Not many years ago I began to play the ‘cello. Most people would say that what I am doing is ``learning to play’’ the ‘cello. But these words carry into our minds the strange idea that there exist two very different processes: 1) learning to play the ‘cello; and 2) playing the ‘cello. They imply that I will do the first until I have completed it, at which point I will stop the first process and begin the second; in short, that I will go on ``learning to play’’ until I have ``learned to play’’ and that then I will begin to play. Of course, this is nonsense. There are not two processes, but one. We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.
John Holt
Some Thoughts on Teaching—from John Miller, CMU – www.agsm.edu.au/...
