teaching is humbling

Yet, why are there so many pompous teachers out there?  The teachers I most admire are the ones who change their opinion, who aren't afraid to look at an exercise from many different angles and who understand that what makes us unique instructors is what we bring to the work because we did not invent this stuff.  Someone taught each teacher out there.  Still, I see many teachers who act as though they have some intellectual claim to "Contrology".

Teaching Pilates to me is a living, breathing organism.  We all should have the same goal - to align, strengthen and assist in uniform development of a client's body.  There are many ways to get to a strong uniformly developed client who is happy with their progress, not just mine, not just yours.

I am constantly refining my teaching skills, including attuning my tone of voice, selecting intentional wording, knowing the work/having felt the work in my body many times over and over (and not being afraid to admit that I only know what I know, what I have felt in the body I inhabit and that there is so much more to be learned - I will never be wise, I will never be done), making sure each spinal plane (flexion, extension, rotation and side bending) gets some time, and challenging all of my students with varying degrees of health and fitness.  It certainly is a lot of multi-tasking.  And I think I've come a long way by being open to my mistakes - the not worrying about being perfect has really helped me.  I, in fact, learn more when I mess up.

It is already challenging enough to proceed with confidence in doing all of this, we really should be uplifting one another more, rather than the constant petty judging.  I believe other teachers also are constantly refining their skills and I like that they challenge my thinking and have other ideas about the repertoire we were left with.  I think the world would be a dull, uninhabitable place if each teacher did things the same way.  I want to give props to all my teachers, the ones I resonated with and the ones I didn't.  I learned something from EVERY teacher and every experience.  I hope I remain open to each new student, each class I take, each class I teach and all the teachers I get the joy of hearing be it live and in person around the studio(s) or in this wild internet.