FP Held Hostage? Seeking Advice on Repairperson No Longer Responding

[Jon Szanto]

You lost all credibility with the “those who can’t, teach” rubbish. Unless you’d like to rephrase that, of course.

[724Seney]

You lost all credibility with the “those who can’t, teach” rubbish. Unless you’d like to rephrase that, of course.

It's a widely employed quote, not one I made up.

And, it just so happens it is consistent with much of what I have experienced in my life. If you have not experienced something similar it does not mean that I have not...........

If the result is I have now lost all credibility, so be it. It puts me in some good company.

[Jon Szanto]

It's a widely employed quote, not one I made up.

Uh, yeah, I'm well aware of this common quote, usually phrased a bit differently.

And, it just so happens it is consistent with much of what I have experienced in my life. If you have not experienced something similar it does not mean that I have not...........

That's fine. It means you haven't come across many - or any - of the remarkable teachers in this world. Using that phrase seeks to elevate one class of people while denigrating others, and yet there are countless millions of people who owe their success in life due to the guidance, skill and wisdom of one or more teachers.

If the result is I have now lost all credibility, so be it. It puts me in some good company.

Enjoy yourself and your company. BTW, who would you recommend for doing work on Sheaffer vac-fill pens?

[724Seney]

Uh, yeah, I'm well aware of this common quote, usually phrased a bit differently.

And, it just so happens it is consistent with much of what I have experienced in my life. If you have not experienced something similar it does not mean that I have not...........

That's fine. It means you haven't come across many - or any - of the remarkable teachers in this world. Using that phrase seeks to elevate one class of people while denigrating others, and yet there are countless millions of people who owe their success in life due to the guidance, skill and wisdom of one or more teachers.

If the result is I have now lost all credibility, so be it. It puts me in some good company.

Enjoy yourself and your company. BTW, who would you recommend for doing work on Sheaffer vac-fill pens?

It's really sad you constantly spend more time trying to find something to fight with in a post than you do trying to understand it.

To suggest to a lifelong teacher that he or she has not experienced some remarkable teachers in his or her life is beyond absurd.

Every teacher knows there is plenty of credence to that quote. I did not say nor imply it applies to all teachers. Nor that a teacher who can teach, but cannot do, is incapable of serving as a remarkable inspiration to a young person and have a greatly positive influence upon them.

As for the company I keep, I will indeed enjoy them. (Suffice it to say "present company" is not among them.)

PS: I'm sorry but I cannot help you with a recommendation on a good repair person for Sheaffer vac-fill pens.

[Jon Szanto]

To suggest to a lifelong teacher that he or she has not experienced some remarkable teachers in his or her life is beyond absurd.

Read carefully, as I left the door open to the possibility. I would never think a teacher themself would offer the unfortunate quote, but perhaps I am wrong in this. I do want to apologize, without going back and deleting it (I hate revisionist history) my use of the term rubbish. Not cool.

Every teacher knows there is plenty of credence to that quote. I did not say nor imply it applies to all teachers. Nor that a teacher who can teach, but cannot do, is incapable of serving as a remarkable inspiration to a young person and have a greatly positive influence upon them.

To the first statement, I still most vigorously disagree, and it is woefully inadequate to attempt to retroactively callibrate such a statement: it does, indeed, imply that a teacher is inferior to a practitioner with no qualifications. This is an egregious overstatement. The final failure is that it overlooks the most powerful negation of the statement itself: those that do both, with the skills, experience, and equanimity required in both actions.

This isn't an end-all, be-all dialog. I openly entertain your proposed way of finding other sources for a talent (in this case, pen repairs) but you have been opaque about the process as well as using an unfortunate catch-phrase to bolster it. As someone who has spent a career both as a performer and a teacher, I have never seen merit in the statement, even if I have seen members of both endeavors fall short as often as succeed. It is simply not the duality that your phrase clearly implies.

I would be interesting to hear a more delineated methodology for finding those wonderful craftspeople who seem to be hidden in our midst. There is no reason to not consider adding them to the strong list I have of talented repair professionals.

[guyy]

You lost all credibility with the “those who can’t, teach” rubbish. Unless you’d like to rephrase that, of course.

It's a widely employed quote, not one I made up.

And, it just so happens it is consistent with much of what I have experienced in my life. If you have not experienced something similar it does not mean that I have not...........

If the result is I have now lost all credibility, so be it. It puts me in some good company.

Let’s call a spade a spade: This phrase is an insult to teachers. On top of that, it is simply wrong. The teacher who taught you to read knows how to read. The teacher who taught you to multiply knows how to multiply.

And no you’re not in good company when you repeat it. In my experience, people who repeat this claptrap have unjustified confidence in their own knowledge and intellect. If you have not experienced something similar it does not mean that I have not.

[Jon Szanto]

Gerry Berg

I would second that recommendation.

I have two of Gerry's vac-fillers. Both would suck a golfball through a garden hose.

Gentlemen, I do apologize: I clearly should have labeled the rhetorical question as... a rhetorical question! Gerry has done a number of my Sheaffer's and I'm happy to attest to his work. Frankly, it's kind of interesting as he doesn't have any personal footprint on the various pen forums and doesn't run a personal site for his services (that I recall). He is simply known as one of the very best on that matter, and maybe a good example of the type of person 724Seney was referring to.

I don't know how many times I've posted on various forums that 17-second YouTube of Gerry demo-ing one of the barrel fills. Brings the house down.

[Chrissy]

You lost all credibility with the “those who can’t, teach” rubbish. Unless you’d like to rephrase that, of course.

It's a widely employed quote, not one I made up.

And, it just so happens it is consistent with much of what I have experienced in my life. If you have not experienced something similar it does not mean that I have not...........

If the result is I have now lost all credibility, so be it. It puts me in some good company.

Let’s call a spade a spade: This phrase is an insult to teachers. On top of that, it is simply wrong. The teacher who taught you to read knows how to read. The teacher who taught you to multiply knows how to multiply.

And no you’re not in good company when you repeat it. In my experience, people who repeat this claptrap have unjustified confidence in their own knowledge and intellect. If you have not experienced something similar it does not mean that I have not.

It was designed to be a phrase to disparage teachers. According to what I've read it originally came from George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman where the teacher discouraged the novel that a pupil was writing.
Either way it's not worth repeating and claptrap is a great description of it.

[corgicoupe]

You lost all credibility with the “those who can’t, teach” rubbish. Unless you’d like to rephrase that, of course.

It's a widely employed quote, not one I made up.

And, it just so happens it is consistent with much of what I have experienced in my life. If you have not experienced something similar it does not mean that I have not...........
.

There is another quote that speaks to this, and having been a university professor I can vouch for its truth: You don't really learn something well until you have taught it.

[dneal]

You lost all credibility with the “those who can’t, teach” rubbish. Unless you’d like to rephrase that, of course.

It's a widely employed quote, not one I made up.

And, it just so happens it is consistent with much of what I have experienced in my life. If you have not experienced something similar it does not mean that I have not...........
.

There is another quote that speaks to this, and having been a university professor I can vouch for its truth: You don't really learn something well until you have taught it.

Sounds kind of self-serving.

A variation that comes to mind is “you don’t really understand something unless you can explain it to a child in a way they understand.”