I am now a figure skater. I've been taking lessons for seven years and found that the sport really appeals to me in part because everything is hard but eventually achievable with hard work. The other skaters, child or adult, all have a drive for excellence and all seem to be quite smart.
I contrasted skating lessons to school not too long ago. I've been taking lessons for a few months, and I've been thrilled at how they're structured.
People can move at the pace that best suits them, and no one gets wound up if you pick up something faster or slower than someone else. In fact, we cheer each other on and help each other regardless. No instructor forces people to follow a prescribed set of tasks before moving onto something harder. And, best of all, each student moves at his or her own pace.
And they manage to do this with 15-20 students aged 17 to 50s!
I guess the difference is that the teachers don't expect to be lecturing the group for most of a lesson. Instead, an instructor will spend 5 minutes with people learning, say, a waltz jump. Then she'll move on to the ones doing, say, a 3 turn while the waltz jumpers practice. Etc. etc.
I have never, ever been in a learning environment that's so wonderfully perfect (at least, for me).
I imagine that a regular classroom could be structured in a similar way with a bit of imagination.
Val
