The EDGE

There are many ways to teach people content and skills. There is memorization and regurgitation (definitely not my favorite), there is practical application teaching, and many more including lectures, labs, etc. I am not a teacher, but I am a scout leader and one of the most effective ways I have learned to teach a skill is utilizing the EDGE method. I’m sure that it is applied elsewhere outside of scouts, but it is one of the best ways in my mind to effectively teach a skill and have someone learn that skill. EDGE is obviously an acronym standing for Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Enable. The steps are self explanatory, but when utilized properly, both teaches a skill and ensures the pupil actually learns it and can perform that skill as well. Yet, with all teaching, unless that taught skill is put into practical application and practiced over and over, the taught skill will be lost

That’s why with all learning, the re-enforcement aspect is the most important. We can teach utilizing the EDGE method or any other type of teaching method available, but unless we see the practicality of what we are taught and can utilize it in real life, it often times will fade and we will need to re-learn it at a later time. This is why in scouts, we put the skills we teach into practice as much as possible, having the scouts use the skills they learned over and over again so they get cemented and don’t need to be re-learned. Even more important, when questioned how a certain skill, in the most recent case for me knot tying, can be applicable in every day life, I was able to explain that the more knots I know, the more versatile I can be around the house, at work, in the yard, and camping. It gives me the opportunity to utilize knots everywhere for a variety of different reason. Sometimes, scouts and children think of a skill in relation to the environment in which it is taught. Just because we taught knots at a scout meeting, doesn’t mean they can’t be used elsewhere. In fact, the best part is that the skills we teach can be utilized every day in a variety of ways.

Providing and teaching valuable skills using the EDGE method gives scouts and children a leg up in life. It prepares them for every eventuality and gives them the confidence to go out and take charge when others are unsure of themselves. I have full confidence that in almost any given scenario when an unknown is presented to children, if there is a scout in the group, they will take charge and take the lead. This is because they have been taught the skills and given the opportunity to practice those skills to lead confidently. It doesn’t just have to be scouts, but the more we prepare our youth with practical skills, teaching them in such a way that they actually learn the skill and practice it and get proficient at it, the more we are setting them up for success down the road. We need to invest in educating our youth the right way, not always through lectures, dictations, and boring memorization and regurgitation, but with hands on learning that utilizes as many senses as possible in the process. If we can touch and see and hear all at the same time while learning, we will solidify what we have learned even more in our brains and especially in our youth whose brains are much more absorbent than our older brains. That’s not to say we can’t learn when we are older, it just takes effort and diligence to do so. I am one for never stopping learning, for always pushing farther and learning more. So let’s set our youth on the right track, encourage them to learn, make it fun, make it practical, and make it memorable.