Thorough Preparation Essential for Successful Candidate

What does it take to send a qualified student to Teacher Training? How do we, as teachers, prepare students who are ready for this defining endeavor?

The first step, of course, is that the student be worthy. In her article, “Preparing for Teacher’s Training,” (The Vital Force, September 1999), Carmen Brocklehurst lays out very clearly the challenge of guaging when and if a student is ready to begin the process of “teacher preparation.”

Ed and I co-taught all of our T’ai Chi Chih classes for the eight years preceding his appointment as Head of T’ai Chi Chih. During that time, he and I sent only two students to Teacher Training, one of whom is Amy Hackenberg, one of the finest teachers in our community (according to Justin).

So, assuming you have a worthy candidate, which in my mind is not a minor point in this whole process, but the whole crux of it — assuming that, what is to be done to best prepare that student?

Justin Stone says that having the proper attitude and the ability to move well are the two basic requirements for entry into a Teacher Training course. The first criteria, proper attitude, cannot be taught to someone, and some people will never be appropriate candidates because of bad attitudes. The candidate needs to be someone who has respect — for the form (more than anything), for the Originator, for his/her teacher, for the Teacher Training process. In addition to this, the candidate should be someone who earnestly wants to improve his/her practice, appreciates correction, and wants to help others.

The second criteria, moving well, is something that can be taught to a degree, but if a person has physical limitations which prohibit him/her from performing the movements well, not passably well, but well, then serious consideration should be given to deciding whether that person is capable of overcoming the limitation. Many physical limitations are self-imposed due to some old trauma, and can be released or healed. In this case I am speaking more about something like “I have bad knees – I can’t bend them any deeper” or “I can’t turn my waist any more than this.” If someone has a physical limitation that is more permanent and prevents him/her from moving well, then that person is not ready (and may never be) to become a teacher, although it may be possible in the rare case for such a person to receive a “limited accreditation” which would allow him/her to teach with another accredited teacher (only).

With students, we take them where they’re at and encourage them to move to the next level, but if they don’t, so be it. With teacher candidates, we have a much higher expectation. Why? Because students will not be able to learn to move well, or even properly, if their teacher cannot demonstrate the movements well, and the form we all revere could disintegrate into a thousand lesser variations if teachers start showing the movements in a different way.

That said, what is it we actually do to prepare a candidate? Now that it has been some years since Ed and I have co-taught classes — (I now teach on my own) — and I have students expressing interest and/or showing promise, I have rethought the process of preparation. Ed “raised the bar” for accreditation last year and foresees that standards may rise again in the future. In keeping with Ed’s higher requirements, (which are mine, as well), my level of preparation will be even more thorough in the future.

I would allow six months or more for the preparation process alone, and I would not begin to work with a student on the preparation before one year of steady practice. Of course, these are minimums. Every student is unique, and from my point of view, allowances should be made to accommodate this. But I wouldn’t reduce my minimums listed above — I would more likely increase them. Ed now recommends “about two years” of consistent practice for any candidate entering the course (which I heartily agree with) so to send a student before the two years means the student is unusual, even exceptional.

This is what I will do with my candidates in the future:

1) Require that the candidate be practicing daily once entering the teacher preparation process.

2) Go over the candidate’s practice with a fine-tooth comb — it may take many sessions one-on-one over a period of many months, but all serious principle violations MUST be corrected, and the finer details of where the arms and hands go should also be addressed, investigated if necessary (by perusing and discussing Justin’s materials on T’ai Chi Chih, and related articles by Justin and Ed from The Vital Force), and incorporated into practice. (These details may not matter as much for the practicing student, but every teacher needs to know them.)

3) Require the candidate to repeat at least one, if not all levels of classes that I teach to observe how I teach — how I teach the movements, how I handle different types of students, when I give correction and when I don’t, etc. Every person will develop his/her own style in teaching, suited to his/her personality, but this will serve as a foundation for that teaching, and something to fall back on in difficult situations. This was something that I did with my teacher when I prepared to go to Teacher Training, and it was possibly the most valuable (for me).

Along with this, I would give the candidate a chance to lead movements at the front of the class, with all eyes focusing on him/her. It takes practice to be able to keep one’s focus (and remember the count!) when students’ eyes are on you. In addition, it is even more challenging to add in talking while performing the movements. Knowing how to do both at the same time (and do them well) is part of any movement teacher’s repetoire.

If I were not teaching classes at the time, then I would encourage the candidate to do the above with another accredited teacher — again, to observe how to teach and possibly get practice with leading (although that would be the other teacher’s decision).

