I learn pottery on the great jar

Explanation

proverb of those who skip the first lessons and immediately tackle the greater. As if one, learning to make pots, before learning to fashion plates or other small things, should set hand to a great jar. But Dicaearchus says the proverb means something else: namely, to make one's practice on the like things — as a steersman on the ship and a charioteer on the horses.