Psychology

The Torn and Restored Card Trick is a perennially popular trick because it is appears more akin to real magic as opposed to a slight of hand. Of course, it is achieved through a slight of hand and learning how to perform this legendary trick brings forth a sense of wonderment in those that perform it, watch it, and learn it. However, this is a card trick that can be difficult to master. As such, it becomes a delicate trick to teach when you are working with someone that might become frustrated easily.

For my teaching experience, I decided to work with my long time friend John. John is definitely a good hearted person and willing to give anything a try. However, he can also seek to one up others if he feels his self-esteem is threatened. More often than not, his occasional mild outbursts at slights are based more on perception than reality. So, I needed to be delicate with such a personality type hoping to make John feel he is doing things properly even though his skill development may take time. In other words, I stressed to John that it would be unlikely to learn the trick in one session and consistent practice would be necessary. This made the session a great deal easier since it psychologically defused any potential problems with egoism if John felt threatened he could not do something I could not do. No, this is not to say John is an outright histrionic or narcissistic personality. However, he does seem to have certain issues with authority figures at times and realizing this must be weighed into teaching him something.

The way I prepared the lesson plan was reviewing the steps and repeatedly practicing the card trick over and over until I felt comfortable with it. I did not script any dialogue for the lesson plan because from my own experience, instructors who are scripted appear insincere. This often leads to a negative response in an audience that may resent being taught at as opposed to being taught. Additionally, since this was a one-on-one lesson with someone I knew, I felt that the best attitude to take was one that was stayed mostly informal and did not deviate from how we would react in our everyday experiences.

An instructor needs to be adept at a card trick when trying to teach it. The reason is that if you do not perform the card trick effectively yourself, you undermine the other persons confidence in you. It would be a normal human response to feel agitated towards an instructor lacks the ability to effectively perform the task. Subconsciously, many people will think their time is being wasted and that can snowball into indifference towards the person that is teaching the material. If the instructor continues to make mistakes, the attitude on the part of the other person can become resentful.
To a certain degree, there are those that display negative and antagonistic sentiments towards a faulty instructor because they feel let down by a person in a leadership position. All people have expectations of those in authority figure positions. Of course, everyone at some point in their life will be disappointed by an authority figure that does not deliver on expectations. As such, when you falter in your authority position, misplaced anger may be directed at you. This was something I was quite concerned with. This is why I took the most basic steps I could to prevent such a scenario from occurring.

Namely, I picked a very simple magic trick. The easier the trick, the easier it is to learn and teach. I did not want to fall into the trap of trying to use the teaching position as a way of impressing others. This would be a proverbial fools errand because most people will not be impressed by those clearly trying to hard to overly impress others. Such a ploy does not work and it would be an aberration of the teaching process.

There were not all that many structural problems in terms of being able to present the trick. Rather than having to take the difficult steps of resolving a problem, it was better to simply state from the outset I am new to this myself so please forgive me if I make a mistake. Johns response to me was Dont worry about it. This defused a lot of problems from the outset in case any problems occurred. It also establishes an equal parity among the two of us which would (hopefully) eliminate any potential tension if the lesson turned sour in any manner.

The criterion applied to the lesson plan was that success would be achieved if John could remember all the steps of the trick and perform the trick successfully at least once in our session. He did not have to be smooth with his performance. This would violate the prime tenant of the lesson which was to learn the basics of the trick and then perfect it with the right effort. Being too demanding of Johns performance and expecting him to get it right in one session simply would not be a realistic goal. John also has a tendency to be short tempered when frustrated (This ties into potential feeling so low self-esteem that might exist under the surface) so I did not want the lesson plan to frustrate him any more than what would be considered normal in teaching such skills.

One of the things I did not take into consideration when selecting this trick is that precision and attention to detail is of paramount importance. Considering Johns personality type can be delicate since he becomes agitated easily when corrected makes this trick a delicate one to present. Again, the way to circumvent this is to promote the notion that no one gets this trick right off the bat. Its takes practice so he should not be concerned with any initial difficulties.

The errors John made centered on lack of attention and perception of detail. This is not really to be unexpected because there are a number of steps to this particular trick that require proper precision. So, when he would forget steps, I would mention the steps he missed. At first, he was fine with this. At the third point, his responses become somewhat snarky. Again, ego issues weigh their head so I simply accepted the response with the hopes that he would not become frustrated with his performance. When students are overly sensitive to criticism, the instructor needs to realize that there may be underlying issues contributing to such a response. Rather than agitate them it is best to take a more calming and passive attitude while also remaining assertive.

After performing the tricks several times during the session (roughly a half hour), John clearly remembered all the steps. It would seem that by not bruising his ego with excessive criticism, it become much easier to get him to enjoy learning the card trick. He seemed to wish to prove he could do it to which allowed him to play to his own ego. Again, there is a slight narcissism and histrionic personality issue under the surface here. His ability to prove himself seemed self-satisfying to him. Dealing with such individuals requires a non-patriarchal approach or else the lesson will devolve into something less than positive. That would clearly undermine the entire purpose of the lesson. As such, it is critical to employ the most effective approach possible to effectively instruct the subject.

In terms of Johns increase in performance skill after one week had passed, I called him and asked him how he was doing with the trick. The answer I received was somewhat flippant and led me to believe he had lost interest. Perhaps card tricks are not all that appealing to him. Regardless, the process was a fun learning experience and provided an excellent laboratory for experiential learning and dealing with those that may be a little egocentric and defensive in their learning phases.

Overall, I found the entire process to be quite enjoyable and provided an excellent amount of experiential learning. Rather than remaining focused on teaching the various steps of the task at hand, the process centered instead on reading and gauging my friends reactions. This allowed me to learn how to pay attention to the nuances of human behavior so as how to effectively instruct someone that might not necessarily be the most willing or enthused student. As a result, I have developed a greater insight into the psychological components of education and dealing the somewhat self-centered student.