The Manner of Teaching

Questions to Inspire

Introduction

What is the purpose behind teaching? Is it to merely convey one’s superior knowledge over their student? To boost their own self-esteem and worth? Or is it to help guide the student along a path in which they never stumble or fall? Would the student prefer that teaching? A sort of leadership to the blind? But aren’t the blind in this case really just without a compass and hiking boots?

Should the place of teacher be guide, mentor perhaps? A source for discussion, one to point the student in the proper direction until they have formed enough depth and understanding of the subject to form their own questions, challenge their own knowledge and that of others in search of the right path for themselves? Is this preferable?

What if all a teacher is truly meant to be is an aid in the self discovery of a chosen path? A person who does not give all of the answers, but shows you how to find them? A partner in crime, so to speak?

So where then is the line drawn between friend and professional? Guide and study buddy? How do the interactions change between teacher and student? When does it become assumed that one person holds greater understanding over another?

Every Idea Must Have Reason Behind It.

If you have no method to your ‘madness’, what then is the purpose of pursuit? When asked ‘why’, do you have an answer that settles all doubt? Or rather do you brush it off as a question of no consequence, belittling the person who posed it – in an attempt to save face? Or better yet, does your answer spark more questions to follow, giving way to a treasure hunt of sorts? What of the answer that just confuses to the point of no interest in further question?

What harm comes of saying ‘I don’t know’ to a question? As a teacher, perhaps the concept of not knowing all, seems to be fatal, yet doesn’t it give us the opportunity to lead by example – being honest in our abilities and trusting ourselves enough to show who we truly are?

Does an instructor have the ability to truly control their students? How do we define control? Is it the following of orders, or is it of a physical form? Is the goal of the instructor to have control over their students? If so, to what extent should this control reach? Can the instructor control an outcome by giving up their control? Could it be like a dance – controlling the next step by letting go of your partner? Can the loss of control become predictable? Is it then truly a loss of control, or is it merely less guided? Do we seek control? Why? What is it about having control that appeals to our senses as instructors? Does it make us feel as though we know more? Do we feel powerful over others? What would it matter if we admitted when we lacked control? Would others think less of us as teachers?

But we then come back to the question of – should we not lead by example? Is the job of teacher actually actor, salesman, gambler? Do we bluff our way through the lessons, pitch dramatic sales to those around us so that they don’t know how to refuse us? Do we throw it all out on the table, hoping and praying that no one notices our faults? How would it feel instead to embrace ourselves as teachers, as human? Would we project a different energy about our abilities? What kind of effect would this have on our students? Would this sell ourselves, or push away potential clients? Honesty leading the way to success – is this at all possible?

Looking at other teachers, who has made the biggest impact in your education? Has it been those who pretend to know all and maintaining an attitude of being better than their students, or is it the instructor who takes a more humble view point on their abilities and has no qualms about telling you when they don’t know? Who do you look up to as a person – what qualities do they hold? Should a teacher not also have these qualities, or strive to have them?

AN EXERCISE: Tell one person each day about something that you don’t know. Start a conversation that creates ideas and theory about this knowledge in question. Note how you feel afterwards.

Emotion

Does one need an understanding of the emotional response to fully react properly to their students? How do the emotions drive us in learning? Can we learn effectively when we are afraid? What of being sad or angry during instruction? Do emotions cloud our ability to see and think critically? If they do, how then do they compromise our ability to retain the details of the lesson?

As instructors, are we ever tempted out of an emotion of fear, to create ‘facts’ to teach our students? Is this the fear of ‘unknown’ coming to fruition? Perhaps the ‘unknown’ being not knowing, not understanding? What other ‘unknowns’ could make the swell of fear so great as to make us lie to ourselves even? What do we fear in our professional lives as teachers? Where does the want of respect play a role in our interactions with our students?

AN EXERCISE: Learn about something that makes you nervous – it doesn’t have to be anything grand or so terrifying that you go into shock. Be honest with yourself about your feelings. Find a small level of discomfort in some activity, accomplish it, and honestly reflect on how you feel afterwards.

