2947  Recommendations for detail-oriented teachers in Silicon Valley?

Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 16:52:55 -0700
From: Jon Leech <nospam@ODDHACK.ENGR.SGI.COM>
Subject: Recommendations for detail-oriented teachers in Silicon Valley?

I'm looking for suggestions of teachers who have beginning classes
in Silicon Valley and nearby areas (roughly speaking, the southern half
of the San Francisco Bay Area in California), and who specifically take
a more detail-oriented and less intuitive approach to teaching.

I have had a few months of group classes with one of the most
well-known local instructors. But it was not working very well for me
because this person taught in an entirely intuitive and observe /
duplicate fashion, and was unwilling or unable to break down and explain
what was being taught. Different teaching styles work best for different
people, and I'd like to find people who have a teaching style better
suited to me.

Please reply by email. I'll be happy to summarize to anyone else who
is interested. I'm not sure it would be wise to summarize to the list,
though, since this topic seems a likely source of argument amongst
partisans of different instructors :-)

Thanks,
Jon Leech
nospam 'at' oddhack.engr.sgi.com

Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 12:30:18 +1000
From: Gary Barnes <garybarn@OZEMAIL.COM.AU>
Subject: Analysis, not paralysis [was: Recommendations for detail-oriented teachers in Silicon Valley?]

Carefully avoiding the style-analysis-as-authenticity-test trap:

I think Jon has (perhaps accidentally) provided an excellent explanation of:

1) why, for some of us, detailed explanations/discussions/analysis of each
others' dancing are tedious at best, and destructive at worst.
2) why, for some us, these same discussions can help our dancing a lot

> But it was not working very well for me
> because this person taught in an entirely intuitive and observe /
> duplicate fashion, and was unwilling or unable to break down and explain
> what was being taught. Different teaching styles work best for different
> people, and I'd like to find people who have a teaching style better
> suited to me.

One possible categorisation (useful for teachers, and for students choosing
teachers):

Those who learn 'intuitively' - which generally means visually - tend to
find 'do what you see me do' instructors to be efficient and effective, and
tend to find detailed discussions of technique to be annoying and
irrelevant.

Those who learn 'kinesthetically' - by doing - and who are not also strong
visual learners, tend to require some explanation (or to dance with the
teacher.)

Those who learn through explanation - auditory/analytical learners - tend to
find 'do what you see me do' instruction of almost no use, and detailed
discussions of technique very fruitful.

Knowing what kinds of learning you are best at can help a lot in choosing
teachers - and also in pushing yourself to develop those other aspects.

One day I will learn something just by watching!


--

Gary Barnes
Canberra, Australia

"more tango, more often"