To be fair, the 'team player' is what most people like. It's the way we were taught and I still shudder when I think of learning my times tables at primary school. I'm still not confident of them.
So say there's 90% of the population quite happy with the times tables and 10% that get the shudders. That doesn't mean they're a good idea for any body. it's not 'horses for courses', it's just a bad idea some suffer less from but that doesn't mean there isn't better ways to learn.
I have tested it out with swimming. In the 5 years I did it, every child and adult that came my way benefitted from my abandoning the drills in favour of me just showing them the skill in action. There were a few complaints from children who were most comfortable with being told what to do like they don't have a mind of their own but mainly it would be the other children who would cue them in, and at the minimum we had more fun but I will swear on a stack of bibles that they all achieved better results - more elegant style. Just much better to be in control of your own learning.
But they got there by submitting to my leadership. They had to abandon all notions and let me call the shots. I'd get in the water with them and we'd make our way around the pool as a group and that really is one of the best things - the way that they would help each other without thinking or looking to me first.
It is subtle and extraordinary the interplay of dependency and originality, control and submission.
What I'm trying to say is that we weren't wrong in the way we were, just fooled into being that way with a charlatan.
