Pay attention to the wording of questions.

Alright this thread sucks so it's now about which is better- waffles or pancakes.

Post a picture as your answer please so we can turn this thread from suck to awesome.

Here's my answer:

76860d1340061823-waffle.jpg
 
Misunderstanding always starts with the writer's cognizance of what's coming across

PGHteacher said:
This is a valuable lesson to learn people “skim” posts; only about ½ the people that read your post probably got to the bottom. I think you may have the same problem I had when I was young; I am a detail oriented person, the reality is that ½ - most people are not. How many people read:

1. The table of contents
2. The instruction/owners manual
3. The welcome page

How many? If you guessed 50% you’re dreaming; this is how people take in and process information; most people think they “are too smart to bother with all that” and most of those people are really on the lower end of the intelligence scale, but they think they are on the high end.

So when you posted “what is the purpose of having a pool instructor?” There were plenty of people that posted an answer to that. This will frustrate some people (it used to almost take me to the brink of madness because I read everything before doing anything). But this is not what people do; people want to “get to it”.



You should not be; you should learn from it, it has nothing to do with “YOU” per say it has to do with how people gather & process information; if you want to become an effective teacher you will have some “growing up to do” in this respect believe me I sure did when I started out.



You may not care to hear this but here is some real life advice <lower your expectations of people> Expect that people are:

1. Not going to read (at least not everything).
2. Not going to listen.
3. Not going to pat attention.

This will not only save you time but aggravation as well; I think others tried to say the same thing to you but just not in a nice way those are the people that don’t read, don’t listen, don’t pay attention and are confused as to why you would expect them to. They actually think like this “ME! Why would you expect ME to give YOU MY undivided attention???? Also most of these people think that 99.99% of THE WORLD thinks this way. These people are not stupid they are not a$$____s they represent about ½ the people on the planet. (depending on where you go; in some cultures these people are actually the minority.)

The good news is that those that want to take lessons are generally the other 50%, but every once in awhile you will run into one of these as your student; remember paid or not you took on that responsibility, and it is still your responsibility to teach them as long as they are paying you or the table time or you tell them flat out that you can’t.
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Myrtle:

This is a good synopsis and advice from PGHteacher.

What you did wrong -- and are continuing to do wrong even in this thread -- is assume *YOU* did nothing wrong. But you did! Whenever you use phraseology like "what is the purpose..." of anything, whether you like it or not, you're posing a question about the validity of something's existence.

No matter how well you phrase it, no matter how well you position it, the concatenation of "what is" with "the purpose" results in this impression upon the reader.

Put it this way -- whenever you see something that strikes you as odd or out of place, what are the first words that pop into your head? Wouldn't "what is the purpose of that?" or "why is that there?" pop into your head?

Your "what is the purpose of an instructor" thread did just that -- it gave the reader the immediate impression that you were questioning the validity or "use" of an instructor. It doesn't matter that you go on to explain the real nature of your question in the post itself -- your intent was already dead on arrival.

You can blame the "human race" all you want, but until you look in the mirror to see your part in this, you're going to continue to make this mistake.

Take it from someone that does technical writing as part of his living. I architect huge enterprise networks, implement them, and then I have to document them. And when writing this hand-off / knowledge-transfer documentation, I've learned over the years to always ask myself, at just about every sentence, "how can someone f*** this up? What can *I* do to prevent people from misunderstanding and f***ing this up?" I've learned over the years that there are phrases in the English language to stay away from, because no matter how you use them -- in any context -- they will always be taken as something else. Your "what is the purpose..." is a grand example.

Food for thought, along with the waffles,
-Sean
 
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ahhh pancakes.... THE saturday morning cartoon-watching delicacy of love. there really is no substitute....

except for dozens of crispy little squares filled with melted butter and real maple goodness - like a waffle...


now i must eat some - BBL
 
Jodacus said:
Hey Bob,
Where did you get that picture of my wife ????
Click to expand...

You were married to Bette Davis? Awesome, d00d.

Did you know that Bette Midler was named after Bette Davis but her mom didn't know that Ms. Davis pronounced her name like "Betty" so Ms. Midler's name is pronounced "bet" or "bête" depending on which continent you're in? Unless you're incontinent.

Which reminds me of the Henny Youngman joke, "That's no lady, that's my wife." For more jokes by Mr. Youngman, who was never young when I saw him, see http://www.funny2.com/henny.htm
 
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Young man, the best way to learn about how to teach effectively, would be to take a "teaching" lesson from a qualified instructor. In one day you could learn almost all you'd ever need to become a GREAT teacher. I understand you're a college student, and $$$ is an issue, but if you're serious about this, it is an investment that you should save for. If you're interested, PM me when you're ready, and I'll come to you.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Myrtle_04 said:
I posted a thread on here wanting perspective about what pool instructors attempt to accomplish when teaching students and also ideas of what students expect from their pool instructors. Instead, I get a bunch of guys arguing about whether or not people should seek out a pool instructor.

