Teach With Style: Child and Adult Learners

One drizzly Sunday afternoon in Seattle, while Jim sipped coffee and gazed out a bakery window, a young mother suddenly zipped past, pushing her toddler in a stroller. With wide sparkling eyes the child greeted this common, everyday street scene as if it were a garden of delights. He seemed to be shouting, “Show me everything—I want it all!” If all adult learners came to our workshops and classes with that same attitude, how easy it would be to teach! Yet adults and children approach learning very differently.