Does teaching someone to fish always work?

My title refers to the English proverb, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." For those that have no idea what it is talking about, let me shed a little light on the topic. For many people in the world, due to choice and sometimes conditions, people live day-to-day using a hand-to-mouth mentality.

Wow, did I just really use a idiom to describe a proverb? How about explaining that people really live paycheck-to-paycheck?

Refocus John.

What I am trying to say is that there are many in the world that just want to be given without learning how to gather. In the above proverb, when you give a fish to a man, he has food to eat; until he goes hungry again. If you teach him how to fish then he can feed his hunger whenever the need arises without taking the handout.

Teaching is fun!

I love to teach people to fish.

My loving wife often tells me when I'm "lecturing" to friends and family, when in reality I'm trying to do a little teaching. It's in my nature to explain things in full. Consider it a remnant from my translocated childhood or my Navy Nuclear training. It became obvious very early in my life that I found it easier to understand (and do) things if I knew what made them tick. With this approach in mind, I always try and figure out not only why things work the way they do but why they were designed that way in the first place.

Today was a day that I taught two people how to fish. Instead of solving their problem I led them down the street, showed them the door, gave them the key and let them unlock it. After we were done I showed them where the key is stored so in the future they to can open the door. And yes, I'm being vague so that no one feels bad about needing help (all the time).

It is good to teach your children, your friends, and your co-workers how to fish.

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