Teaching: A Great Learning Opportunity

As I post this, I’m now starting my third week of the spring semester teaching my Practical Politics class in the Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University. In fact, upon completion of this semester, I will have finished ten years of teaching that followed ten years in Washington D.C. as Archivist of the United States. I share that because, for me, the value of those twenty years has been a very productive post-graduate program with no degree. What I got, and continue to get, are endless learning experiences.

Starting in D.C. working with many really bright and experienced folks, I was introduced to things like formal strategic planning, systems thinking, and change management. I had been blessed prior to then to work with some incredible talent, many very young, that gave us opportunities to successfully lead and bring about significant changes that I believe had very positive impacts on the state we served.

But it was with the opportunity to teach that it all sort of came together. In focusing on what to teach, how to teach, and making sure the students actually were learning, I learned a ton—including much directly from the students. For me, teaching is more learning than anything else and then finding the best ways to share that learning with the students that really makes the difference.