After being on a blog hiatus for a bit, we thought that we would start our blog back up in September 2015 with what we do with student’s questions, and we encourage our students at École Holt Couture – School of Couture Fashion Sewing and Design to ask lots and lots of questions. After all, we are here to share what we know about our area of expertise.
Some questions require multi-dimensional answers. In other words, the answer depends on the specific situation “if this, then do this”, when all that is wanted is a simple directive to “how do I do this?”.
So, the strategy goes like this. At the very beginning, we say “it doesn’t matter why, just do it this way”, which later progresses to “do it this way, but in certain situations do it the other way”.
In advanced classes, we give several answers to a single question, but each answer is quite relevant. Later still, the students are encouraged to come up with their own thought-out solutions and to bounce them off the wall with us.
Finally, the goal is that students work through their questions and problems based on relevant research plus what they already know in some form, and can defend their solution paths. It is at this point when we can breathe out a happy sigh and know that we’ve done our job reasonably well.
There are better ways and not-so-successful ways of doing things to achieve a result. Nothing is written in stone, and it is universally accepted, or least it should be, that no one should have to reinvent the wheel to be a highly skilled creative type, and yet still considered to be ‘original’ in their art form.
No single person knows everything there is to know about any single thing. So we continue to learn throughout our careers and lives, and we learn from the experience of others before us. It saves a tremendous amount of learning time, unless we are stubbornly determined to engineer a new pattern for the wheel.
We also encourage you to never stop asking the tough questions. Never be satisfied with a simple answer, but don’t over complicate things just because you can. The best solutions are sometimes very simple and sometimes very complicated. Sometimes they require a team to figure it out, sometimes they just require an unexpected ‘Ah-ha’ moment. Sometimes they need in-depth explanation and sometimes they just need an act of faith.
Diploma
Certificate
First-Ever Day in Class this is what you learn…. cheers! J
