How Not to Teach 177 Rule #3: Teach practice first, theory and facts second [if you must teach theory and facts at all]. It is the rare course that starts with, let’s build this now. Courses that start like that usually hold the students’ interest, however. Now let’s move on to the next mistake. Mistake #4: Thinking that students are not worried about the purpose of what they are being taught When students ask what use algebra will be to them, they are told they will need it later. They are told this about any number of subjects that they are forced to learn in high school. The problem is that sub- ject-based education is never about the potential use of those subjects. Those were the subjects at Harvard in 1892; that is the only answer that is true about why students are being forced to learn them. No one gives that answer. In fact, very few seem to know that answer. Students have the right to know why they are learning something. “You will need it later,” is usually a lie, so we need to stop telling them that. And, we need to think about what real reasons there are to learn something. If we cannot find those reasons, we really shouldn’t be teaching the subject. But, of course, I don’t think we should be teach- ing subjects at all, so my view on this should come as no surprise. Rule #4: Don’t teach anything unless you can easily explain the use of learning it. Let’s look at the next mistake. Mistake #5: Thinking that studying can replace repeated practice as a key learning technique Practice makes sense. When studying and homework mean prac- tice, then they are good things. But rarely is that their intent. Unless, of course, we are talking about practicing test taking, which makes sense only if good test scores are the goal. I realize that good test scores are, these days, the goal in our society, as one would expect in any subject-based education system. So here is rule #5: HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023923