[Tango-L] What Does It Take to Dance Tango?

[Kace]

Chris, UK wrote:

> Kace <kace at pacific.net.sg> wrote:
>> I prefer any critic of Keith's methodology to offer constructive 
>> ideas for improving the teaching experience, if they have any.
>>     
>
> I have no ideas for improving the teaching experience.
> But for improving the /learning/ experience, here's one:

There is a big difference between a Teaching experience and a Learning 
experience. 

- "Teaching" is an active process when a teacher communicates his source 
material
   to the class, and interactively modifies it to account for the 
student's ability to absorb.

- "Learning" is the process happening inside the student to assimilate 
new information.
  It may or may not involve an active teacher --- you can learn even if 
nobody is teaching.
  On the other hand, the best teacher cannot teach you if you don't 
absorb the material.

Since your beef with Keith is with his curriculum, you are splitting 
hair over the Teaching
experience and not the Learning experience.

Only the student can help himself get a better learning experience.  If 
group classes
are not right for him, he can select from the many options available in 
the market, like
one-on-one tuition, videos, books, immersion tours, etc.

Every teacher's challenge is that, once taken on the responsibility to 
mentor a recalcitrant
student like yourself, he has to find ways to discharge his duty.

This always begins with a teaching outline, unless you plan to improvise 
in class the way
you improvise on the dance floor!  I suppose such a strategy might even 
work better
if the "follower knows nothing"...

I will not comment further on this thread, since it is going nowhere, 
except to say
Keith's work as a teacher and what he has done for the Hong Kong 
community the
past  decade earn my respect.

Kace
tangosingapore.com