Mentoring - How to Teach a Skill
| Category: | Leadership |
|---|---|
| Props: | A length of rope for demonstrating a knot (optional) |
| Notes: | For older Scouts and troop guides who teach younger Scouts, or before a skills session. Introduces the EDGE method used in Scouts BSA leadership training: Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Enable. Demonstrate with a knot as you go if you have a rope handy. For the why behind mentoring, see the mentorship and teaching-others minutes. Part of a series - see also followership-the-other-half-of-leadership, followership-disagreeing-the-right-way, and mentoring-how-to-be-a-good-mentee. |
Most of you can tie a bowline without thinking about it. But have you ever tried to teach one to a brand-new Scout? It's harder than it looks. Knowing a skill and teaching it are two different things.
Scouting has a simple way to teach almost anything. It's called EDGE.
E is for Explain. Tell them what you're about to do and why it matters. "This is a bowline. It makes a loop that won't slip, so it's the knot you'd use for a rescue."
D is for Demonstrate. Show them. Slowly. Then show them again. Stand beside them, not across from them, so they see it the same way their hands will do it.
G is for Guide. Now hand them the rope. Let them try while you coach. This is the hard part, because you'll want to grab the rope and fix it. Don't. Talk them through it. "Rabbit comes up out of the hole. Good. Now around the tree."
E is for Enable. Step back and let them do it on their own. Then give them a reason to use it, like tying up the dining fly at the next campout. A skill you use is a skill you keep.
One more thing. Every Scout who teaches well remembers how it felt to be the one who didn't know. Be patient. Somebody was patient with you.