Criterion on Teaching Yoga
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 5 years before Aug 28, 2017
MiBeloved 5 years ago
Rita’s question on LinkedIn:
Who and what makes a good instructor / yoga class?
I myself teach yoga and meditation but participate in classes taught by others. There is a huge difference in between instructors and we all have the choice to decide who suits us and provides us with what we are looking for.
What is important to you in regards to the teacher and what happens in a class?
MiBeloved's Response:
In my case as a teacher, I teach in two ways, sometimes these methods are distinct and sometimes they are mixed, all depending on the stage of practice of the student and on the influence which prevail at the time of the class.
Those two methods are:
1. On behalf of a teacher who mastered a particular method or technique and who empowered me to teach it under his (her) directions.
2. Directly as myself as the teacher for particular methods which I pioneered or mastered under instruction of a teacher.
I prefer to teach one on one but on occasion I teach a general class and then I complete that by reaching each student and teaching one on one.
Reasons are:
Kundalini Yoga is very technical. Advanced meditation must be precisely tailored to the present existential situation of the particular student. In a general class a teacher cannot zero in on a particular student but must teach so that all benefit. Hence the necessity to deal with one student particularly and recommend process through which that student can develop an accelerated practice.
MiBeloved 5 years ago
Rita's Reply:
Great insights there Michael....thanks for sharing. I do agree with a one-on-one is much more useful even in the short term but we do have to be flexible enough to tailor for group sessions. I believe it can be done if we keep it simple and don't try to complicate a session too much. Some teachers try to jam way too much info into one session, which can become dangerous as well.
MiBeloved's Response:
Rita,
It depends on what level you are teaching.
Yoga is an education too, and in all educations, various levels require various disciplines and attention levels from the students.
For instance in the graduate level at university, simplicity might not have much of a place but on the kindergarten level, simplicity is everything.
Striking a match to get fire is all about simplicity but igniting rocket fuel requires the application of complexity.
So yoga is similar to that.
Meeting students one on one is also simplicity from a certain angle since the teacher then is not dealing with so many different students and can be very attentive to one person.
In a class if someone is really off in a certain pose or technique, then the teacher has to make a decision to either overlook that or to take time to help that one person at the expense of the others. That in a way is a complexity.
