How do you talk with your learners? Such a basic question – and yet as an informal educator I was never trained in it. Unfortunately, that means I started out my teaching career reproducing what I had experienced myself: lecture-style tours with a few minutes for questions at the end. But there is another way:...

This week, I talk with Memphis piano teacher Jim Cornfoot. Many informal educators have a relatively narrow sense of our field’s scope. We tend to think of our community as looking just like us – just outdoor educators, or museum docents, or just coaches. From my conversation with Jim, though, I think you’ll realize...