Years ago, I was part of a staff football team. Circumstances, rather than ability, made me one of the founding members of a motley group representing a small international school in local matches and tournaments.
The ancient Athenian philosopher Socrates let his students talk first, then questioned them. In the middle ages, apprentices learnt by imitating their masters. The renaissance professor, Andreas Versalius gathered his medical students round to hear him explain biological principles as he dissected bodies. Victorian school children sat silently in rows copying from boards, even though Waterloo had been won on the playing fields of Eton.