Forum for How Not To Teach Go

negation and double-negation confusion [#1417]

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Isildur: negation and double-negation confusion (2008-06-07 10:30) [#4743]

There's a lot of confusion seen on this page over whether for a given practice X, people are saying to do X, not to do X, or not to not do X (i.e. to in fact do X).

This could perhaps be clarified by more consistent presentation. A master edit could perhaps reorganize the items in a manner along the lines of:

!Teaching Methods to Avoid:

doing abc
Straightforward explanation of why abc is bad (NOT a long paragraph of negations)
doing xyz
Straightforward explanation of why xyz is bad

Note that the bold part is a gerund (_ing) to make it clear that this is not a practice actually being advocated. Only that initial part should have an implied "Don't do actually do this"; the explanation would be written in a straightforward manner.

So, just for example, this:

Explain brilliant tesujis to beginners. If they complain that they don't get it, ignore them. When you have a group of a few people, try to pace the lessons to match the quickest learner. The quickest one is the only one who matters.

would become this:

!Teaching Methods to Avoid:

Explaining a brilliant tesuji to someone who just picked up a stone for the first time
This is likely of little educational value, as the newcomer does not yet have enough knowledge and experience in place to appreciate the subtler details of play. Remember: Basic things first!
Pacing a group lesson to suit the quickest-learning pupil
It may be tempting to move as quickly as possible because you want to move on to more interesting stuff, but you need to stay aware of the fact that different people learn at different rates. It's a group lesson, not a one-on-one lesson, so you should be trying to help them all. Ease up on the throttle there, ace, and some of the "slower" pupils may even surprise you later on!

I think this page could greatly benefit from a master edit applying such a format. What sayest thou?

X
xela: Re: negation and double-negation confusion -- I vote to keep it as is (2008-06-08 05:13) [#4745]

The page as it is represents a style of dry, understated humour that appeals to some people (e.g, me!) very much. I think that if someone actually reads the beginning and end of the page, and not just a random sentence from the middle, then there's no danger of confusion. It would be a shame to spoil the style of this page by explaining the joke too carefully.

 
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