It's All About the "Can Do"

“There is more to teaching than the curriculum - The more you know."  This quick hitter from the Emmy award winning series of television PSA's sponsored by NBC strikes at the heart of an issue that anyone dedicated to helping students learn can stand up and cheer about. 

Getting it done well means knowing the “What to,” the “How to,” and the “Can do.”

Almost all of us get the “what to.”  That is, we know what the message is, be it an academic lesson, a sales presentation, or whatever.  We  hone and polish and refine the “what to”until it is as tight and efficient as it can be.  Most of us also get the typical “how to.”  We design and develop our strategies, create our presentations, and assemble our attractively and neatly gathered materials.

But it is the “can do” where the process most often breaks down--developing and utilizing all the resources, especially the students, in a useful and skillful way.  Empowering Youth:Accessing Positive Peer Power  addresses the “can do.” It makes plain a process that can be used in any setting and guides the reader in a way that can open the door to effective learning.  It is, in fact, about using resources in a useful and skillful way.