[Tango-L] On group classes ...

[Tango Society of Central Illinois]

On Fri, 26 Jan 2007 22:54 +0000 (GMT Standard Time), Chris, UK
<tl2 at chrisjj.com> wrote:

> I'm sure that many teachers would love to be free to say what they know to
> be the truth: past beginner, the longer you've been doing classes, the
> lower on average is your standard of dancing.
>
> Chris

In my experience, I've found the opposite correlation. It is true that
in the beginning (first 6 months or so, those who stop taking classes
tend to be better, on average, than those who do). However, many
people who continue to take classes progress more slowly and
eventually surpass the early quitters.

Many of the early quitters feel they have nothing more to learn. They
tend to be overconfident, overestimating their ability. If something
goes wrong, they blame others. They think they know a lot and often
have deaf ears to suggestions for improvement.

If you have a large number of these overconfident early quitters in
your community, they can set a low standard for development in the
community, particularly if they are popular individuals. If
like-minded early quitters band together, they can really sink dance
quality in a community.

Ron