosis

You remember that old wives tale about how if you sleep with a book beneath your pillow, all of the knowledge will rise up into your noggin?

You do?

Rubbish, isn’t it.

Repetition (stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself)

[My repetition is this!]

Another thing to remember is that we need things repeated seven times for them to be embedded into our muscle memory (don’t ask me where I’ve heard that, probably down the pub but it sounds about right). I’m sorry, what? Seven times?! I find after a couple of times I start to get bored and my brain tends to forget whatever it is that I’m trying to learn out of spite. So, if you have to be told more than twice, it’s probably some borehead droning on about something useless like how to survive a crocodile attack or what time the bus for work is leaving or if I don’t buck my ideas up, I’m out of this company. Still, on the bright side, if you follow my example, you’ll be learning lots of new skills….constantly!

Crying (AKA persuading someone else to do it on your behalf)

This is a very important skill, particularly if you are a man.
No-one wants to see a man cry.
Trust me, it’s a skill, not a weakness.
IT’S A SKILL DANGNAMMIT! NOW LEAVE ME ALONE, I HAVE SOMETHING IN MY EYE!

[Cry Me A River, Brother]

Actors (not on your hand, it will smudge!)

Take a leaf out of the book of actors when they forget their lines. Just carry everything that you need to know written down on huge placards around with you. Then all you need to do is ask someone to hold them up in the right order for you, when you need to do something important like drive a forklift truck or perform brain surgery.

The Sucke……Assistant

[I can be a little difficult to work for.]

I think you can have too many skills. For example, what am I going to do with Shark Wrestling or Bear Baiting when I work at the post office? What do I do to rectify this problem?
Hire an assistant – blam!
A problem shared is a problem halved.
Why not scoop up all of those skills that might very well get you killed and give them to some other sucke……friend/assistant.
Now that’s smart and a skill in itself – high five yourself right now Captain Skilltastic!

A Clockwork Orange – The Conditioning Scene (no, nothing to do with Head & Shoulders shampoo)

Really David, seriously? No, I didn’t think so.

Here endeth the lesson.

And remember:-

Those who can, do.
Those who can’t, teach.

No, wait, I got that wrong, I’m sorry. Let me try that again.

Those who can, do.
Those who can’t, wait for someone who can, then teach them a lesson they will never forget.

Isn’t it amazing how these old sayings lose words for the sake of brevity, which completely alters their true meaning – glad I could set the record straight for you.

For more (probably much more) helpful takes on this post, why not read some entries from my fellow bloggers below:-

1. How do YOU learn? « Being Special
2. Daily Post: Teachable Moment | tel-uh-vizh-uh-ner-ee
3. Studying New Skills In Sign Language « DiaryCube
4. Daily Prompt: Teachable Moment | The Gozum Show
5. If You Can Read About It – You Can Read | The Jittery Goat
6. Learning time ! « Spunky Wayfarer
7. DP: Teachable Moment « Life of Me and Mine
8. Getting your hands dirty « Master Of Disaster
9. Prestidigitation | One for the Big Guy.. sometimes.
10. Teachable Moments « Q the Adult
11. Learning to Learn. « ayimas
12. Teachable Moment « Now Writing Every Day
13. Teachable Moment | Liquid Matthew’s Development Blog
14. Daily Prompt: Teachable Moment | Rolbos ©
15. Teachable Moment « The Tarot Alchemist
16. How to learn something new | Angel Frouk
17. Learning something new | The Nameless One
18. The Best Teacher | Chasing The Bubble
19. Daily Prompt: Teachable Moment « Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
20. Daily Prompt: Teachable Moment Is All About Hands On | My Blog
21. Daily Prompt: Teachable Moment | Hope* the happy hugger
22. One Starving Activist
23. Daily Prompt: Teachable Moment « Talker Huge
24. Mastering Learning | Shadoza: In My World
25. Daily Prompt: Teachable Moment 11th February 2013 « ittikorn1994
26. OSCAR WILDE STARS IN A THRILLER | aapatawaran
27. Daily Prompt: Teachable Moment | Moonlight Reflections
28. Bumpy Ride! | amateurxpress
29. That’s How We Learn | cambios de humor
30. A Martian Child « In My Sister’s Mind
31. Learning to learn | Random Encounters of an Inquisitive Mind
32. Daily Prompt: Teachable Moment | Family Photos Food & Craft
33. Teachable Moment: I’d rather do it myself… « Chasing Rabbit Holes
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