It's Simple...I Think?

It occurred to me earlier this week that just simply leaving this blog to deal with issues of pedagogy, or rather my experiences with it wasn't capable of satisfactorily expressing my journey in teaching...so I thought it also useful to include some additional criteria or context in which I find all of this teaching and learning stuff taking place.  You see, I teach facets of brewing, distilling and Cannabis production at a small college in Alberta, Canada.  And more and more frequently, simply learning more about the trade I teach within reveals some nuggets of wisdom that directly apply to my pedagogical development.  Here goes....variation on a theme I guess...

Listening to a recent podcast on brewing education in Germany, one of the interviewees remarked that if you wanted to be a good brewer, or even a great one, you had to be well-educated first.  Shouldn't have surprised me, but it did.  I'm not even sure if it was because it came from another educator or whether it was just reaffirming what we all know...I guess I just hadn't heard anyone say it for a while give the lethargy, laziness, arrogance....whatever you want to call it that I find frequents where I find myself.  Hearing this single, simple statement was levitating, truly inspiring...and I'm still a bit-a-buzz as I reflect upon its simplicity and forthrightness.

Being well-educated takes work.  It takes effort, discipline and guidance....there' so much that gets
tied in with being well-educated that it's hard to see why more people don't buy in, at least in and around my present programming.  That said, there are some, the few, that work their behinds off and I salute them as I write this.  Now if only we could decant some of what 'they' have and feed it to the remainder.  I visualize how my job might be easier if I had a solid coterie of folks who gave a damn about their education...who knows, maybe it would be harder...harder to please, harder to fulfil their objectives, but I'd appreciate the chance should it ever arise.

At the end, I would presuppose that I'm becoming all a bit reactionary like so many of my colleagues.  I can strive, I have striven but in many cases for a large number of people who just couldn't care less.  It isn't JUST about the way a product is taught...you need that open receptacle too.