People often think that the best way to teach something is to start with its origins and explain it up until the present day. In history, in music, in literature and so on they’re trying this. Others say we should only teach what is current. Both groups are wrong.
You need to teach from what people know, toward what they can know.
If you’re teaching history, it may not make sense to teach from the Sumerians onward. Teach the issues now, then return to the Sumerians, then show how our issues were their issues. You can then move forward in time.
I learned this when looking for music training. The worst kind starts with “What is a note?” and processes you through forty lessons of memorization. The best shows you how to play a song or three, then breaks them down, then re-introduces their parts and then walks you through theory to songwriting.
Launch people into the middle of things, where they can feel what they’re doing is relevant and empowering. Then show them the background. You have to add detail in layers, not linearly from the beginning to the present.
[...] technical concepts introduced in such a manner that the cumulative knowledge required is built from fundamental principles outward. This enables them to both follow a numbered instruction list, and learn from [...]