Quigga wrote:Why is it so hard to teach?
A snow plow driver is sitting in his snow plow at the airport in the middle of a blizzard. He receives a message from the control tower stating, "An airplane is landing on runway number 4, clear runway number 4." Upon receiving the message, the plow driver starts his plow and proceeds to clear the snow from runway number 4 in preparation for the incoming plane's landing. The plane lands on runway number 4 hitting the snow plow. What the control tower meant was to leave and evacuate runway number 4: "clearing" that runway could be - and was - interpreted in ways contrary to the intention of the control tower.
At the heart of teaching is communication. Effective communication between one person and another or between one person and a group of people is difficult. It requires skill. In the case of Taijiquan, the means of communication can be through spoken words, written words, by seeing/viewing someone doing something or by first-hand feeling of something that someone else does.
Given that Taijiquan is a primarily an experiential endeavour, words - spoken or written - cannot adequately convey/communicate the endeavour. Similarly, simply watching someone do something in which the physical actions are very small - and largely unobservable by the uninitiated - isn't a very effective means of communication. Feeling something that someone else does, by itself, is often also not a very effective means of communication. Hence, Taijiquan can be difficult to effectively teach and difficult to learn. The common, "watch me and copy" isn't very effective. The common, "listen to all this academic theory" isn't very effective. And so on. An effective teacher needs a specific blended approach that effectively "reaches" his students.
First you need to be a decent person to begin with. That will mean wildly different things for many different people. Staying out of trouble and being respectful of others are good signs imo. Not holding extremist views, nor judging people in a shallow way.
Years ago, I had discussion with a fellow student about whether or not a teacher needed to be moral or ethical to be an effective teacher. He said yes, I said no, it is irrelevant.
In my experience, an effective teacher is one who has three characteristics, as follows:
1. the teacher has to have sufficient knowledge and skill in the subject being taught.
2. the teacher has to have a well-developed pedagogic method.
3. the teacher has to actually want his students to understand the subject.
My experience has been that having all three characteristics is quite rare.
So what is the goal of one's training?
In my experience, what is more important than the goal of one's training is matching one's specific goals with a teacher who can effectively help achieve those specific goals, be they improved health, spirituality, martial ability, etc. For example if one has an interest in spirituality, a teacher who is primarily interested in fighting isn't likely to help one effectively reach one's goals. (That's not to say that those who are primarily interested in fighting don't or can't have interest in spiritual things, but it isn't their focus.)