“I learned him.” That’s a phrase that irritates a lot of people, even though the meaning is perfectly clear. It’s considered bad English because well-educated English-speakers have long favored a French or Latin analysis of the language, even though English has more Germanic roots than Romance ones.
English is far closer to Dutch, Danish and Norwegian than to French. Britain was well on the way to being part of Scandinavia before William the Conqueror came along. England had had four Danish kings – this image is of Canute, King of England and Denmark – and the Norwegians were established all around Scotland. The Northeast half of England was under Danelaw.
Danish constructions are still natural to the English language. And in Danish that word “learn” can mean either “learn” or “teach”, depending on whether it is used in the intransitive or transitive. (“Jeg lærte”, I learned; “jeg lærte ham”, I taught him.)
Canute, King of England and Denmark
But the use of two separate words in English has a value: it highlights the huge difference in meaning. To teach someone something often has a different result from letting them learn it – the former can be too intellectual and theoretical, the latter tends to be more emotional and practical.
This is why in Income/Outcome we are concerned with giving participants the maximum opportunity tolearn about business finance and decision-making, and only use formal teaching to structure concepts that are already being experienced, and to fill in any knowledge gaps.
We would far rather that people get engaged in playing a game or simulation, and discuss with their peers how to analyze problems and solutions, than be lectured at in the familiar ‘Death by Powerpoint’ manner.
The skill that Andromeda Training personnel bring to the classroom is not to “teach”, but to facilitate the process of learning within each individual. We recognize the gap between teaching and learning, and how to bridge it.
Good teachers don’t teach – they facilitate learning.
We’re good at facilitating. Several of our clients use us to run all their workshops, rather than doing it themselves under license. Others like to run the simple versions of Income/Outcome themselves, but prefer to bring us in to run the more complex ones.
Teaching, learning, and facilitating. They’re not at all the same thing. But we’re always happy to work with you to raise your facilitation skills – skills that will carry over into many other areas at work and at home.