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Old 04-08-2005, 12:14 PM   #22
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Dojo: Senshin Center
Location: Dojo Address: 193 Turnpike Rd. Santa Barbara, CA.
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Re: How serious a teacher are you?

I consider teaching to be part of the overall technology of the self that is Aikido/Budo. That is to say, I do not see it as me coming to the study of Aikido (both the mundane and the deeper levels) from the outside or from any sort of detached point of view. Teaching for me is simply the flip-side of one's commitment to the sensei-deshi relationship. For me, that relationship is central to Aikido practice because it is only via people that we transform ourselves (as opposed to the idea of techniques themselves having transformative power, etc.). When one is teacher, one comes to see the state of their being through the requirements of compassion and wisdom. Teaching then, as much as it is about technical proficiency, is about the cultivation of our capacity for sacrifice - which elsewhere I have defined as love. For me then, a lot goes into developing a sound pedagogy - no effort or time can be seen as "extra" or "unneeded." For me, as deshi should seek to fully invest themselves in being a deshi, so too should teachers when it comes to being a teacher.

David M. Valadez
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