The Art of Teaching
I've been contemplating the art of teaching. I myself have taught various movement arts, including yoga, fitness and dance for over 24 years. I am also a student of these disciplines. I've attended countless seminars, workshops, retreats and schools in my disciplines of choice. I've read books, magazines, traditional texts, and online snippets in an effort to deepen my knowledge and refine my teaching skills. I've noticed that some teachers, authors and dancers resonate strongly and drive their point home with efficiently and authenticity. Others seem to fall flat.
Spotting a Good Teacher:
You can recognize gifted teachers immediately. For one, they seem to choose their words carefully. Their sentences spring forth like arrows that land squarely in the heart of each student. It's apparent when you have been with a good teacher because you feel inexplicably changed in some way. Good teachers have a strange way of following you home. Even after you finish the book, place the CD in its case or pass through the exit doors of the seminar they stay in your head and continue to teach. As you practice your art, their words often stream back into your consciousness and help you to refine your understanding of the art form and unravel layers of meaning.
Authentic Teaching:
Second, good teachers have authenticity. They are able to shift their voice inflection and volume and offer gestures and pauses to convey to the student the truth inside their words. They are often able to offer authentic connection with their audience by revealing their own experience with the body of knowledge they are teaching. One of my favorite yoga teachers often said "Everything flows nicely as long as you teach only what you know." You can detect when a teacher is teaching something they have not experienced for themselves. Their teaching will be unable to directly connect with the student and it will lose its ability to move them. It seems to me that if you have not experienced something directly, it is still theory to you and you have no business teaching it.
Authentic teaching does not only come through words. I teach a style of dance that has no verbal cuing whatsoever. The teacher must be able to convey the seeds of truth non-verbally through their own direct experience of the piece. The student must rely on their inner instincts and cultivate keen observation and listening skills to uncover the silent kernel of truth in the dance. They are required to detect subtle changes in movement and musical cadence. A perceptive student will listen for the entry and exit of instruments and watch the instructor carefully to identify the intention and flavor behind the movements and sound. If the student pays attention and the teacher is authentic, the process will strike a chord within the student and enkindle their inner rhythmic flame. Soon the student will learn to listen inwardly and outwardly. They will allow the music to move them and discover their unique expression of the dance. Once this process takes place the student and teacher roles dissipate and they are truly able to dance together within a single rhythmic flame.
Good Teachers Tell Stories:
Third, good teachers tell good stories. Stories are an excellent way to drive home a point and are excellent transportation vehicles for authentic truth. The ancient disciplines of yoga, Ayurveda and dance abound with good stories. They have been recited, scribed and danced for thousands of years and convey many layers of meaning. A good teacher will have a few of those to offer you.
Some teachers choose to share personal stories from their life experience. This can be extremely effective and allows the teacher to connect to the student on a profound level. It can create honor, respect and reverence between student and teacher. The student may recognize themselves in the teacher's "humanness". The process gently lifts the teacher down off the teaching pedestal the student may have placed him on (or the one he hopped on to all by himself!), and raises the student to a level where they can see eye to eye. It creates a doorway for the two in which information can be shared without the pretense of "I know more than you or you know less than me". Some of the most important information I ever learned came from my students.
Good Teachers En-kindle the Student's Inner Fire:
So, good teachers teach what they know. Whatever their medium; speech, the written word, soundless movement or music, they ring through as authentic carriers of wisdom. They have reverence for their students and their chosen disciplines. They convey good stories and send them like arrows to stir the heart of the student. They offer themselves to the student selflessly. Good teachers stay in your head and follow you home. Finally, really good teachers enkindle the inner flame within the student's intelligence so that knowledge is illuminated and transformed into wisdom. Then the student is inspired to shine forth brilliantly.
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