Call for posts: Accretionary Wedge #44, “most important teacher”

On Twitter earlier today, Ron Schott of the Geology Home Companion Blog asked for volunteers to host future Accretionary Wedges. I’ve long been a fan of this geologically-themed blog carnival so I jumped at the chance.

An interest in Geology, perhaps more than other subjects, is something that is often nurtured by good teaching. Geological learning is often about someone passing you a hand-lens and rock sample and telling you about the wonderful things you can see. None of us are starting from scratch; we all have access to a tremendous body of knowledge that enriches our understanding and enjoyment of Geology. So how did you get access to that knowledge?

The theme for this month is to tell us about your ‘most important teacher’. For those of us with a formal training an obvious route is to write about a person who taught us, talking about them and what we learnt from them. This is the route I shall be following, but my purpose here is not to constrain but to inspire you. We don’t just learn from people face-to-face. Or from people: sometimes it seems that rocks can speak. They can certainly teach us things.

Whatever your circumstances, if you’re still reading this post you are someone who loves Geology and loves to write about it. You know more now than you did when you started out. Tell us about that journey and the most important thing or person that helped you on your way.

Send in your links in comments below, or via Twitter. Since we are starting late, the closing date is the 13th April. I’ll collate all your links in the usual fashion.