A Good Teacher

by Dr. Kathryn Woodall, DC, CST

Coach Sonnon wrote, “Americans are so ruggedly individualized that we feel repulsed by learning the ‘guru-disciple’ relationship model. And yet, that’s precisely what we must learn if we are to become effective leaders and efficient learners.”

He is correct that there can be significant value to that relationship model when it is healthy. But how does a student pick a teacher worthy of that degree of trust? And once you do pick one, how do you know when you are doing a healthy thing by questioning authority as opposed to trying to avoid valuable but difficult to learn (or at least difficult to submit your ego to) lessons? If your background includes abuse or neglect, you might already have difficulty knowing reasonable boundaries and expectations, as well as judging who and when to trust. It can take years of trial and error before you learn those things. How do you know if a certain situation falls into the valid category of required experience, and how do you know when the “dues you are paying” really aren't required for the knowledge you are seeking?

If all the teachers out there were high quality, the forums wouldn’t consistently get questions like, “How do I pick a good martial arts teacher for myself, how do I pick a good instructor for my child, and how do I find practitioners to be part of a quality health care team?” (‘Doctor’ literally means ‘teacher’ in Latin, so I’m including doctors as teachers in this article.) Beyond the obvious aspect of knowing the subject matter being taught, there are basic principles that every good teacher will embody. Looking back on the teachers in my life who have been worthy of the guru-disciple relationship, the following list applied to all of them.

1.) A good teacher will want you to succeed and, depending on your goals and abilities, may even want you to outgrow him. A good teacher will understand that he is not the end-all be-all of teaching and that there may come a time when you need another teacher if your goals warrant instruction or direction that he can’t provide. A really great teacher will tell you when that time has come.

How do you find something like this out? For starters, ask the teacher about his students. Does he brag about them or does he tell you that it is difficult to find quality students? If it is a health care provider, ask if he has a network of other providers for those times when a patient’s condition is out of his typical scope of practice and expertise.

2.) A good teacher will be honest, will tell you what to expect, and will follow through by meeting or exceeding her responsibilities in the relationship. She might define your and her responsibilities up front, but if not, she is certainly willing to tell you what they are when asked.

Ask a potential teacher to define what she believes are your and her responsibilities and what you should expect. Knowing if she will follow through requires becoming her student, but at least you will know what she told you.

Those same guidelines apply to a health care provider.

3.) A good teacher will never willfully harm you or willfully allow you to be intentionally harmed. There is a difference between pain that you will feel as your ego falls away (or as old habits are pointed out) and true physical or emotional harm.

If you or other students are experiencing broken self-esteem or broken bones at the hands of your teacher or classmates (other than from a pure and rare accident), it is always time to find a new teacher. There is never a situation where this is not true because there are no dues to be paid with broken bones if a guru-disciple relationship exists. Reasonable dues are things such time spent working in a specific field, working on basics for an extended period of time even when you can’t yet see how they are going to help you, and helping other students learn a skill you’ve become proficient at.

Many teachers will allow you to sit in on a class or someone else’s lesson. You want to see the teacher treating the student with respect, trying to connect to the student, and helping the student do his best.

A health care provider will not let you sit in on someone else’s treatment, but possible risks and side-effects should be discussed as well as other alternatives to the treatment being recommended. It is your health and you should be allowed to participate in the decisions being made.

4.) A good teacher will never turn away from a reasonable question that you have already honestly searched for an answer to but failed to find. Sometimes this means that your question will be answered by another question intended to guide you to your answer, but you should not accept being belittled for asking. A good teacher will want you to earn your knowledge, but will also understand that if you were already an expert you would no longer be a student.

5.) A good teacher will push you to grow and learn but will not consistently over-whelm you with that pushing. There may be the occasional situation when the push goes slightly too far because figuring out how far to push sometimes requires defining the edge. But it will not happen during every single lesson or even the majority of them. Good teachers are almost always working to help you find your edge so you can learn to push yourself to it. She can figure out where you are and what you need to learn (even when you don’t know what you need to learn). Essentially that means that she can meet you where you are and take where you need to go.

She may ask you to perform a yoga pose that seems completely out of your league, but when she realizes that you can’t fathom being able to attain that pose, she will help you see how to break it down and modify it so that you can be successful at it. In a group setting this may not be possible, but if she sees you struggling in that setting, it is reasonable for her to suggest a class or private session which better suits your current level of knowledge.

The following is an example of how that can be applied to a healthcare practitioner: specific exercise and diet will be recommended instead of just saying that you need to change your diet and exercise. And follow-up evaluation should be performed to confirm that the changes really are beneficial to you.

6.) A good teacher will teach (and hopefully instill) habits that will allow longevity of practice. It doesn’t matter if you want to play the piano, pin an opponent, or push back your date with death. There are habits which will allow you to enjoy your chosen interest for many years to come, and good teachers not only know them but practice them to the best of their ability.

A good teacher will begin very early in the lessons to improve your technique in such a way as to optimize enjoyment and minimize risk of harm. If you sit slumped over your guitar, your health will suffer and it will decrease the number of years you will be able to play. If your grappling coach can barely move, it is appropriate to ask if it is related to his training or to an accident. His state of health is not in and of itself grounds enough to dismiss him as a quality teacher. Sometimes a good teacher will realize errors he made and take steps to help prevent his students from making the same errors. If a teacher replies that ending up with debilitating pain is just part of it, then it is worth your while to find a better teacher.

Any health care practitioner you consider adding to your team should be basically healthy. If he is not, it is appropriate for you to ask why he isn’t and what he is doing about it. Just as any other teacher can realize previous errors, sometimes healthcare providers have other issues. If he can’t face them and talk to you about them, then it will be difficult for him to help you face your own issues. Having issues doesn’t preclude him from being an excellent choice of provider, but it does warrant questions.

The above descriptors can help you define what a good teacher is, but how do you know if you are questioning authority or trying to get out of learning something important just because it pushes you a bit? That is a difficult question to answer. If your teacher fits into all 6 descriptions above as a good teacher and following through with her instructions will not cause you physical harm or lead you to do something against your morals, then it is more likely that your ego is resisting growth. If in general your teacher meets all 6 guidelines and you have typically followed through with her instructions without question because you have never felt the need to question her, then it is also reasonable to approach your teacher with your concerns and to talk about them. Even a master makes mistakes from time to time. After all, most good teachers have a deep thirst for learning, so there is a high likelihood that your guru is still someone else’s disciple. If your teacher fails to meet most of the above descriptions, then it is highly appropriate for you to question her authority (that doesn’t mean that you should literally question her about it – in this case I mean it more as a figure of speech), and it is reasonable to seek out another teacher at least for a second opinion but possibly as a replacement.

It is wise to keep in mind that there will be teachers who excel in their fields while the rest of their lives lack the same level of excellence. It is OK to be a disciple to your piano-teaching guru without taking relationship advice from your piano-teaching guru who has been divorced 5 times. With the exception of #3 above, it is possible for someone to be lacking in one or more of the descriptors and still be a good teacher for you as long as you understand that there are other aspects of learning that you might need to seek elsewhere. Let your goals and mutually agreed upon expectations guide you.

In closing, the above list is not all-inclusive, but it can serve as a good place to start. Once you have found a good teacher, you can further deepen your skills of being a good student to complete the other half of the relationship.

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VOLUME 6 ISSUE 2

ISSN#: 1555-7723

Publisher: Scott Sonnon - Senior Editor: Ryan Murdock - Assistant Editors: Jeanne Gostnell - Adam Skogen - Contributing Editor: Dr. Kathryn J. Woodall, DC

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