Sadness & Compassion

The emotion of sadness, where does it play a role in teaching? Can we be sad about a condition of life, and teach all the better for this? Or are we misplacing sadness with compassion? Do the two emotions intermingle ever? What of the perpetual sadness that sometimes follows teachers about? What is the cause of sadness? Is it considered the human condition, a perpetual search to find the cure to sadness? Is there a predictable pattern to our sadness? Where does our own health come into play with the level of sadness we feel?

Perhaps we are compassionate to all but ourselves? A selflessness that eventually affects others around us? What lesson do we teach our students when we fail to take care of ourselves? Should we send a message that we value ourselves so little that we don’t take notice of our own needs until we’re teetering on the cliff’s edge? How can our students wish to learn from a teacher who fails to acknowledge their own value? Should our first priority be to learn how to care for ourselves, so we may better care for our students education?

AN EXERCISE: Plan to sleep one to three hours longer than normal for a period of four days in a row. Help your body out by doing light exercise before bed, and wake up with enough time to get ready for your day relatively unrushed. Take note of your emotions each day and compare with your average emotional ranges.

If you have no trust in the method you are trying to work in, what then is the value in practicing it? There is no passion, and passionless work is without value.

Is there one sense over another that is preferred when teaching students? One route to travel that applies to every one person? Can the answer be both yes and no?

Referencing the three senses of learning – visual, audio and kinesthetic – is there a way that we can apply our teaching to each person’s strength of learning? Is it possible, or reasonable, to have three different approach to teaching the same subject? How would this expand our own knowledge of the subject? Would we be more well rounded as instructors, to know a topic three ways around?

How then does the teacher go about assessing the student’s strengths and weaknesses? Would it make a difference if we did assess the student’s learning habits, than if we were to merely teach all three ways to every student? Would the latter teaching create a better student, even if taking longer to teach the same lesson? What then of the student who does not wish that lesson? Are we at a greater advantage to observe the strength of our students immediately, over the teacher who lacks this ability? How is this observation skill learned? How does critical thinking interact? Would the thought of any of this matter, or can we continue on teaching without adjusting to our student needs? Would we want to? If so, why?

AN EXERCISE: Write down one of the hardest lessons you had to learn, then find three different ways to describe how to find understanding of this lesson – a visual description, an audio description, and a kinesthetic description. Afterwards observe whether it has expanded your own understanding or not.

The Motivation of Teaching

Disgust – the driving force of true teaching? Do we teach because we are disgusted by the lack of knowledge in someone? Are we disgusted by what the world would be like without education? Without understanding? How does disgust move us towards teaching? Does it? Or does disgust play no role in teaching? What can be generalized as disgust in a person’s manner that must be educated to be otherwise? Does that possibility even exist? What of a harmony, between students, teachers, the world we live in? Is harmony the opposite of disgust? Does it cancel out the force that causes us to want to educate? Do those with harmony, require teaching? Do they not require teaching? What then of those with natural ‘talent’ in the form of harmony – they seem wise and knowing, though they have never had a lesson? Should lesson be defined? Do we learn in life’s lessons enough? How then do teachers come to have learned more of life’s lessons than another and be able to teach it? Again, coming back to guide – teachers tend to be older than their students? Is there a purpose in this that is not readily acknowledged? Do we have to learn how to learn? Learn how to educate ourselves out of disharmony, out of disgusting habits?

AN EXERCISE: Create a dance with your hands – letting your fingers become involved as well if you so desire. Make the rhythm flow smoothly, practice until there are no rough patches, where it seems as though your hands flow like water. Don’t laugh this off, take your time with this and dedicate your passion to it for one week. In that week’s time, note your improvements, lack of improvement, difficulties, easy areas, etc. At the end of the week, ask a good friend if you can show them what you have been working on, and start a conversation on how it affected you.

Student awareness is reflective of teacher awareness. Start the path with yourself and your students will tread it one day as well.

How is the level of our awareness increased or decreased as teachers? Do we find ourselves muting out what would normally cause us to speak out, or instead are we driven to the brink of insanity over things we feel we cannot change? Is awareness only applicable to the outside world? Can awareness also be of ourselves? Are there parts of ourselves as teachers we would rather not be aware of? Where do we feel we need more awareness? Does awareness always stir certain emotions? Anger, discontent, sadness, happiness?

