“There is but one way to learn to do a thing and that is to do it.” -Daniel Carter Beard

From my personal teaching experience I can wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Beard on this fine point. In truth, all of us are “tactile” learners, we all learn best by doing and practicing whatever it is we want to learn. I have also found from my Scouting and teaching experience, teaching others is the best way to cement what is to be learned in my brain. To teach someone something I must have a base level of knowledge but when you explain or teach the lesson, you must have a much wider understanding of the how and why otherwise you are little more than an encyclopedia. This is what separates regurgitation from practical knowledge. You can know the names, dates, places, and events from history but without knowing what was going on around those items at the time you cannot connect the dots and use the information effectively…there is no way for you to truly understand the causes and affects that the topic will have on the future. This is why history is cyclical, we do not know the trends and patterns but we can tell you from memory the Declaration of Independence was signed July 4, 1776.