Those Who Can’t Do, Teach
By David Polakoff
In Joe Jackson’s song, “On Your Radio,” one line has the protagonist paying homage to the enduring inspiration, influence, and impact from his teachers. Whenever I hear the line, I always reflect on the teachers who nurtured me, whether teaching the mundane lessons of geometry, or those who posed challenging questions, developing soundness in my judgment, or the ones who cultivated my thought processes which underly rational decision-making. Never did I imagine I would become a teacher (i.e., sailing instructor) and that one of my students would hear that song, and perhaps think of me.
My gratitude toward any of my teachers (academic or sailing) is multi-fold, as I now require all of the aforementioned skills (and them some) in order to sail. I am also grateful for their decision to have become a teacher, passing along their knowledge, and through their unique style and charisma, fostering and advancing the abilities of their students, like me.
I never even had a plan to sail, let alone become an instructor. Unlike the unhappiness of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, “La Forza del Destino,” the whole of my sailing involvement is attributable to the good outcomes from the power of fate. Back when a friend simply asked me, “Hey, do you want to take sailing lessons?” my ultimate sailing obsession and future as a sailing instructor organically ensued, all from that novel notion. Through such a serendipitous sailing journey, I now reap the rewards of not only bringing new sailors into the world but I also enjoy having gained and grown as an individual. Maybe this is your destiny, as well.
Vince Ricardo: Just go with the flow, Shel, just go with the flow.
Sheldon: What flow? There isn’t any flow.
from Andrew Bergman’s “The In-Laws”
Sometimes, a friend suggests an activity that was never on your bucket list, but you casually agree, thinking, “How bad can it be?” In affirmatively responding to the friend’s proposition, to spend a weekend learning to sail, I just thought it would be one of those endeavors, that once completed, strengthened the bond of an already close friendship; amazingly, it would be a life changing experience. When I now commence my sailing classes, querying my new students as to the impetus for having signed-up, sometimes, one student points to the adjacently seated person, noting, “Well, Lisa signed up and commandeered me to join her.” When I hear this, I only hope that Lisa’s friend’s inadvertent introduction to sailing will be as transformative for her, as it was for me.
Many sailing schools are also sailing clubs, where the former feeds membership for the latter. Afterall, unless your uncle owns a sailboat, how can you readily access a sailboat? Many clubs operate whereby a more experienced sailor is a sailboat’s in-charge, skipper, joined by fellow club members of varying degrees of experience, skill, and talent, for an afternoon sail. While the aim is for a delightful, sailing afternoon, some are aboard with a goal to hone their chops while others are more or less, “along for the ride,” content with hovering at a beginner’s level of competency; there to simply enjoy the excursion.
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