Some Teaching Advice, PLEASE...

[vincefuess]

You know, it's funny. I always feel uncomfortable when I have a real "gung-ho" student- you know, the guys who seem as though they finally found their calling and their life's meaning. It's a good thing, but it lays alot of responsibility upon you as the instructor to guide them properly, and sometimes that guidance means tempering their zeal a bit. When someone takes every word you say as gospel, it tends to make ME very self-conscious and inhibits my ability to teach, for I find myself worrying about "what-if's".

How do some of you experienced teachers handle these kids? (I say kids, cuz they are usually teen or pre-teen, looking for answers to life's questions). I am just a guy, like anyone else. I have a skill that I can teach, that I hope can help someone as it helped me, but sometimes I see seeds growing that scare me.

I'm gonna post the main body of this post as a new thread, so those of you who wish to respond, please do so there. This thread made me think of this, and it is realted, but I think this subject deserves a thread of its own. This subject hits very close to home for me, and I would appreciate all of the constructive comments I can get.

 

[GouRonin]

A slap upside the head with a "Don't be an idiot!" is always a great reality check.
:idunno:

 

[Despairbear]

I think one of the problems is that some poeple do not really understand what martial arts are. Martial arts are just that, the art of fighting any thing else is extra. Martial arts will not make you a great spiritualist or zen master who can walk on water. Martial arts may help you to get out of a sticky situation but it will not let you stop bullets or fall off a 50 story building with no harm. People see martial art movies and think they will be able to walk into a building filled with "bad guys" with machine guns and clean house. I would suggest that you help you students to understand the limits of martial arts and what the goal of training is and is not.



Despair Bear

 

[Rob_Broad]

When you realize that you have a student that is lookng at you for all the answersin life let them know there are no easy answers. Let them know that you are only human and you misatkes just like any other person. I would suggest slowing their training down and being more critical on their basics to make them do some self reflecting to see if this what they really want and if what you are teachng them will have all the answers. What may seem like tedious work in the beginning may have them search themselves a little more and they may realize that the martial arts is justa took to help the find what they are looking for.

It is the journey that makes us not the destination.