When summertime comes, I try to put myself in situations where I can be in the student role. In the summer of 2019, I joined a CrossFit gym and took a daily "classes" to learn the Crossfit way. For summer 2020, I wanted to learn carpentry skills. I knew I had nearly 2 months off for summer, it was just a matter of finding a setting where I could build something.

All teachers should put themselves in situations where they are a student. While being a teacher requires lots of self-education, it can become easy to forget what it feels like to take instruction in an uncomfortable setting on a topic you may have little interest in. Lately I've asked myself "Am I a teachable person? How willing am I to take instruction from someone else?" If I expect students to learn from me 10 months out of the year, I should also try to seek out opportunities where I am the student.

The opportunity I was hoping for presented itself when my friend Tara said she wanted to build a fence in her backyard. I thought “I’m sure I could help her build a fence. It can’t be that hard.” I did some research online and talked to my dad about it and a week later I called Tara suggesting we meet up and discuss the possibilities. I approached the situation like I did most projects-------I would teach myself how to build a fence as I went along.

We live in an age where self-education is easier than ever. We have Youtube videos to where you can follow the steps on how to build or fix most anything. Amazon is like a new kind of library as to where we can buy and search for books on most any topic. Both of these avenues for learning were totally impossible 25 years ago. Libraries and the evolution of the internet has made self-education even more possible so we can teach ourselves various skills and sets of knowledge without needing a guide, a mentor or a tutor.

Yet as Tara and I discussed the project, we found out that our friend Paul Terry had experience building the exact kind of fence Tara wanted. The three of us met and figured out the basics of the fence. As we met, it seemed obvious that I had to abandon the DIY dream of building her fence all myself and let Paul have the lead. In this case, I would be the helper and Paul would be the leader.

Deferring to Paul’s leadership on building the fence made sense. Why? This cut out lots online research that Tara and I would have to do. There’s no need for DIY research and note taking when you have an expert willing to help and/or lead. And in Tara’s case, I did not want to make my her pay $200-500 extra to replace backyard of hacked up 4x4s after in case I’d messed up the details of what we had read online.

I want to point out few advantages of learning from someone else rather than trying to go with the Do-It-Yourself approach. Here are three things I learned from taking the apprentice mindset. I am going to use the phrases "craftsman-apprentice" rather than "teacher-student" since we are working with wood. Also, I think the "craftsman-apprentice" language more accurately depicts what I think I experienced in building this fence rather than the the DIY approach I had originally planned on doing.

The Three Things the DIY Guy Experienced as an Apprentice

The first thing I learned about being an apprentice is that you can get quick affirmation of your plan or idea.

Tara and I made a plan to build a 52x56 ft. hog-wire fence with 4x4 posts measured every 4 feet. We'd measured everything out, yet the following day Paul came by to double check our measurements. Paul stressed the importance that to be more meticulous and go exactly by the inch. So we measured three or four times and put out small flags to mark specific places to put the 4x4 posts to be exact. Paul also pulled out some measuring tools that I'd never used before to make this process more accurate(which I don't know the names of).

After the two of us measured out the 4x4 measurements, Paul had to leave. My job would be to dig the holes. I dug for the rest of the day to dig with old post-hold diggers the approximately 40 holes in the backyard. I did not question myself with the heady parts of measurements while digging the holes. I could just dig and put my mental focus on working as hard as I possibly could. Why is this?

Part of taking the apprentice situation is having someone else affirm our measurements were accurate and I no longer had to ponder the details of a project. If I were working alone, I would just have to trust myself that I did what was right and/or double check multiple times. But in my case, since Paul, Tara and I had done the measurements about 3 times, we had triple-checked ourselves.

Then I just needed to give 100% to digging the 2 foot deep post-holes. Digging in the June heat with old rusted post-hole diggers was brutal. I was regretting the choice to try to do this with the 3pm afternoon sun bearing down on me when Tara’s neighbor, a man named Joel, came outside and said “Hey man, I have an auger. Would you like to use it?”

This resulted in perhaps my favorite part of the whole project: using an auger. An auger is like a jackhammer, except for dirt. It looks like a 2 foot screw which bores down into the soil and creates a hole. I’d never used an auger before, but I pretended like I knew what I was doing and just went with it. I had always dreamed of using a jackhammer while listening to Metallica and Alice in Chains growing up-------but instead I got this awesome machine that made my job much easier. What do you gain when you use an auger for 30 minutes? An auger gives you a workout while accomplishing a meaningful task, the main goal of trying to prevent the screw of the auger from hitting my leg(perhaps putting a gash in my leg).

