Floating Foam

Recently, I’ve gained quite a bit of teaching experience. I’ve been up and down the state, showing folks the ins and outs of a system I manage. One thing that I learned immediately is that you must teach to the level of your audience. Sometimes it’s difficult to gauge this when the audience is large, so I often aim for what I would consider the base level or lowest common denominator.

Even though I try to keep this in mind, sometimes I rush, either from a deep, brown need to get to the restroom or because I simply forget who my audience is. It’s not intentional, and the situation benefits no one.

Sometimes, a person who is being shown too much, too fast will not simply ask me to repeat myself or explain it in different terms. They will instruct me on my vast experience with the subject matter and how they do not possess said experience. The teacher’s teacher will then go on to explain in detail how fast I am able to click on buttons or select a checkbox.

Sure, this might seem obvious, since they are taking a class from me, but it has happened enough that I feel a cautious sort of sympathy for the teacher’s teacher. It’s not that I’m so knowledgeable of the system I am demonstrating (even though I am), it’s that the teacher’s teacher must assert some sense of authority in the situation.

Almost every time, the person I described above is a middle-aged man. Perhaps he was on the bleeding-edge of technology back in his 30s. I can’t say for sure. But I do notice that they take delight in describing how their children berate their lack of technical prowess. These men show off their ignorance as if it were a badge, proudly sneering at terms like MySpace and iPod.

My generalization is by no means accurate for every middle-aged man I teach, but it happens frequently enough to qualify as a trend. Certainly, this trend has always existed, even when young Zorg first carved the wheel and old man Blarg insisted the boulders still be dragged along the bare ground.

The reason I find sympathy for these men is that I can easily see myself becoming one of them. I’ve kept up with technology to a certain extent, but with every passing year I find myself less and less interested in what’s new, and more interested in what I can do with what I already have.

Hopefully, I will retain a sense of humility the next time I am the one in a class who cannot follow the teacher’s instruction. I find ignorance must be coupled with grace to be truly blissful.