To Learn It, Explain It

[Photo by Animesh Basnet at Unsplash]


It can be said in defense of the many who attend classes with the sole aim of getting through school and not through any desire to master the subjects, that the design of the process encourages such attitudes. Many regard teachers as somewhat amiable adversaries who seek to trap them with pop quizzes and tricky exam questions. It should not be surprising that a simple and early bit of street wisdom is that teachers should be approached with wariness. The less contact with such tricksters, the better.

The teachers can, of course, be equally wary.

That brings me to the wish that more classes would require an occasional one-on-one teacher and student meeting where the students would be asked to explain, in plain language, an important concept from the class material. Nothing fancy. Just a casual discussion of the subject as a way of seeing whether or not the student gets one of the most important concepts of all: gaining mastery in a subject is not the same as learning enough to make a good grade. 

To learn it, explain it.