I mean seriously, how does a thread go from "how can I become a better instructor" to "you don't need an instructor. all you need is 1000 hours of table time a year"

I understand trying to make a point, but why don't people read all the comments before making their own post. If you don't you make an idiot out of yourself by either repeating something already said or saying something that is completely off topic and has no bearing on what the OP started the thread for in the first place.

Obviously my wording of "What is the Purpose of having a Pool Instructor" should really be "What is the purpose of a pool instructor".

I'm SO sorry
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Man, something is wrong with the world in whole. Tiffany was a better singer
than Debbie Gibson any day of the year!........and don't you forget it.:wink::eek::rolleyes:
 
I just dont understand why you'd want to worm a question.

What do worms even have to do with questions?

All they do is just wiggle around and eat dirt.

oh wait.....

6a00d8341bf80c53ef015390e305b6970b-320wi.jpg
 
Scott Lee said:
Young man, the best way to ...
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Speaking of Henny Youngman, here's a pool joke from him. Well, the wording is changed a little to make it a pool joke.

A pool player asked me, "Give me $10 till payday." I asked, "When's payday?" He said, "I don't know, you're the one who is working!" ​
 
sfleinen said:
Myrtle:
What you did wrong -- and are continuing to do wrong even in this thread -- is assume *YOU* did nothing wrong. But you did! Whenever you use phraseology like "what is the purpose..." of anything, whether you like it or not, you're posing a question about the validity of something's existence.

No matter how well you phrase it, no matter how well you position it, the concatenation of "what is" with "the purpose" results in this impression upon the reader.

Put it this way -- whenever you see something that strikes you as odd or out of place, what are the first words that pop into your head? Wouldn't "what is the purpose of that?" or "why is that there?" pop into your head?

Your "what is the purpose of an instructor" thread did just that -- it gave the reader the immediate impression that you were questioning the validity or "use" of an instructor. It doesn't matter that you go on to explain the real nature of your question in the post itself -- your intent was already dead on arrival.

You can blame the "human race" all you want, but until you look in the mirror to see your part in this, you're going to continue to make this mistake.

Take it from someone that does technical writing as part of his living. I architect huge enterprise networks, implement them, and then I have to document them. And when writing this hand-off / knowledge-transfer documentation, I've learned over the years to always ask myself, at just about every sentence, "how can someone f*** this up? What can *I* do to prevent people from misunderstanding and f***ing this up?" I've learned over the years that there are phrases in the English language to stay away from, because no matter how you use them -- in any context -- they will always be taken as something else. Your "what is the purpose..." is a grand example.

Food for thought, along with the waffles,
-Sean
Click to expand...

yea bull’s-eye, right on target, exactly, that’s it but:

:killingme::killingme::killingme:
:rotflmao1::rotflmao1::rotflmao1:
:rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao:
:lol:

You put it in a much more funny way, yours had more impact (probably) because he will remember because it had the humor factor; I toast you!
 
Lol.....you got me Bob.
That pic of the pancakes, has me thinking about making some.to lazy to drive to the diner..lol
 
speaking of "the wording of questions"...

as a kid, when i visited my grandma, one of my favorite things to do was head out to the back yard, climb one of her fruit trees, and eat myself silly...

but the neighbors had a (fenced) dog that hated my very existence - and would bark himself blue in the face while I indulged just a few yards away...



one day i got sick of the noise, and after unsuccessfully negotiating a peace treaty with said dog, i decided to take matters into my own hands...

i retrieved the water hose, installed a nice long-range sprayer on the end, and proceeded to the fence...

the dog was LIVID, and had he been able to jump just a little bit higher, i'm sure i wouldnt be typing this story today....



anyway, i calmly gave the dog his last rites and a blessing, and then blasted him hard enough to knock his fleas into the next county...

it must have got his attention, because amazingly enough, the barking stopped immediately. the funny part is that the dog had this look on his face like " what the hell was that strange clear substance that just knocked me on my ass ? "

well, as luck would have it, the beautiful new silence i was enjoying apparently got the attention of the dogs owner, who at once stormed over to the fence to accost me...



the universal laws of ridiculous slapstick comedy snapped into effect when the neighbor, who could barely speak a lick of english, attempted in his frustration, to demand an explanation of me...

he stared me dead in the face, and with the most serious look i have ever seen on a man, he sternly asked:

" WHY WATER DOG ?!! - HE NO BARK YOU ?!! "
 
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