Recently I suspended all the courses I was teaching at Salt Lake City School of Photography so I could focus on solving some of the issues that I have faced when teaching photography classes.
I spent weeks reading researching, making notes and thinking. I’ve been forced to change my whole outlook on education.
Most people in education industry will disagree with me.
I’ve already had a few discussions that could only end in a disagreement.
I used to think if I set up a class and you enrolled it was your responsibility to make it to class.
All the responsibility for success fell on the student.
I don’t think that now.
It’s more of a 70-30 split with 70% falling on the teacher… Me.
Most of the responsibility for success of students should fall on the teacher and the institution, not the student!
A few weeks ago I was at a book store reading and looking for answers and I picked up the book “Scarcity”. I don't remember who wrote it. :(
I don’t remember what chapter I opened up to but I began reading a story about two World War II bombers. One of the bombers had a high success rate but for some reason the pilots of the other bomber would end up dead at a very percentage. The military called in all kinds of specialists to look at the pilots. They assumed the pilots were not trained as well or maybe they were just incompetent.
The specialists couldn’t figure out what the problem was. It confused everyone.
But there was one specialist who was also a pilot and he went and sat in the cockpits of both of the bombers and he sat there and thought. The cockpits were set up different. Some of the important levers were hard to reach in the bomber that had a high wreckage rate. After months the conclusion was simple. It wasn’t the pilots who were incompetent. It was the cockpit.
The pilots who were flying that particular bomber were set up to fail.
In the courses I have taught in the past there is a percentage that I have seen of students who don’t finish the photography class. It’s just above 15%.
Who does some pay $600+ for a class and then not finish?
There are a lot of reasons. Some of the possibility’s are that they get home from work and are tired so they skip a class. The next week they feel embarrassed that they might be behind so the stop attending. Maybe they have a sick child one night and can’t make it. There are lots of reasons. A class that is not flexible is in a sense setting it’s students up for failure. I think that is wrong.
Therefore I am changing all of my course structures. Classes are not taught for one night now.
They will be set up in weekly modules.
Courses are new set up for to make sure you are successful!
The module will start on a Wednesday and go through the next Tuesday.
Students will have several opportunities to attend and if they feel they don’t understand the information good enough they can attend more than once during the week.
This is one of the things I am changing so I take more responsibility for your success. I have a few more things I will change but they take time and a lot of planning. I’m excited about this new program. When I set out to teach photography I decided I wanted to build the best school in the world and this is just the beginning.
This is me! Ikon
I love spending time outside with my kids. I love to travel and I ride a longboard! I teach classes at Salt Lake City School of Photography. Check out my website and take a class or message me today about a private lesson!
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