What Can’t You Teach? 43

What Can’t You Teach? 43 That story cannot be short and sweet. It takes a great deal of emo- tion and empathy to change a point of view in a belief system. Decid- ing to construct a 15-minute, e-learning module in which one plays the sales rep and learns that honesty is the best policy, is so absurd that Iam sorry I am referring to it at all, except that is what was proposed by the integrity and compliance people to whom I was speaking. You can move people ever so slightly by having them have emo- tional experiences that they can discuss with one another. Imagine a book club that deals with a book about dishonesty and causes people in the discussion group to talk about the subject. If the book presented deep dilemmas to which there were no obviously right answers, this would allow people to get to and discuss their unconscious beliefs. Simply articulating those beliefs can be quite helpful. This is what clinical psychologists are really trying to do, after all. It is also what Lit- erature professors are trying to get their classes to do. Thinking about and talking about complex emotional issues makes personality traits and core beliefs something you can think about consciously. The real issue, in the end, is interests. Teaching works best when you teach students who agree that they really want to learn what- ever it is you have to teach. This means making sure that students are preparing to do things that they want to do and actually will do. That makes teaching much easier for all involved. The one-size-fits-all curriculum doesn’t work because one size doesn’t fit all. Let detail- oriented people learn detailed kinds of things. Let artistic people learn artistic kinds of things. Let logical people learn logical kinds of things. Everyone would be much happier and all would enjoy learning a lot more if we simply let people be themselves. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023789