Proofing yeast for bread?

Sprinkling it spreads it out more evenly. When you stir it, it tends to get itself into clumps. If you are using instant dry yeast, which is sold everywhere these days, dissolving the yeast in water before mixing it with the flour is unnecessary. The only reason to do that with instant dry yeast is to be sure it's still good. You'll notice that modern bread recipes don't call for proofing if they call for instant yeast.

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I just dump it into the warm water and add a tablespoon or two of sugar or honey and stir it around a bit if I bother at all with "proofing".

It will clump doing this, but I see no reason to sprinkle gently!! That is dainty food service show off cheffy thing to do. I never have time to do things like that, and since I keep the jar of yeast in the freezer, it doesn't go bad in less than 5 years if it even stays there that long.

I bake bread on a regular basis, and I skip that step. I heat the liquid to 112 degrees, put it in my stainless steel bowl (because it holds the warmth better than glass), stir in the sugar, sprinkle the yeast on it and add about 2 cups of flour. I use my old Sunbeam mixer to mix it all for a couple of minutes, then I cover it with saran and let it sit for 10 minutes. It gets puffy and the gluten begins to develop.

After 10 minutes, I go ahead and finish the dough by hand. I buy bulk Red Star Active Dry Yeast and have never had it fail.

Have fun - baking bread is a labor of love.

It does not matter. The purpose is to hydrate the yeast to prove that it's alive (so you don't waste the rest of your ingredients)

I don't even bother proofing anymore. I buy yeast in bulk and store it very carefully in the freezer. I just add the yeast right to the dry ingredients (flour, salt, yeast). I've never had a situation where the yeast was not active in my 20 years of baking yeast doughs

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either way it will work for you, in the near future , i to will be baking homemade breads myself

great question