How are we affected as instructors, by the witnessing of gross misuse and overuse? What makes someone react by turning inwards, over the person who reacts by taking action outwardly? How does this affect our students? Do we compromise their learning by our level of awareness? Is it okay to accept in ourselves as teachers a level of ignorance, or perhaps a lack of awareness? Why do we want to avoid feeling an emotion over an action we witness? How can we as teachers take this experience to teach our students? Should we then embrace a level of sensitivity, in order to learn from and come to the ability to teach from that?

Inspiration

How do we as teachers inspire our students to want to learn? Surely they come to us for an education, but do they always come with enthusiasm and dedication? Do we want them working out of fear? Do we want them working only out of respect for us? Or do we prefer that they learn out of their own motivations? Is there any benefit to them learning out of fear or respect for the instructor, other than stroking our own ego? What would keep a student learning under an instructor who makes them feel bad about themselves? Or what about the teacher who yells frequently, or by the tone in their words makes the student feel inadequate? Is our job to make our students feel better or worse about their abilities than their reality, or to reflect an honest assessment?

AN EXERCISE: Get one of your students to tell you a story that has absolutely nothing to do with the lesson you are giving, find ways to incorporate the basic lesson tasks while listening to the story. Note whether there is any change in the students attitude.

Ethics

What of integrity in the example shown by the teacher? If the teacher leads by their own example, then where do morals, personal beliefs and integrity fit in? Can a teacher be spectacular and still hold little moral values? What of the teacher who has no regard towards their students own worth? Can a teacher succeed and be popular, when they value only their own advancement? Is not the very definition of teaching, to be that of giving something of yourself to someone else? To give? Not to sell, but offering something to others to help better themselves?

Would an instructor burn themselves out working in a manner that is to support their students, or would this be the fuel for their fire – feeding their passion? What then of the instructor who puts greed above giving? Are they able to burn themselves out? Or do they merely burn the friendships and relationships they build in an effort to be wealthy in  possessions? Is it possible to teach, make money, maintain integrity and the passion for what you do?

Jealousy, how does it affect teachers and instructors? Can a teacher be jealous of their student’s abilities? Can they want for themselves those talents that their student finds so easily, but which the teacher had to struggle long and hard for? Would it cross their mind to sabotage their student in the name of jealousy? Not wanting to look bad, keeping their students below themselves? Is jealousy driven solely by this lack, or is it a combination of other emotions? What of fear’s involvement? Fear of not being as good, looking bad, not having enough education? Fear of failing? Should we also look at anger? Anger at their past, or present, of their level of knowledge and how they have come to teach? Anger at not becoming more?

How does an instructor avoid feelings of jealousy? Will we all come to a point of feeling jealous over another person’s abilities? What is the solution? Do we ignore it, trying to move on? Act on it as though it was meant to be and an opportunity? Or do we acknowledge our feelings and try to sort through what the real driving force behind the jealousy is?

From a business perspective – what of jealousy towards our competition? Do we attempt to downplay the abilities of others in order to boost ourselves? Or perhaps chase after the very things they have that we feel are lacking in ourselves? Why are we not content in ourselves – what we have, what we know, and the process we need to travel as individuals? What of accepting that we may come to a place far above anyone else, but the time to be there is not at the moment? Does that soften the feelings, or enrage them further? Do we brood over the feelings, letting them simmer below the surface until it boils over?

Dance Like No One Is Watching, And You Will Be Authentic.

Doesn’t teaching also apply to the rider’s interactions with the horse? Is happiness the only emotion that belongs in riding? Does what one feel towards themselves transfer to how they feel about their horse? Whether conscious of your own self-image or not, is this an overstatement or does it hold weight? Can you transfer your fear of failure to anxiety in the horse? What about our own confidence and joy? How does our perception of reaction show our interpretation of the horse’s actions? Why do we react the way we do – what emotion drives us? Do we realize, truly, what emotion drives us? Do we resist thinking about it? If so, why? What harm would come to us if we gave up the protection of resistance? Isn’t this what we ask of our horses daily, and yet refuse to even admit we do ourselves? Should we lead by example – be a whole, confident person to expect a whole, confident horse? Perhaps the key to solving the mistakes our horses show, is to look at ourselves and work out our own hurdles first? Looking within rather than without? Do horses ever truly disobey us? Or do we mix the signals up between us and the horse? What language do we speak with our horses? Should we approach the horse as an innocent? Is there any harm or use for giving them the benefit of any doubt?