4) Require that the candidate study Justin Stone’s TCC text, the audiotape “Justin Stone Speaks on T’ai Chi Chih,” and both of Justin’s videotapes. Why both? Because, as I said in my column in the June 2000 issue of The Vital Force, there are different advantages to each of them. The teaching is perhaps more thorough on the new tape, but Justin mentions different things in each of the tapes, so together they present a very thorough explanation. And, in the practice session on the old tape, Justin demonstrates the movements from a full sideview — the only place this is done on either tape. That is critical to see to understand proper yinning and yanging — one leg bent and one leg straightened, upright posture (no leaning), bottom tucked under, etc. As I’ve said before, any serious student, and certainly every teacher, should have and use both.

In addition, I would highly encourage (and partially require) the candidate to read some of Justin’s other books — Abandon Hope!, Heightened Awareness, 20th Century Psalms, and Meditation for Healing, for instance. (There are others). Why? Because Justin Stone is no ordinary man, and if you want to be able to talk coherently about what kind of man he is, and why he was qualified to originate such profound disciplines as T’ai Chi Chih and Seijaku (the advanced form), you’ll need to know about his background to try and understand who and what he is. Every teacher gets questions at presentations and in classes about Justin Stone. Students are curious, and maybe disbelieving, too, about a Westerner who was able to boil down to their essence the profound disciplines of the East and create an entirely new and easy-to-learn discipline.

Also, I would copy and distribute particular articles written by Justin and Ed and other teachers from past issues of The Vital Force and The New Mexico T’ai Chi Chih News which relate to the depth or essence of T’ai Chi Chih, the responsibility of being a teacher, successful practice and teaching ideas. There are a whole slew of articles available on the TCC community website (www.taichichih.org) which were written by Justin and Ed and previously published in The Vital Force and The New Mexico T’ai Chi Chih News. In addition, there are more recent articles that I think would be particularly useful, written by Justin, Ed, and other teachers (including myself):

THE DEEPER LEVELS, AS SEEN BY JUSTIN AND ED:

– “In Accord with Teh” by Justin Stone, The Vital Force, March 1999

– “Softness and Continuity” by Ed Altman, The Vital Force, June 1999

– “Patience” by Ed Altman, The Vital Force, September 1999

– “Flow Softly” by Justin Stone, The Vital Force, December 1999

– “T’ai Chi Chih and the Future” by Justin Stone, The Vital Force, March 2000

– “Violence” by Ed Altman, The Vital Force, September 2000

PREPARATION:

– “Preparing for Teacher’s Training” by Carmen Brocklehurst, The Vital Force, September 1999

– “Becoming an accredited T’ai Chi Chih teacher” by Patricia Strand, The Vital Force, September 2000

ATTITUDE:

– “Receiving Corrections” by Jean Katus, The Vital Force, March 1999

– “Motivational Tips for Practice” by Sharon Sirkis, The Vital Force, June 1999

– “Why Attend the Annual Conference?” by Noel Altman, The Vital Force, June 1999

– “When T’ai Chi Chih Feels Like New” by Amy Hackenberg, The Vital Force, December 1999

TEACHING:

– “Teaching TCC to a city population through largest U.S. non-profit HMO” by Noel Altman, The Vital Force, December 1999

– “New teacher has questions for Justin Stone…” letter by Trish Winger, along with “Justin responds candidly to new teacher’s questions”, both: The Vital Force, March 2000

– “Justin Stone’s teaching on new video ‘resonates’ after viewing” by Amy Hackenberg, The Vital Force, June 2000

– “Teaching Where You’re Given Space” by Noel Altman, The Vital Force, June 2000

– “Group practices unite students” by Donna McElhose, The Vital Force, September 2000

– “Teaching T’ai Chi Chih Without Classes” by Jan Linthorst, The Vital Force, September 2000

5) Explain the core parts to a successful presentation and give the candidate a chance to practice in advance.

6) Quiz the candidate on the proper names of the movements and the order in which they are practiced (and taught).

Optionally:

If I were preparing more than one candidate at once, then I would offer a teacher preparation course for the group of them to accomplish most of the above and also give all of them the chance to lead each other — in a circle, in rows, mirroring and not. Maybe they’d even begin to practice teaching movements so they could begin to address this and related questions: What are the key points you want to make about this movement?

In Conclusion:

As teachers, we all know how much can’t be taught in advance — the lessons that have to be learned by just getting out there and doing. How well a student does in that circumstance will have a lot to do with how confident he/she feels as a result of prior preparation.