The title says it all. But what is so difficult?
I have talked about the teacher's mistakes being reflected by the students. That is one of the difficulties, that the teacher must first attain a certain standard before he can teach. Else he will be passing on mistakes.
But there is another difficulty. And that is, is there a syllabus to follow?
Just like an academic class, in which a syllabus helps the teacher to pace the progress of what to teach, in teaching taiji, is there a syllabus to follow? What do you teach in the first class? How many steps do each teach per class? How many repetitions (practices) before you teach a new step? What type of mistakes do you correct in the first month, the second month, etc? When do you start introducing the basic principles of taiji? Because if you try to teach too much at one go, the student will be overwhelmed and learn nothing instead. Yet if you teach too slowly, you run the risk of boring the students.
The problem of syllabus is less obvious when teaching a single student, since you can tailor the class to his learning ability.
A syllabus provides clarity to the students on what to expect for each class, and gives them a sense of progress. But just like in academic classes, slower learners may not be able to keep up with the syllabus, and keeping to the syllabus may mean running the risk of losing these students. Of course, just like academic classes, you can always help these slower learners by paying more attention to them (aka remedial lessons).
Talking about the sense of progress, being in Japan gives me a chance to appreciate how the dan 段 system helps to give a sense of progress and achievement to the student to keep him engaged and interested in continuing to improve himself. There are specific objectives to meet in order to qualify to progress through each dan, and the objectives are in line with a bigger syllabus that works towards a bigger goal. In a way, it provides a systematic approach towards achieving a goal, something which the Japanese are very good at. The question then, is to define what each of these levels (dan) means. There is already a system in China but how do you adapt it for traditional taijiquan?
Teaching taiji is not easy...
I have talked about the teacher's mistakes being reflected by the students. That is one of the difficulties, that the teacher must first attain a certain standard before he can teach. Else he will be passing on mistakes.
But there is another difficulty. And that is, is there a syllabus to follow?
Just like an academic class, in which a syllabus helps the teacher to pace the progress of what to teach, in teaching taiji, is there a syllabus to follow? What do you teach in the first class? How many steps do each teach per class? How many repetitions (practices) before you teach a new step? What type of mistakes do you correct in the first month, the second month, etc? When do you start introducing the basic principles of taiji? Because if you try to teach too much at one go, the student will be overwhelmed and learn nothing instead. Yet if you teach too slowly, you run the risk of boring the students.
The problem of syllabus is less obvious when teaching a single student, since you can tailor the class to his learning ability.
A syllabus provides clarity to the students on what to expect for each class, and gives them a sense of progress. But just like in academic classes, slower learners may not be able to keep up with the syllabus, and keeping to the syllabus may mean running the risk of losing these students. Of course, just like academic classes, you can always help these slower learners by paying more attention to them (aka remedial lessons).
Talking about the sense of progress, being in Japan gives me a chance to appreciate how the dan 段 system helps to give a sense of progress and achievement to the student to keep him engaged and interested in continuing to improve himself. There are specific objectives to meet in order to qualify to progress through each dan, and the objectives are in line with a bigger syllabus that works towards a bigger goal. In a way, it provides a systematic approach towards achieving a goal, something which the Japanese are very good at. The question then, is to define what each of these levels (dan) means. There is already a system in China but how do you adapt it for traditional taijiquan?
Teaching taiji is not easy...
