As an expecting parent I often find myself daydreaming of teaching and helping my child learn and grow. However, it's not lost on me that children love to play 20 questions and that is probably going to drive my brain and personality up a wall! There's a reason I'm not a teacher and that I'm beyond grateful and envious of the patience that teachers have, but there's something we can all learn from taking a deeper look at this and the art of being able to teach a 5-year old (or any person with limited knowledge) something we are trying to master.
When we take a step back and try to explain a topic or concept to a child, a couple of magical things happen. One, we are forced to go back to the basics which naturally forces us to take all the little details we know so well and curate them into easier to understand buckets while still getting to the same goal. An algebra equation is a great example. (5x8) - (36/4) = 31 is essentially the same thing as 40 - 9 = 31. A child's main focus is on the 31 and there's a very good chance that explaining to them multiplication, division, and order of operations will only frustrate them and then the magical "31" means absolutely nothing. Instead, we start by walking them through simple subtraction to help them grasp the the highest level of knowledge to get to the answer. Einstein famously said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." We'll spend more time in a bit looking at a more in-depth example.
Mastering Our "Calling"
Another main reason for looking at this concept is that I believe we are all on a journey towards "mastery" in something. We all have a calling, and over the course of our lives we strive to get better and better at this thing until there's no, or minimal, juice left to squeeze. For some people that is in something "sexy" like professional sports or being an astrophysicist, while for most people it's in something a lot more important (in my opinion) like being a parent, or a teacher, or running a non-profit. Being the best dad in the world comes with a forever feedback loop of learning and teaching. Some people might be struggling to find what their calling is and that is OK! Other people's might shift a couple of times over the course of their lives, and that's ok too. Regardless, our ability to teach our specialty to a child will always have a positive impact on our growth and learning journey, but also on the people around us who have the blessing of learning from us. As author Robert Heinlein so simply states, "when one teaches, two learn."
Protégé Effect
Diving a little deeper, there are two main points I want to unpack a little bit that I truly believe will help you on your journey to becoming just a little bit brighter. The first point is essentially reiterating the benefits of teaching a complex topic to someone who knows nothing about it. In our professions we often get caught being surrounded by other "experts" where we never have to take a step back and focus on the basics. The basics are where the magic is and where our own gaps in knowledge show up the most. The cool part is that we don't even have to physically teach a child, we can just pretend! There's a psychological phenomenon called the protégé effect where teaching, pretending to teach, or even preparing to teach information to others helps a person learn that information even better. In order to teach someone something, we need to know that topic well enough to be able to explain it simply and logically. If the child asks us a question and we don't know the answer, it identifies gaps in our understanding that we might have otherwise missed. So in order to be prepared to answer the child's questions or identify mistakes, we must understand the topic well.
The protégé effect also plays a unique role in motivation. In a perfect world we would always be motivated to learn and grow and become better every single day, especially if we are fortunate enough to be working in what we believe to be our calling. However, we all know that is not true. Where the protégé effect shows up here is in our sense of responsibility we feel for the student (or child). Psychologist Frederick Herzberg is known for his research on motivation and business management. One of the biggest motivators he found for work is responsibility. As humans, and especially as caring humans, we are constantly seeking to help others shine their light brighter. We feel charged up, motivated, and enlightened when we get the opportunity to help others learn and grow. Even more so when we see the child or person ACTUALLY learn the material and grow.
Audience Analysis
Another key point I like to think about when teaching a child that stems into all arenas of life is audience analysis. No matter what we do for a living or hobby, it is almost certain we will find ourselves at some point on the hook to communicate a message to a group of people. Public speaking is whole can of worms we don't need to open today, but presentations, email communications, even blog posts all require the skill of being able to analyze our audience. This is something often taught in business schools but the material and research behind it are accessible to anyone with the internet (and so is everything else you've ever wanted to learn🙂). But back to teaching a child.... This simple exercise forces us to pause and truly unpack our message so we make it understandable for the receivers. As someone who works in finance for a company filled with creative people, one of the best skills we can master is our ability to take complex information and still it down to the minimum viable level of detail.
Let's use a simple example. As a professional baker, you might teach a class to adults aspiring to hone their craft. Your presentation would probably focus on things like the entire recipe, the nuances to resting and baking times, the proper temperature based on the oven type and rack positioning, how different sized cake pans influence the recipe, and the list goes on. However, if you were on the hook to teach a group of 5-year old's how to bake a cake, you would surely sift (pun intended) out as much noise as you could. You would more than likely focus on dry ingredients, wet ingredients, mixing those two, and then exact time and temperature for that recipe. I know very little about baking, but I'm sure if I was to try and teach a child how to read a financial statement, I would pick the three or four biggest chunks that all the details bucket into. Then, like the math equation example, make sure what I'm explaining has an end result similar to if I were explaining the same topic to a group of MBA students. Audience analysis is something we often take for granted but can be a skill that sets us apart in our careers and in life. When people enjoy learning from you because you aren't confusing them with things they don't understand, you become a better influencer and teacher and therefore a better learner.
Bringing it Full Circle
Teaching is something a lot of people don't think their cut out to do, myself included. I'd argue we are all teachers and should make an effort to share our knowledge as much as we can. There's room for everyone to win, which is why having an abundance mindset trumps a scarcity mindset 10 times out of 10. When we teach we naturally see the gaps in our own knowledge which helps us take an inventory of what we need to learn better. This is driven out curiosity, and coupled with passion is what drives us towards mastery. So I encourage you to find your "thing", find anyone willing to listen, even if it's an imaginary 5-year old, and teach them what you know. Spread that brightness for all to grow!
Let's love and grow together.
- DDD
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