If you want to learn, teach!

The title may sound like a misunderstanding. It is usually the other way round. You have to learn first, before you can teach others.

But as a teacher, I have experienced a very strong push to learn. If I want to explain something to others, I have to understand it well. I have to be prepared to answer questions. Some vague understanding just will not do. Nothing can be so motivating as the perspective to face many pairs of eyes and ears – and not being able to provide clear explanations. That is why many assignments at high school or university are to analyse a specific topic and then share the results with others.

Imagine you get the task to teach tomorrow about a subject you hardly know anything about, – be it electricity, nuclear energy, or the relativity theory. I am sure that in a couple of hours, you would have made a big step forward. Of course, you would not be an expert. But you would know significantly more than you do right now.

Why don’t we harness this energy much more for lifelong learning? We could use lay teachers more often. At least they would learn very fast – though perhaps not always their students.