From Teaching to Training

[Coronavirus – XI]

I can get any information in any language at anytime for free . . . from people with multiple PhD’s. We live in a flat world. It’s global, it’s accessible, it’s online.

But we also live in neighborhoods. And sometimes, our flat world—global realities that are worlds apart but feel like they’re down the street—takes aim at local health. By condensing the rest of the world to our fingertips, we’ve distanced ourselves from our actual neighbors.

The difference between teaching and training is more obvious than ever. Teaching can go online. Training cannot.

You can’t become an RN without some clinical hours because Anatomy & Physiology is not the same thing as drawing blood or setting a broken bone. I can think of so many examples.

You can’t be a gardener and grow vegetables online.
You can’t be a chef and cook and deliver a warm meal online.
You can’t be neighbor and have a bonfire or change oil or prune a tree online.

So much of how we manage a pandemic is an issue of training (and not teaching). It won’t work online.

Who are you training?
What are you being trained to do?