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Old 06-15-2012, 10:07 PM   #23
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Dojo: Aikikai de l'Université Laval
Location: Sainte-Catherine-de-la-J.-C., Québec
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 292
Canada
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Re: Teaching .... I have a question.

Quote:
Nicholas Eschenbruch wrote: View Post

Just to put out a strong thesis: formalised teaching credentials encourage mediocrity in teachers and students.
If this is the case you are simply giving the credentials to the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Of course, no system will ever be perfect.

My formal schooling is in science. The best scientists are expected to teach and tend to get the highest credentials (though I'll admit to "rankings" I don't agree with). But what does teaching mean? Science classes for non scientists often come down to a bunch of facts and theories to memorize, but science classes for scientists (which usually really starts about half way through your undergrad, at least in my case) is all about how to find things out for yourself. And for those that truly stay in the field the most important teachers are mentors, teaching mostly by example and good advise.

I think that the best results in aikido could follow a similar pattern. Simply showing the basics in a pedagogical manner to those just starting out and then moving on to mostly teaching by example and letting your students figure things out. This also allows you to have less advanced people start getting involved in actively teaching since they should be able, even before shodan, to show some basic elements of the training to those less advanced.

I followed this type of path in aikido, first "helping out" showing beginners as I trained with them, then at about 1st kyu occasionally substituting when my sensei was not around, then starting last year (now at nidan) I was given a regular weekly class to teach. All under the supervision of a sixth dan certified shidoin.

Of course all of this is made tricky in a dojo by having everyone of all ranks train together. But that also makes the training richer and gives everyone the chance to teach and to learn, to show and to watch.

Jonathan Olson
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