Having Students as Teachers?

[Brother John]

I tend to get annoyed when anybody but the head of my school teaches anything serious to my students.

Mr. Robertson
Are you refering here to a person who takes it upon themself to teach someone something w/in your school? At least that's what I'm getting from your post.
I agree. If a person wasn't asked to teach a thing/element... they shouldn't teach it. An instructor should be appointed to teach.
As THE instructor at a school I'm responsible for the instruction given in the school... whether it comes from me or not.
Now... Advice giving is different. If student A asks senior student B "Sir, what should I do to really make my execution of Thundering Hammers better." Then by all means, I'd hope that B would offer their opinion/advice and answer questions, refering them to myself only if they get stumped. BUT if student A asks student B "Hey, I've not learned Thundering Hammers yet, could you teach it to me?" I'd hope that Mr. B would tell him to be patient and that the lesson would come from me or whomever I appoint at the right time... or tell him to ask me about it.
What would be worse is if senior student B went about asking his juniors "Hey have you learned Thundering Hammers yet? NO... Ok, let me teach it to you."
It's not a pride thing really, I'd hope that some of my students would aspire to teach (several do already), but when this desire comes it should be shaped by that persons instructor... that's what my teacher did... and that's why I teach now.

Your Brother
John

 

[MJS]

Originally posted by theletch1

The downside: I hope this is a rare downside... shortly before I left my kenpo school the students became responsible for teaching more and more to the point that the instructor would go into his office for the entire class or leave the school all together. Students stopped looking to the instructor for answers and began looking almost exclusively to other students for their training. As a result, many of the techs were taught incorrectly or at the least without details that could have been added if they were taught by the instructor. Those of us put in the position to "teach" eventually hit a point of stagnation in our own training.

Yup-seen this way too many times! After a while, the Inst. get tired of doing all the teaching, and find that they themselves are not getting their own learning time. Its one thing to teach a few classes, but when you find yourself doing more teaching than learning, you need to draw the line somewhere. It is not your school, it is the Head Inst. school, and it is his/her job to be on the floor to supervise, assist, or whatever, not be in the office, while you do all of the work!

Mike

 

[MJS]

Originally posted by Brother John
Mr. Robertson
Are you refering here to a person who takes it upon themself to teach someone something w/in your school? At least that's what I'm getting from your post.
I agree. If a person wasn't asked to teach a thing/element... they shouldn't teach it. An instructor should be appointed to teach.
As THE instructor at a school I'm responsible for the instruction given in the school... whether it comes from me or not.
Now... Advice giving is different. If student A asks senior student B "Sir, what should I do to really make my execution of Thundering Hammers better." Then by all means, I'd hope that B would offer their opinion/advice and answer questions, refering them to myself only if they get stumped. BUT if student A asks student B "Hey, I've not learned Thundering Hammers yet, could you teach it to me?" I'd hope that Mr. B would tell him to be patient and that the lesson would come from me or whomever I appoint at the right time... or tell him to ask me about it.
What would be worse is if senior student B went about asking his juniors "Hey have you learned Thundering Hammers yet? NO... Ok, let me teach it to you."
It's not a pride thing really, I'd hope that some of my students would aspire to teach (several do already), but when this desire comes it should be shaped by that persons instructor... that's what my teacher did... and that's why I teach now.

Your Brother
John

I've seen this alot too. You will have 2 yellow belts. If A sees B doing something that he does not know, I've seen A ask B to teach it to him. That is wrong and needs to be stopped ASAP!! If student A who is a yellow belt goes up to student B who is a Brown belt and asks to learn something or for assistance, then as long as the Brown belt is teaching it properly, then I see nothing wrong with that. Just because the yellow belt thinks that they know the tech. and thinks that they can teach it, does not mean that they can do it effectively.

Mike

 

[Ender]

my feeling is that you should always be a teacher and a learner.

 

[Brother John]

Originally posted by MJS

Yup-seen this way too many times! After a while, the Inst. get tired of doing all the teaching, and find that they themselves are not getting their own learning time. Its one thing to teach a few classes, but when you find yourself doing more teaching than learning, you need to draw the line somewhere. It is not your school, it is the Head Inst. school, and it is his/her job to be on the floor to supervise, assist, or whatever, not be in the office, while you do all of the work!
Mike

That's an unforntunate circumstance isn't it. I've seen it in my community too, and from men who were fine instructors... well known and very highly ranked in their respective arts. It's like they want to run the school by remote control and enjoy all the perks of being the 'instructor'.
I don't care how long a person is in/at the art, what rank they have or who taught them... this is not "being an instructor", it's resting on your laurels and being a poor example.
If you're an instructor.... Instruct.
There's a difference between "this is my instructor" and "this is the guy that owns the school I workout at".
Having said all of this, I still say that it's a valuable learning experience to teach/lead well before your black belt. But by NO means should it be the norm... it should be overseen by THE instructor......unless there are mitigating circumstances.

Here endeth my sermon.
Your Brother
John

 

[tkdcanada]

My instructor gets us to do supervised teaching in groups divided by color usually and I've found that the techniques stick with me much better when I'm teaching it and he comes along and corrects what I'm teaching. I remember being corrected and then I can be sure never to forget that certain thing again. You also learn that teaching is not at all as easy as it seems and just because it's clear in your mind, it doesn't mean that you are conveying it that way to those you are trying to teach. Yes, I believe that teaching (in a controlled environment) can only make you a better Martial Artist.