Sent from my iPad > On Aug 22, 2014, at 3:14 PM, The Lace Bee <thelace...@btinternet.com> wrote: > > As a qualified business trainer who supports people taking their qualifications for teaching at colleges who is married to a PTLLS holder (the qualification for teaching vocational skills at collets and other environs) and who's sister literally wrote the book on making learning inclusive I hate the quote by the otherwise wonderful George Bernard Shaw that "those who can't .... Teach"
I take offense to this on a number of levels. I'm going to overlook the typos and grammatical errors as part of this crazy internet communication system! However, lacemaking is an artistic skill. Artists do not think like business trainers, nor do they think like vocational teachers. My professional training was first as a teacher (Masters in Education,[M.Ed.]) but later as a clinical Mental Health Therapist (M.P.C.). But my undergraduate degree was in Art History, which was my first true love. My point is that people are drawn to lacemaking for many reasons, and creating a balance in our lives is often a major reason. So, we find that there are teachers and teachers' aides among us, as well as, for example, members of medical professions such as mine, child care workers, homemakers, lawyers, legal aides, accountants, Engineers, secretaries, office managers, court clerks, Judges, retail sales clerks, city managers, custodians, fast food workers, artists and designers. In today's world, those of us who would be "starving artists" usually take a profession that pays the bills, but seek out satisfaction in our "hobbies". Many of us are lucky enough to discover lace, and it is in the pursuit of perfection in this field that we achieve balance in our lives. Just because we have not been trained as teachers is not proof that we are not capable of being good teachers. There are several ways that a teacher/student relationship can be magical. If both teacher and student respond to the visual approach, they will get along! If they both function on an auditory level, then again, they get along! Then, there is the kinetic approach, which is essentially the hands-on learning. In lacemaking, this is a dominant learning style, but can be over-rated, especially after moving beyond the basics. Often, a new lacemaker is attracted to another member of the group, mainly because they have the same learning style! My opinion, based on my assessment of the most influential teachers in my lacemaking journey, is that if the teacher is thoroughly grounded in his or her style of lace, and takes the time to develop study pieces which guide the development of basic skills in the particular lace being studied, then regardless of learning/teaching "style", progress can be made! More than anything else, patient encouragement is the key ingredient! I emphatically add that cutting bobbins off of a student's pillow is not good form! Bad Teacher. At some level, I'm curious who that was, but in truth, ignorance is bliss!!! Clay Clay Blackwell - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
