Learning and studying are not the same.
Being a teacher is one of the toughest professions out there.
I remember my biology teacher. Back in high school.
She was one of those slightly hippie, super charming types.
Though, pretty peculiar:
Mari Cruz
I’ll never forget what she said on the first day of class:
“You won’t need books. You can leave them at home.”
We all looked at each other like,
“This woman has completely lost it.”
How were we supposed to study?
How were we going to follow the curriculum?
She didn’t say a word. Just smiled and started teaching.
And something happened.
It was almost like magic.
The bell rang, and class was over.
We looked at the clock.
I exchanged glances with my classmates.
Two hours had passed.
TWO freaking hours!
And we hadn’t even noticed.
That was magic.
Pure magic.
And it didn’t stop there.
The same thing happened, day after day.
But the real magic came on a Wednesday at 10:05 a.m.
We sat in our seats.
And Mari Cruz handed out blank sheets of paper.
She didn’t say a word.
Just handed them out.
We looked at each other, confused.
With a big smile, she said:
“Alright, everyone. Today we’re having a test.”
The looks on my classmates’ faces were priceless—some terrified.
Mine probably was too.
Before we could process it, she started speaking.
“I’m going to dictate the questions. Write them down.”
She dictated all the questions.
I read through them calmly, and I remember thinking:
“This can’t be this easy.”
Every question brought back a story she had told us.
I remembered everything. Every single detail.
And I wasn’t the only one.
The lowest grade in the class was an 8.5.
I’ll never forget that.
The funny part came when we talked about the test with students from other classes.
“Whoa, that was brutal!”
“What a crazy test!”
But for all of us who had Mari Cruz, it was one of the easiest tests we’d ever taken.
And it stayed that way all year long.
That was years ago, but I learned something.
Something essential.
Something I’ve only come to fully appreciate over the years:
This is how teaching should always be.
ALWAYS.
And that’s how we like to do things at Alice & Bob.
We don’t need 40-hour courses if we can teach you in 2 hours.
We don’t need 372 PowerPoint slides to help you understand the topic.
And we certainly don’t need you staying up at 11 p.m. for two weeks just to finish a course.
That’s not the idea.
It doesn’t make sense to do it that way.
Think about Mari Cruz.
That’s how we like to teach.
CHECK OUT THE COURSES WE OFFER →
We’re pretty sure Mari Cruz would be proud.
And if you don’t like it, you can always head to Udemy and buy a 40-hour Python introduction course.