You can get quick affirmation from someone when you are a student. This prevents the over analysis of working alone and can be a cure to indecision that delays the process.

The second thing I learned about being an apprentice is that facing unknowns does not have to be hopeless since the craftsman can help guide you endure to the finish.

If you are learning something new, the ability to endure is essential. If you do not finish what you started, did you truly learn or complete what you set out to accomplish? As a teacher, I face students all the time who walk into my office despairing that they do not know how to finish their essay. After a 10-15 minute conversation, I am typically able to coach students so they don’t give up and remind them that their essay idea needs some adjustments but is not worth abandoning.

As much hope as we put into Google and the future of online instant knowledge, there are small choices we are faced with that more quickly be addressed by an experienced person rather than a search engine or a book. Even while a book is good, sometimes even the most comprehensive books do not address strange situations. Whether that’s a friend you can text or email or someone like my friend Paul who is right there with you, to be a direct student has its advantages.

Here are a few things that Paul knew to do to that I did not know: (1) where to buy hog-wire. (2) where to borrow a miter saw. (3) how to make specific cuts with a miter saw. (4) how to make sure all the posts were plum so the fence would be straight. (5) how to frame the top of the fence so it looked professionally crafted.

Paul explained to me how to use the miter saw again. It had been a long time since I’d used one. After that, it became easy.

Despair about the unknown can result in unfinished DIY projects. Yet having someone there to answer questions can help you overcome your own ignorance. And best of all, experts are going to be able to immediately give you suggestions, much faster than Google.

Third, to be a good apprentice is to embrace the humiliation of being corrected.

One of the appeals of reading something in a book or browsing Youtube videos, is that you are being “taught” privately. The experience of learning is self-discovery unless I come across an idea I disagree with. Yet with a Youtube video, you are exploring this privately and can decide if you want to take their advice. In contrast, learning in a face to face situation you are likely to be shown the way preferred by the craftsman or teacher.

Part of my job was to drill the 2x4’s into the 4x4’s, I was getting a handle on the angle the screws needed to be set. I put up 2x4’s, in my own fashion. Then I went over to grab some water and take a short break. When I turned around, I saw Paul going back and unscrewing what I’d set and then re-doing it himself. At first I wanted to say “Why’d you do that? It was right.” But then I just bit my tongue and asked him what I needed to do differently next time. He got the drill and pointed the screw at a sharper angle to show me how to drill it without splitting the tip of the wood.

I said “OK. Got it man,” and proceeded to work.

His correction annoyed me, but I tried to see what he was doing so I could follow his way of doing things the next time around.

But what he said worked; the edge of the wood did not split with his method.

If there is anything that prevents me from seeking out a teacher or mentor when learning something new------it is the idea of being corrected. I want to appear competent and in control at all times, even if I have no idea what I am doing. To be corrected is to appear that I am incompetent or not intelligent. But the truth is that I am less intelligent than Paul on fence building and that’s why I am the apprentice, so I would need to submit to his superior knowledge. I must be able to “Hey, uhhhh, I don’t know how to do this--------can you show me?”

Another element of this is just being OK with the embarrassment that might come with learning in public. Public correction may sound like kind of extreme language, but if my own pride can come in the way of learning, I need to get rid of my pride. Does it really matter if I appear weak or stupid for a few minutes? Is it because American culture idolizes personal autonomy so much that we don’t want to appear weak? Submitting myself to a craftsman might get me to full expertise/competency faster than struggling alone trucking through thick books for hours.

Perhaps my new motto can be “Nate, get into the humiliation of asking for help and submission to learning new stuff faster.”

To all the teachers out there, I challenge you to learn something new in a situation where you must learn from someone else. Even more, try something that is not something you specialize in. Go beyond just a graduate school class or professional development and find something that will get you “out of your element” so you feel uncomfortable. A majority of our students don’t feel comfortable taking our classes, so it is best to get in a situation where you feel the tension and paralyzing self-consciousness that students feel.

The question that I’ve had to face is “How teachable am I?” You don’t really know how stubborn you can be until you learn a new skill from someone else. Lots of complaints pop into your head about the leadership or teaching style of others. Then I have to ask myself “Is my hesitation to listen (1)coming from a place of knowledge/experience, where I know a better way or is it (2) coming from a place of pride, where I just do not want to look weak, unintelligent or incompetent?” For myself, I think it is more likely to be #2. I do my best to avoid looking weak, unintelligent or lacking in ability. This gets at the root at why students often do not want to ask questions; they typically want to appear smart, just like me when I want to look smart or capable.

Are you a teachable teacher? I am learning how to be.