Grinding through Teeline

That's how I've spent the past couple of days, going back over what was taught, but this time doing it at my own pace.  It's more than 30 years since I was formally taught anything that matters and it's been interesting to see how I best work.

The first thing to say is that two-hour Teeline sessions without a break just don't do it for me, and it appears that I'm not alone.  Talking to teachers and lecturers that I know, coupled with a bit of internet research, it appears that the consensus view is that somewhere between 45 and 60 minutes is the optimum time to teach - after that and the Law of Diminishing returns kicks in.  If you've a two or three-hour session, the advice seems to be to break it up and let the students grab a coffee, pop to the loo, get a breath of fresh air, talk to each other and so on - in other words, encourage their minds to wander off the taught subject so that they return to it fresher and with renewed enthusiasm.

Grinding through the Teeline book yesterday, I found that is exactly how it works for me: I get much more done in three 40-minute sessions than I would in a single two-hour session - that's obviously how my mind works best.  Besides, after two hours of non-stop Teeline I'd need to have all sharp objects kept well out of my reach!

If we stick with the macho two-hour slots (why not miss lunch and just hammer through for a straight five hours?), then I'm going to stand up every 45 minutes or so and have a wander around, for no reason other than the fact that I'm still rehab'ing from an arthroscopy on my ageing knee, and two hours of sitting down becomes damned uncomfortable!

I remember Rick Stein once saying, when he was laughing at the breed of young chefs who shout, f' and blind, hit their sous-chefs, and generally set out to demonstrate just how much excess testosterone they have in their systems, that the view seems to be that 'You're not a real man until you've been hit with a Sautoise thrown at you by a Michelin-starred chef'!  I'm afraid I feel a bit like that now and I've decided that from here on in I need to learn Teeline in the way that works best for me, and that involves taking the occasional break.