Deferred Accreditations

During the last five years, I’ve seen tremendous improvement in the way most candidates have been prepared to attend a T’ai Chi Chih Teacher Training course. I am grateful to the many teachers who have promoted a higher standard for candidate preparation, and this has made my job as course instructor much easier. Unfortunately, several candidates are still sent each year who are not properly prepared, and these students require tremendous additional attention during their Teacher Training course. This places an unfair burden on everyone in the course, and regardless of how hard they work, increases the likelihood they will receive a deferred accreditation rather than graduate with their class.

In 2001, 12% of the candidates sent to T’ai Chi Chih Teacher Training courses received deferrals! This troubling percentage has remained essentially unchanged since at least 1999. As Head of the T’ai Chi Chih community, I feel that teachers should be free to prepare their candidates in whatever way suits them best; as long as they are well-prepared when they attend a Teacher Training course. I encourage teachers to prepare candidates properly and speak with them about how to improve their practice and preparation process. When a candidate receives a deferred accreditation, I write to the referring instructor with a list of suggestions for future candidate preparation. Sadly, deferrals continue to be a common problem at T’ai Chi Chih Teacher Training courses, and this hands-off approach must now be reconsidered.

The recent Teacher Training course in Albuquerque resulted in four deferrals, and this led to a lively discussion among attending teachers and candidates on ways to reduce the number of deferrals at future courses. I directed the discussion toward ways to ensure that every future candidate would be well prepared before attending, because I see this as the only way to eliminate the need to give out deferred accreditations. The most promising suggestion was to require all teacher candidates to send a homemade video of their practice for review prior to being accepted in a Teacher Training course. The tapes would be sent to the course instructor for thorough review, and a write-up of problem areas and suggestions would be sent back to the candidate along with the tape. The response would also include permission to attend the course, or an explanation of why such permission was withheld. Students who were not allowed to attend a Teacher Training course would have a list of specific recommendations for improving their practice and would be allowed to submit another tape for further consideration.

I found this idea very interesting, and I spoke with Justin Stone, my wife Noel, Sandy McAlister and Pam Towne about it at length. I also exchanged comments with several T’ai Chi Chih teachers throughout North America to discuss it in more depth. While everyone agreed that a mandatory review policy would reduce deferrals, concerns were raised about whether this policy would undermine the role of referring teachers in the preparation process. Another view was that such reviews would not go far enough to address the core of the problem: that some accredited teachers do not know how to tell if their students are really moving well. Many spoke about the fact that such reviews would be time consuming, and that a review fee of $50-$75 would be required to help compensate for the time spent watching the tape and writing up a response. It was also suggested that a movement review checklist would be needed to help reviewers quickly and easily document their concerns about a student’s movements.

Deferrals are disruptive and difficult for everyone involved, but most important, they are not a necessary part of the Teacher Training process. Although I believe the suggested “video preview” of all candidates would make deferrals nearly obsolete, I also acknowledge that it would be a dramatic step toward greater bureaucracy. This is not something I would enter into unless absolutely necessary. However, as I shared with several teachers, more words are not going to solve this problem. A different approach is required if we are serious about reducing or eliminating the need to give deferred accreditations at T’ai Chi Chih Teacher Training courses.

As an intermediate step, I’ve worked with Pam and Sandy to create a T’ai Chi Chih Teacher Candidate Movement Review Checklist. This checklist is organized by each T’ai Chi Chih movement, and consists of general statements about how to move properly as well as specific concerns such as the correct position of the hands. It also includes space for written comments as well, and is to be used by teachers to assess their candidates before sending them to a Teacher Training course. Of course, teachers are welcome to use the checklist with any of their students, and I trust they will also find it helpful in improving their own T’ai Chi Chih practice.

The checklist has been published on our web site under the teacher candidate preparation section, and is also available from Teacher Training course hosts, or through Sandy McAlister or Pam Towne. I encourage all teachers to review the new checklist and put it to good use. It is my hope that use of the checklist will reduce deferrals at future Teacher Training courses, but this is by no means guaranteed. If a large number of deferrals continue to be needed due to poor candidate preparation, additional steps will be taken to address this issue. As a result, I invite teachers and students to send their comments or feedback on the idea of mandatory “video preview” to The Vital Force for future publication. I hope you will take this opportunity to make your voice heard.

The recent discussions have been very passionate on all sides, and I think this is a healthy part of the growth of our T’ai Chi Chih community. Some teachers have expressed concerns as to whether we are becoming too restrictive while others complain that our standards for new teachers are not high enough (and that there are no continuing requirements for existing teachers). It is my feeling that we must find a balance between being welcoming and available to all who want to attend a Teacher Training course, and ensuring a high standard for those who receive an accreditation. My primary objective has always been to improve the standards for newly accredited teachers to strengthen our T’ai Chi Chih community.

As one Canadian teacher shared with me, “The objective is to make it harder for those who want to get into a Teacher Training course so that those who attend will have an easier time completing the course and receiving their accreditation.” The best way to do this is to help teachers accurately assess whether their candidates are ready to attend a Teacher Training course. When courses are filled with properly prepared candidates we will be able to focus on learning how to teach the T’ai Chi Chih movements to new students rather than catering to those who are struggling to learn how to do the movements properly. As always, I rely on my fellow T’ai Chi Chih teachers to help make this possible.