About Spilled Cup
Spilled Cup provides an environment where individuals develop their skill in teaching a group or running group activities, while providing free educational and social activities for the public.
There are barriers for many people in regard to education. Lack of money, rigidity of what is offered, feeling too old to go back to school, location.
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Meanwhile, there are people who could benefit from giving free classes:
- Private tutors wanting to practice. Anyone wanting to start out in teaching. Education majors unsatisfied by their apprenticeship.
- Experienced teachers wanting to try out new material. Researchers in education wanting to try out new methods.
- Students wanting to deepen their own knowledge by teaching. Study groups wanting to figure out a subject together. Someone wanting to field questions for an oral exam.
- Leaders, business managers, conference speakers, tour guides, scout masters, game night hosters. Anyone wanting to try out an activity before the actual event.
- Shy people who would benefit from taking control, providing material, listening, guiding.
- Anyone just wanting to help. Teaching does not necessarily mean performing. It means engaging.
These people would be willing to teach a class or two for free, would be a source of variety, and would be able to provide it to anyone regardless how elderly the student. What’s more, these are people who want someone else to learn something, who want to become better at guiding or managing or being friends. So even though they may be inexperienced, uncertain or experimenting, they would be earnest.
Nitza is an owner of Katz and Bogdan CPAs, Inc. In her own practice she sees the need for staff to not only individually learn, but also to learn as a group: discussing problems, figuring out work flows, running meetings, creating procedures.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy of the group dissipated and reformed from remote locations, and it gave her pause for thought. She was grateful for the instinctive collaboration and interaction as everyone created remote meetings and emulated working together through conference calls that at times would last all day, with client calls and appointments breaking in and dropping out. It provided the feeling of still working alongside each other. She sorely felt how empty the office was when she went to pick up the mail, and how much she had taken for granted the liveliness.
As an accountant who interviews all her clients at least once a year, she also became privy to a wide view of the effects of the pandemic. Clients discussed their emotions caused by various changes at work and at home. Well actually work and home merged, didn't they. She noticed the therapist and psychology clients had a huge increase in demand, and in general she simply noticed that people were lonelier. It made her think, there should be a way that people can get more social collaboration, and slowly, free education as an idea formed.
Nitza happened to be learning Hungarian, to be able to speak with her in-laws, when she met Max. Max is an IT guy. He happened to be helping learners of Hungarian on Discord. If only there could be a place where more people like Max could teach what they know to more people, the problems of the world would be solved. He is just about the most earnest, hardworking, helpful, considerate person in the world. He even taught Nitza how to edit the organization’s website so she could write his about page without having him refuse out of his humbleness.