Good Teachers by JJ Gormley
What makes good yoga teachers? Is it the amount of time they devote to study or to their own daily practice or classroom teaching? Is it the number of workshops, teacher training courses, and certifications they have acquired over the years?
Surely, these quantitative expressions of teaching ability can have a positive effect on a teacher's individual development. A teacher's own daily practice comes especially to mind. But we should not attach too great an importance to such measures alone.
This is particularly true for certifications. Although teachers here at Sun & Moon Studio have received various certifications, I believe there is much wisdom in what French essayist, poet, and philosopher Paul Valery had to say about official certifications. "The diploma gives society a phantom guarantee and its holders phantom rights. The holder of a diploma [who] passes officially for possessing knowledge . . . comes to believe that society owes him something."
Good teachers possess much more than mere quantitative tokens of learning. The have a qualitative character that often expresses itself in boundless enthusiasm, or a passion for translating their knowledge into practical good for their students. Their positive energy makes them the kind of person we all enjoy being around. They recognize their spiritual center and stay in touch with it on a daily basis. Feeling their poses and the effects from deep within, good teachers are able to exploit what they have learned about anatomy and physiology and combine it with these feelings and sensations to offer unique and particular insights to individual students. This capacity comes from developing a keen eye for each individual student's needs.
Effectively communicating the benefits of yoga doesn't come automatically, nor is it guaranteed by virtue of what a teacher has learned. The catalyst for effective communication is that qualitative dimension that flows from the heart, not the didactic expression of what a teacher has learned through however many courses of instruction.
In my yogic career, I have studied with several teachers who possess that special gift of teaching from the heart. They have become quite popular teachers in their own right. I have also experienced teachers from whom I have learned a great deal. They had incredible knowledge to share; yet, something was lacking. I think it has something to do with not being able to let their students develop on their own after they have absorbed the knowledge they have offered. I am reminded by something I had written in my notes that Patricia Walden said last year at the Women's Retreat in New Orleans: "Sometimes you want to imitate the people who inspire you. That works for a while to a certain extent. Then, find what YOUR practice is so you're authentic."Francis Bacon probably comes closest to capturing what I believe are reciprocal responsibilities of teacher and student, when he said: "Disciples do owe their masters only a temporary belief, and a suspense of their own judgment till they be fully instructed; and not an absolute resignation nor perpetual captivity." Teachers may teach in a particular school or method only temporarily. Sooner or later they must become their own school or method and inspire their own students to do the same.
Sun &Moon Studio has a Teacher Certification program that involves one year of close study under my direction. Often, I reflect on why I'm trying to teach prospective teachers. I know that when I began teaching yoga nearly a decade GOOD teachers I spoke of before, and from my own heart. Those who begin the Teacher Certification program each fall start out knowing more than I knew when I began the process of becoming a teacher. Though I truly believe that the Teacher Certification program offered at Sun & Moon Studio is excellent, I don't kid myself by thinking that the teachers we turn out will all become truly good teachers. I know that only time will tell which ones shine, not just in imparting the knowledge they accumulate but in shining from the inside out.