Teaching

So I actually did write a Mindbarf on "me" part 5, but it was crap. I'm not motivated to finish that story yet... In fact, I had intended to write on things in order of precedence in my life (after the bio of course...). Which would be, family things (Tina, Sam, the littlun forthcoming...), music, teaching, religion, and then after that I was just gonna coast and write MUCH shorter essays and thoughts on whatever the hell came to mind... But at this damn Army course this is pissing me off right now, and dammit, I'm going to write on it.

I recently read this book called Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-term fulfillment, by George Leonard. It's a quick, easy read (sorry the citation is not correct APA format...whatever, I don't HAVE to do that now), but lends some perspective and thought on society and our laziness. His specific experience was with Aikido, a martial art, and the process of learning Aikido. Getting the basic concepts, getting the intermediate concepts, putting them into use in a martial situation (in combat, or in a bar fight if you will...), then more advanced concepts that are all completely and absolutely dependent on how well you did your basics. If you did not do a good job on basics, then your advanced concepts will suffer significantly. I see this in music now, clear as day. It's so obvious to me that I sometimes wonder WTF people are thinking when they don't practice their basics. Actually, the thought goes more like this, "If you want an example of what happens when you don't practice your basics, HELLO!!! HERE I AM!!!" I'll probably write on that later when I talk about music specifically, I don't want to get distracted too much (that's why I'm not writing part 5 yet, I don't really know how I want to present the normal part of my life in such a way that someone will actually read it, and not just because you're nice people that like me and feel that you should read it for me, that's like beginning band concerts...you go because it's your kids, not because of the musical experience! Here I am digressing again...), and music, obviously, distracts me quite well.

So Mr. Leonard wrote about Aikido, we'll come back to him... I'm currently learning how to play racquetball. Mostly because I'm sick of running and doing workouts because I have to maintain Army standards. I want to have some fun to do! Running on your own with no specific goals (or goals that you say "screw that" after 2 weeks, I'm sure I'll have more to say on that someday) gets tedious and boring. Really, I just need to run another marathon, but parenting is more important right now. ANYWAY!! Focus Tyson! I'm learning racquetball and I've been playing at a different location these past few weeks than I normally play, with people I'm not normally around. What I mean to say with that, is that I don't give a ladybugs turd what they think about me, imma be gone in 5 days now! Back to where I don't want to make an ass out of myself! =) So while I'm in this new location, I'm asking for tips, drills, and advice on what these racquetball bad asses see me doing wrong.

Okay. Teachers! Did you see it? I asked for 1) Factual information: How is this game played? 2) Technical information: How do I play this game and win? Meaning techniques, and 3) What am I doing wrong, or what do I do consistently that you took advantage of that I should fix. A great conductor told me this in much simpler terms than that: Analyze, Diagnose, Prescribe. Analyze: this piece sounds like poo in this part (speaking of a piece of music). Diagnose: It sounds like poo because the flutes are out of tune. Prescribe: Give the flutes several different options for playing more in tune (or if you follow musician jokes...shoot one!).

You may be wondering why I even talked about Mr. Leonard now right? (you don't have the patience to be taught do you!? Haha!!) Well, if you don't know how to keep an audience in suspense, I'll tell you in a second...

So as I'm playing with the racquetball studs of Yakima, they have drills they tell me about. They can tell me what they did to get better, but none of them can really put into words what it is they saw me doing that the could take advantage of to win. I figured out my racquetball "nemesis" in town here won't tell me because it's how he beats me, but he's a teacher too... But out of town, even when I asked, they couldn't tell me. There was no analysis. In music, you get private instruction so you can have an expert on your instrument tell you what specifically you are doing that will inhibit you in the future, and what you should fix if you want to get better and maybe eventually work in this field. Granted, I wasn't paying these people like I paid my trumpet teachers, but I honestly don't think they knew what I meant when I was asking them if they saw something that I could do, and I wasn't going to push it with people I didn't know.

All this to say that I think that the vast majority of people don't understand the difficulty and action of delivering instruction. George Leonard didn't! (There it is haha!!) He wrote about mastery of anything, but when he talked about instruction, he talked about finding a teacher that could work with you individually and personality would mesh, and blah blah blah... Mr. Leonard, that is in fact, NOT GOOD TEACHING!

Public secondary school professional teachers, in general, have to see on average 100 to 300 kids a day. Obviously it can go lower, and it can also go higher (but not much). It is impossible to match a personality to every one of those kids. It is still possible to deliver them instruction in such a way that they will gain knowledge and skills that they may have not wanted at all.

I would argue that delivering instruction is a skill that takes mastery. It takes practice. It takes patience, it takes more introspective honesty than ANY other profession (even music!). If you're not honest with yourself about your faults especially, kids will eat you up. They will disrespect you, they will be defiant because you can't deal with yourself and are not worthy to deal with them, and you get paid like crap for it! (I knew about the pay going into teaching, so I have no intention of dwelling on it, but if the salary was commiserate with the training and stress, you would see MANY more excellent teachers in for the long haul).

Teaching well, and doing it for 3 decades is near impossible. You know those "bad" teachers that we're hearing so much about? They didn't start that way. If they started poorly, they would have left after 1 or 2 years. In fact, about half new teachers do that anyway. Bad teachers (off topic real quick, I watched the Cameron Diaz movie of the same name, I wanted to Falcon Punch the people that made that movie. F. U.) are teachers that did wonderful things early in their career, then eventually figured out a reason not to do that much work. They didn't get paid more every time they reached a kid that no one else could, their friend from college was working a corporate gig making 3 times as much and they got weekends off, a principal found a reason to harass them (that's my story), parents that are incapable of listening to an objective, professional, adult about their child, and on and on. The point is, if someone gets 10 years in, and find that they can half ass it and get the same pay, the path of least resistance my friends... I was on that path. I left. I miss the act of teaching A LOT. Especially when I'm at an Army training and the instructors are HORRIBLE. Nice people, but they couldn't teach a dog to shit in a park. But I don't miss the adults. You ever met a person that says "trust me" a lot? Do you trust them when they say that? I don't. In teaching, if someone says "it's what's best for the kids." Generally, it's what's best for their career, and not the kids. If you want to keep your teaching job, generally you shouldn't call them out on their decisions... Hold teachers accountable, but not principals... bad idea folks... Thus, I now work for the Army.

In summary, teaching is an art and profession that most people don't understand and are incapable of actually doing to the degree of a pro (that's why they're pro's people!! Do you send ME in to play QB for the Seahwaks?! HELL NO!!!). I have racquetball and Army instructors as my immediate evidence, and finally, don't piss off your bosses, they'll make your life hell. =) A happy post today! Anyone got that sarcasm font yet?