AN EXERCISE: Work for one week with one specific horse – looking at their actions as though they are a foreigner to your language. Be clear and precise, and if they do not respond, try another method to help them to understand. Remember – the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If something isn’t working – don’t assume that it “ought” to work and therefore you don’t need to change but rather the horse does, try something else instead. Step out of your comfort zone of having one method to deal with each problem, expand your range and see what you learn from this exercise. Look at each hurdle the horse presents as an opportunity instead of a speed bump.

Assumptions

Where do assumptions come into play in teaching? Can the interactions we make daily be stifled by assumptions? Assuming the horse is doing something on purpose to displease us? Assuming the horse ‘knows what we want’, rather than giving the benefit of the doubt and giving up all assumptions towards the horse? Where do assumptions lead, but to expectation? Expecting results from the horse, can this lead to frustration – even anger? Questioning why the horse won’t perform as you expect, do we not all have our moments, days, weeks even… that are less than expected of us? Why then can we be so unforgiving towards the horse? Has he not a mind – a balance of emotional, mental and physical well being, that needs to be nurtured like our own? Is it then our own lack of self-awareness that transfers upon the horse – because we are so desensitized to our own body’s health, have we become incapable of being sensitive to another’s? Or do some of us become hyper-sensitive to the needs of others so that we don’t have to work on our own? Is the horse still viewed today as merely a vehicle, a toy, a hobby… and therefore not capable of having needs similar to our own? Do they breathe and blink like us?

How then does this affect our relationship with the horse? How do we feel when we spend time with a person who constantly tells us about our faults, or who complains about our state of awareness all day? Can we also ‘assume’ that the same may apply for the horse? How does a child react to being told how poorly he does or behaves, all day? Do some respond by changing to be more positive? In comparison, how many respond by acting out and rebelling? Can horses become like a child in our minds? Do we then nurture, or criticize from there? Positive or negative?

AN EXERCISE: For one week, give up all assumptions and expectations – of horses and people. If you don’t understand or are unsure of what someone thinks, wants or expects, ask for clarification. Treat others in the same way – giving them clarification without emotion if they are unsure. Work with your horse in the same way, if he doesn’t get the question you give him, avoid becoming frustrated and assuming he wants to give you a hard time, instead give him clarification. Do not expect any specifics when working with your horse, rather just play. Reflect upon how this affected your stress level and work with your horses.

Development

Does the teaching element require only strict instruction of the student to produce results? Or the instruction of the horse? Where does the element of play come to the education plan? Can play be an element that is taught? What is the value in teaching play? Is play not a necessity to be taught to complete the education? Do we have to learn how to play when we are young, or does it come naturally? If we were started to work at a young age, would we ever indulge naturally in play, or would it seem a silly and unnecessary chore? Would we yearn for it, unknowingly?

Is play about rules and strategy, or is it without regulation, without boundary? Can it lie somewhere in the middle? What would happen if the boundaries changed – regularly patterned change? Can change occur consistently in a sporadic manner? Would the horse follow such rules? Would there be any reason not to? Would there be any reason to?

Do we have any reason not to play? What keeps us from allowing play into our work? Guilt? Rigidity? How has play and work been so distanced from one another that one cannot exist in the presence of the other? Do we then envy those who have carried play into their work? Why does play frighten us? Do we fear appearing childish, immature even? Where do we learn to fear being ‘immature’?

AN EXERCISE: The next time you ride or work your horse, work to laugh at difficult times. It will seem like a chore at first, observe whether that changes over time. Does laughter and smiling become easier? Verbally play with the horse, get excited and let emotion into your voice – happiness, excitement, joy and passion. Try to remember how you played when you were a child and bring that element into your play now with your horse. Observe how your work changes, if it does, and whether the horse changed his interaction with you as well.

Where does trust bring us in the end? Is this where we sum up our work with our students, our horses… ourselves? The proof is in the trust we develop? How do we learn to trust in our own thoughts, ideas, conclusions? How do we trust in time that has no benefit?