Winston wrote in
:


Absolutely, I am convinced that a lot of machinists are tactile
learners and cannot count the number of times that students have told
me, "I learn best when I can have the real thing to figure out as
opposed to reading the manual". My guess is that a lot of the people
in this group are of that ilk.

I'd go much further than that.

I know of no one who learns better from text than from doing it
themselves, particularly with the guidance of an expert. Machining,
electronics, math, needlepoint ... the subject does not seem to
matter a bit.


Actually I have had several students who do exactly that. They take the
written stuff, don't tend to use only texts, and go off to do their own
thing. In fact one of them would rewrite the stuff in his own words as he
had found over time that this was the best way for him to learn. He had
problems if he had to work with others in a group or had to immediately
apply whatever the subject was. These types of learners are few and far
between in my experience, but they do exist.

My own opinion is that there is no one way to teach someone, so the best
method is to let them choose the way they learn best and provide support
for that (within reason).