teaching statement
I have a sort of clarity about teaching yoga that I never had about teaching college philosophy. I have a clear sense of the kind of students I want and the content I want to teach them.I hate the image of a yoga class with a super thin, super flexible teacher up front in spandex, while each student tries to out-do the person on the next mat. The people I want to teach are the ones who are the least athletic and the most out of touch with their bodies. Maybe I could advertise Yoga For the Non-Athlete. I think my own average-to-low level of flexibility is going to be an asset when teaching those folks - my version of the posture won't be totally different from theirs.
So many of my friends say that they can't go to a yoga class until they get better at yoga, or get into better shape, and that really depresses me. Yoga is supposed to be about exploring your own mind-body relationship. Being "better at yoga" than someone else isn't about being flexible enough to do the difficult postures just like the models in the Yoga Journal. Being "better at yoga" is being more in tune with what works for your body. Just because someone is super confident about doing headstands or whatever, that doesn't mean she is in tune with her body.
It isn't dance. It isn't gymnastics. It doesn't matter at all whether your version of the posture looks glamorous from the outside. If you focusing on looking like a cool "advanced" yoga student, you aren't doing yoga. If you are focusing on how inflexible and out of shape you look compared to everyone else, you aren't doing yoga. As long as you are hung up on how you look, you can't tune into what your body is telling you.
I want to create a class environment where everyone is able to stop worrying about appearances and actually start doing yoga. I think that'll be easiest with a bunch of out-of-shape beginners. If you already think of yourself as "advanced" then it is really hard to let go of that. I don't want to start out as a teacher by having to beat down everyone's ego.
With luck, teaching this lesson three times a week to my future students will cause it to actually sink into MY head...
Labels: yoga
posted by Jaime_sama @ 10:33 AM
3 Comments:
Well said. I think there's a opportunity in Yoga for the Nonathletic.
Melody, the woman in my D&D group, teaches dance. She had similar ideas. The motto on her business cards is, "No one is perfect, but there's something perfect about everyone."
That is an awesome motto. :)
W00T!!
*Rapturous applause*
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