I'm going to add this to my list of things that are unreal but have to see for myself.
You sound like I've had one teacher, Rowan. He's Dave's TA. We didn't get very far in lessons, only really enough to know that I can't create fire out of nothing. Or, well, I can, but if you don't know where the fire came from, how do you know how to control it? It only leads to burned hands and a smug instructor.