Those Who Can, Do. Those Who Can't, Teach.
Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 10:00PM I remember hearing the expression, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." sometime soon after I had all but dropped out of high school (I did get my diploma but I actually tried not to) and after I had been kicked out of College.
My mom had signed me up for College. She was worried about me and thought that putting me in College was the best thing. She did the same thing right after I got out of high school when she signed me up for the Canadian Navy. But that's a whole other story for another day.
The interesting part of my College experience is that my mom actually let me choose what program to sign up for and I looked through the long list of subjects that didn't interest me and finally chose "Advertising & Public Relations" as at least it sounded like a somewhat creative field. A few months later and I was kicked out by one of the instructors.
All of the instructors thought they were the end-all, be-all of anything to do with advertising & public relations. And, in fact, most of the students there seemed to think that they were part of something much bigger than themselves. Yes, let me repeat, the "Advertising & Public Relations" program at a community college in a desolate northern Canadian town whose claim to fame is that it has one of the world's largest malls. The reason it has such a large mall, by the way, is because it is, very normally, -40C (-40C is also -40F, there's a little known fact for you) and people can't go outside or they would die so they had to build a sort-of city/mall where people could go between November and April.
Back to the point, one particular instructor of a class called "Mass Media" despised me. Apparently I did not appreciate what an honor it was to be taught by such a titan of the industry. As well, I knew much, much more than him on anything to do with computers and I would often have to help him when he was trying to teach us how to use our Macintosh computers. Suffice it to say that he wanted me out and he had me kicked out of the program. That was in 1989.
In 1999, at the peak of the internet bubble, a company I founded, called Stockhouse Media Corporation employed nearly 300 people in 8 countries worldwide and had a market capitalization of nearly $250 million. I thought about sending him a note to thank him for kicking me out of his "Mass Media" program so I could make better use of my time by actually starting a mass media company.
And so, when I first heard the phrase, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach" it really resonated with me.
As a disclaimer, of course there are some amazing teachers in the world. But, because of how public school systems are run (as unionized, non-performance based rewarded systems) really good teachers in public school are a rarity.
Here is one guy who actually is an amazing teacher. Check out his website. His name is Dr. Khan and he provides free instructional videos to learn math from the most basic to the most advanced levels. He has created over 1,800 free videos to date! Now that is a great teacher! As well, it makes the point that we don't need traditional schools to learn anymore. MIT has posted its ENTIRE curriculum for free online. Between MIT and Dr. Khan's videos you could get a world-class education for free.
LONDON RIOTS
Maybe someone should tell that to the socialist dimwits rioting around London today.;)
Charles & Camilla Under Seige - Click to Enlarge
Don't get me wrong, anytime anyone throws a brick at a head of state or a member of "royalty", I can't say I dislike the thought.
But, as usual, they are doing it for all the wrong reasons. As we pointed out in a recent blog post, "A Solution for the UK Student Riots", the people rioting should just go online to get a world-class education - and it's free, just like they are asking. But, most of these students come from a socialist/communist bent and think that it is the duty of others in society to pay for their education.
Probably the funniest part of today's riots was this photo of the swarm of riot police.
We've commented a few times (here in "England: Making 1984 a Reality" and here in "Save the Children... And the Prostitutes") on the UK's ridiculous "visibility" campaign where they want the entire ;)
Neon Riot Police - Click to Enlargeisland to wear fluorescent green vests so they don't get hit by cars.
And so, when we saw this photo of hundreds of riot police facing off against communist "students" armed with molotov cocktails, bricks, rocks and other artillery, we wondered whose bright idea it was to make the riot police as visible as possible!
THOSE WHO CAN, DO. THOSE WHO CAN'T, TEACH.
Turning to the poor, US, and I mean that literally. Just look at the two top positions in the state machine. Both teachers.
Barack Obama, who has never held a real job up to and including today. He apparently held one position as a "community organizer" but still to this day I have no idea what that even means.
After that he went straight from being in school for years, studying the labyrinth of millions of laws in the land of the free and then went straight into teaching as a professor. And what did he teach? "Constitutional Law". Judging by everything he says and everything he has done in his life, one can only conclude that he must never have even read the Constitution of the US. Yet, he taught it for 12 years before becoming a public "servant".
Ben Shalom Bernanke, who some call the most powerful person in the world, has only ever held one real job up to and including today. He served tables at a restaurant at an attraction called "South of the Border" while going to Harvard in Economics. After graduating, instead of going out into the real world and trying out one or two of his bizarre, inane theories, he did what? You guessed it, he went straight into teaching.
Now, you may be thinking that if some people with some real world experience held the jobs of President of the United States or Chairman of the Federal Reserve they would likely be run better. You'd be absolutely correct.
However, here is the thing, both jobs are central planning jobs. Barack Obama is seen to be a person who is the "decider". He decides what 350 million Americans are going to do. And Ben Bernanke is charged with controlling the entire US, and by surrogate, much of the world economy.
In case you haven't studied up on how things went in the Soviet Union, here's the Coles Notes: One man, nor even a committee of men, can know best what to do for millions of other people nor how to "guide" the economy. The only workable way for millions of people to work together for the greater good is through the free market of non-coercive trade in which millions of people all try to better their lives and make decisions on what resources are used based on what they are willing to trade/pay for.
And so, to let Barack Hussein and Ben Shalom off the hook, a little bit, even if they were wise and experienced they still would fail.
They'd just fail a lot slower than at the light speed they are currently destroying the USA.
Perhaps there should be an amendment to that saying: "Those Who Can, Do. Those Who Can't, Teach. And Those Who Can't Teach, Become the President of the US & the Chairman of the Federal Reserve."
Reader Comments (4)
I've heard this version fairly often up here in the land of lumberjacks and igloos.
"Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. And those who can't teach write a book."
Granted there are some outstanding teachers and some outstanding writers, but surely not where most people are looking.
Haha, that is a great version... and also poignant as both Barack and Ben have authored books!
TDV: You are good. This piece is so on point. Love it!!!
replica Patek Philippe watches
replica watches
replica Tag Heuer watches
replica U boat watches