Sunday, August 12, 2012

learning new systems, taking your time vs. jumping head first

Before I start typing much of anything I'm going to have to admit this.
My teaching style is next to non existent. I believe than one should learn 90%+ of the material on their own and discover it for themselves while the left over 10%- should be questions that the person is truly stuck on and has exhausted most if not all personal options. This ~10% needs a push from a peer or "teacher" to get the ball rolling again.
Why do I think this way?
Well in many cases (I can't quote an exact #) people learn both faster and learn more detail about the stuff they find out on their own through their own research and curiosity while people who are forced into lecture tend to have info go in one ear and out the other (think high school).
As long as there is someone available to help in tough times and to guide a person towards a safe path then there should be no problem in the student learning through their own means.

Now here's the story,

C of Ravens bought a new tarot deck this week and has/had no clue how to use them. He came to me to be taught and honestly I know that he is capable of learning on his own, after finding the book that came with the deck in his pocket (which he swears he never put there) he just started trying to do readings on L and himself.
Now avoiding the celtic cross because of it's complexity and the fact the C never really tried to understand tarot before, I suggested doing one card a day to get to know his deck better and to build a relationship with his deck (you know a small suggestion here and there never hurt anyone). C then continued to do a spread for L that I honestly didn't pay attention to because I was reading a book on the next couch. That spread was a bit complicated for C because he had/has no understanding on what his cards are trying to say to him so obviously trying to read this spread took over an hour with minimal results.
But that's ok! still a learning experience and I done the exact same thing when I was learning the first time, but I had a contrary deck while C has what seems to be a more understanding deck.

After this long spread he took it down a notch to a 3 card fan which worked a bit better, but by now he was noticing a pattern, so me and L injected the suggestion that maybe his cards and himself were speaking 2 different languages and that they needed to learn how to communicate with each other first before doing large readings.

Now he's doing the 1 card a day reading in the mornings to get to know his deck better.

Yeah it took him longer to figure out that the 1 card a day was a little easier system to get to know his cards better but he learned it on his own and he will remember it better from here on out.
Much better than doing homework and having the "what if's"

There is a difference between jumping head first and taking your time and while the vast majority of people would rather do it now, this approach tends to leave a lot of decks and other items gathering dust when the person deems it too hard to do.
and yes taking your time is usually better because you gain a greater understanding of the items you are working with.
But there are exceptions and I encourage people to try what ever may work better for them (under proper supervision of course, as some things may be dangerous).

Blessed Be
~Flaming



4 comments:

  1. Yes, the one a day thing problably will work alot better for me. However Im still trying multi-card spreads (Normaly three cards) just to see if it's all as hard as i think it is. Funny enough my deck at the moment is impossible to use.

    Upon reading through the book for my card meanings I discovered that the cups suit Eight through two is missing. Talk about a let down. D:

    I tried useing other deck's to pice it together but found that they are Very VERY different in each tarot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. well knowing where you got it from you can take it back and explain. I've always found them easy when it comes to that kind of stuff.

      Sometimes they take out a few cards for show so maybe they have your missing ones behind the counter by mistake.

      It never hurts to ask.

      Delete
    2. Oh, I was not the cards themselfs that were missing. It was the meanings in the booklet that was missing. XP I checked the deck and all the cards where there.

      Delete
    3. well on my next days off I think I can help with that

      Delete