Playing pedagogue

I've found myself taking on the role of teacher at work recently. In an effort to bolster the dwindled ranks of the development team, our manager has decided to try and purloin Simon, a member of the support team who's a bright enough lad and who usually ends up twiddling his thumbs during the quiet summer period. Apparently he's looking for "new challenges" - well, if ever there was a time to be careful what you wish for...

The plan is for the current developers to take turns to try and impart the necessary knowledge to become a Java programmer. I volunteered to go first. To be honest, I suspect our manager has drastically underestimated the length of time it will take for Simon to become a productive member of society... erm, I mean the development team, but it makes a change from what I've been up to of late and it's proving to something of a challenge for me too.

Probably the hardest part for me is trying to remember what it's like not to know what I know. Simon is starting from scratch so I've been covering what I consider to be the fundamentals of coding, but even then I find myself making certain assumptions and more than once I've caught myself giving circular definitions (i.e. it's like x because of y, and like y because of x, without adequately describing x or y). Fortunately Simon has been patient with me and whatever qualities I may lack as a teacher, patience isn't one of them. However, my task hasn't been made easier by the fact that Simon had been trying to plough through one of the ubiquitous "Learn Java in 24 hours" books on his own and so has a number of questions which I just can't explain without delving into concepts I'd rather not at this stage. I had a glance through the book to see if there was much useful advice I could rip from it, but I quickly came to the conclusion that it's, well, rubbish (at least for a complete beginner). Everything is presented in the wrong order. I ended up telling Simon that it would make more sense if he read the even chapters first and the odd ones. He thought I joking at first, but he did and it did. We haven't advanced very far yet, but I am pleased with the progress he's made. Enough to make me feel as though I'm doing something right. He even wrote his first class today. I felt so proud.

Still he won't be on my watch for very much longer. I'd quite like to continue, but practical necessity intervenes and so I'll soon be passing him on someone else to follow in my footsteps. Hopefully I won't have spoiled him ;)