Jack,
You referred to "preparation for dropping the ball" and its useful
learning. There is another aspect of "dropping the ball" that often
produced very valuable learning when I used to use this method
(teaching juggling).
That is, once you pass the point of actually "getting" the principle
(or feel) for how to juggle and you can juggle a turn or two, you
come to the obstacle called "keeping it going". This is often as
hard to break through as the initial feel for what to do.
To break through, you must learn to keep juggling when the throw is
off line, difficult, etc. To accomplish this learning, you need to
avoid the (almost universal) temptation to catch them so they don't
all drop to the floor. That is, to learn, you must be willing to
let the mistakes happen.
--
Michael McMaster : Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk
book cafe site : http://www.vision-nest.com/BTBookCafe
Intelligence is the underlying organisational principle
of the universe. Heraclitus
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations
For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>