You can teach anything to anyone!

You do not believe me, do you? But the thing is, you really can. Oh yes, you can argue with me, find 1o thousands of examples where people 'fail' in learning. And they kinda do, sometimes, for various reasons. The more I teach, the more I learn, and the more amazed I am. No, no, no, do not take me wrong, but there is still a lot I have got to learn. Teaching is also not an easy process.

First of all, people have different capacities, different attention span, different interests, different motor skills. What to one comes in a blink of an eye, for other may be hours of hard work. What for one may be the most interesting thing in the world, for other can be absolutely boring to death and beyond. We are all different, and that is beautiful. It is harmful to say everything is about motivation, because there is a lot of social pressure as well. Oh, you may raise your eyebrow skeptically right now. Are you sure there is no such a thing? So... let's say ballet. When are you supposed to start it? Around 6th year of your life to have a chance to do career, am I right? People 12 years old are considered already late start. Same with playing violin. And those are just two examples I have personal experience with.

As a little girl I wanted to learn both badly, but my parents never could afford it, neither believed I am gonna stuck with at least one. Years passed and I became way to old to do any career, my interests changed, but deep in my heart there was always longing to give it a shot. And... Then I moved to another city, started university. The faith put on my way two amazing people, Mr. Wacław, who still teaches ballet to adults, and Monika, who is passionate about teaching violin to human beings considered way to old for that. They both taught me you are never too old. Never ever. You may not get to national orchestra or opera (well, frankly speaking, who knows? after all everything is possible...) but you can enjoy the activity a lot and get good enough for your satisfaction. The other thing, if you start today, you will be one step closer to your goal.

Second of all, teachers have my greatest admiration. It truly is a service, a hard one. Having a group of 5 trying to make simple macrame bracelets is complicated. Not everybody gets the movements
quickly. Sometimes it would be way better to have them one on one, to guide them and slowly make more space for their own experiments. And imagine having that beautiful mixture of 20 or more various personalities, skills, and interests... Oh, you see, I would never thought boys may actually want to make bracelets, or what is worse - earrings. But here we go, 5 teenage boys focused on passing the needle through tiny beads. I did not want to believe it is even possible, I would honestly expected bad jokes and some self defensive system working on the highest level. How did I got it wrong! It is good though, keeps me amazed with people over and over, and fall in love with them.

But then, you can teach anything to anyone. If a person has motivation (if not, you can always try to wake up that motivation, what may be quite a challenge). If you adjust yourself to your students needs (I know you are just a human being, with bad days, worries, all small lazinesses on the edges; me too; you may have different way of teaching than your student learning, or you may not even like your student). If... If... If... There is hundreds variables. And I am not able to tell you what is the golden rule of teaching, I am still learning, and every situation is different.

I am just saying, you can teach anything you know to anyone. And you can learn anything. And you can even learn how to teach. It is nothing you were born with, seriously. It is not going to be easy, may be even harder than you think, but it is possible. Remember to be patient with yourself, and with others. Patience may be the key.

My yoga/meditation teacher in one of his emails wrote to me, that the reason why you wanna teach also matters. If it is just to satisfy your ego, have people admire you and respect... do you think it is a good reason? But if you want to share your knowledge/skills, lift people up, possibly make them grow taller than you are, climb higher... Hey, that is how we bring the change to the world, isn't it?

And if you have any doubts or different point of view, please leave a comment, I will be glad to discuss with you a bit more about it.

P.S.
Here is one of TED talks which proves that sky is not a limit, your body is neither, and you can do anything you drem of.

P.S. P.S.

Do you see the photo below? It is one of my first soutache earrings vs. one of the newest ones. You would not think they may be such a difference. But... 4 years or more. One step at a time, and not giving up, even though there were days of doubt.

P.S. P.S. P.S.

For me the biggest struggle is music, and sometimes new languages. And juggling. With music I get so stressed and tense and lack confidence, that it just do not work. Well, it does when someone has enough patience and takes steps small enough so I am able to follow them. With languages... I just give myself time, do not push anything, repeat, read, do exercises, speaking comes with patience. With jugging is exactly the same. Believe me, if you repeat and do not give up sooner or later, you are going to get it right!