You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself. – Galileo

Can you help light the way?

What does that mean?
It’s kind of like the Old West saying “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” You can only go so far when attempting to help someone learn. You can only make the conditions right for them to discover what they already know to be true.

It is up to the learner to figure it out. It will only make sense when you have come to the conclusion by yourself. When you remember what Galileo was up against when he was trying to teach the Church about astronomy, and what revolves around what, the quote becomes crystal clear, doesn’t it?

Why is learning for yourself important?  
While the concept stated in the quote turns what we think of as ‘teaching’ on it’s head, consider the possibility of there being some truth in it. Did someone teach you the alphabet, or did they help you figure it out for yourself? Did someone teach you math, or did they lead you, step by step, in that discipline, until you were able to make sense of it?

Have you ever had a friend who couldn’t remember how to do something, and kept pestering you to tell them how to do it? I hope that eventually you had them do the thing while you described the steps. And by that method they, after another try or two, finally learned for themselves, and remembered.

Where can I apply this in my life?
When my son was young, he was fascinated by flames. He kept reaching for them, but we kept moving him away from them. It was a battle we would never win, as we only had to miss once and it could instantly become a disaster.

Once we realized that the strategy of discipline wasn’t working (we were trying to teach him to observe, but not interact, with the flames), we needed to find a better solution. While we didn’t have this quote in mind, what we ended up with follows it fairly well.

The next time he reached for a flame, I took his hand. Instead of distracting him or disciplining him, I told him it was OK to approach the flame. With my hand partially blocking his from the flame (so we could both feel the heat), we approached the flame. We got closer and closer, with me keeping the motion as slow as possible. Eventually he realized that the flame was uncomfortably hot, and pulled away.

The end of the story is that he still likes to look at, but he has never touched, a flame. By allowing him to learn, to find out for himself, he learned what we could never teach him. By using this method, he has escaped childhood into adolescence without ever being harmed by fire.

What have you been having trouble learning in your life? Grab some paper and write a few of them down. Is it a physical skill (ballroom dancing)? Perhaps a mental skill (language or math)? What ever it might be, and what ever category it might fit into, write them down.

For me, language has always been a problem. Back in High School, when I was taking Spanish, my friends used to tease me about taking two foreign languages, English and Spanish. I mangled the English language, mixing tenses, plurals and was a hopelessly bad at spelling. Fortunately, I now have a spell checker to help me.

I have been working with a dictionary as reading material for years. You’re probably thinking how dull and boring it is, but I find it exciting! I’ve learned about roots of words, and how words rooted in Latin observe certain rules that Greek-rooted words ignore. Don’t even get me started on French-rooted words. I’ve learned more from the dictionary than from all my teachers together.

Consider how you can experience that which you are having trouble learning. A teacher/mentor/friend can guide you along the path, but you must walk it. You might consider searching the web for tutorials or assistance in the form of web pages, videos or games that help you understand what you need.

What are you waiting for? Take an item on your list and start searching. Take the first step. I’d look at the Khan Academy web site for starters. It has tons of neat stuff, but you may need to find other sites to find what you are looking to learn.

Don’t give up, you can learn anything you want. You just need to find someone to help you discover it for yourself.

From: Twitter, @ShareAwakening
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/galileogal381318.html
Photo by millicent_bystander