Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
It has been stated (“I do not consider teaching training. Teaching you do for others, training is for yourself.”), at least once, that teaching is not training so I had to ask myself, “Is this true?” After much mindless meandering, thought and contemplative thinking I came to the conclusion that if teaching does not train or teach the teacher than the teacher, the trainer or the mentor, is not teaching - they are instructing and that means something else all together.
In the military I was an instructor. The reason they used that term is because every single lesson is INSTRUCTED, i.e., we use set lesson plans and set syllabus that is only changed from higher authorities in the discipline being instructed. Instructors don’t have leeway to adjust, change, correct or modify the instruction, period. The instruction material is created, modified and adjusted outside the authority of the instructor. The instructor must submit any changes with appropriate justifications so that the experts who actually create the instructions can test, analyst and then change or synthesize appropriate changes to be disseminated to all courses of instruction from a central point.
Teachers create all their own material using sources and references that support the material being taught. It starts and ends with the teacher and they tend to be seen as and are the experts. Teachers use instruction materials along with reference materials, etc., as a source referenced in the make up of material being taught. This is why being a teacher is more important and requires more authority and puts a great deal more responsibility on the teacher over an instructor.
So, if I am a teacher then I have to continue learning, changing, analyzing and synthesizing materials at ever turn because change is about the needs and requirements of every moment, every person and every detail. If you don’t learn from how you apply your teachings while teaching students then you do disservice to them and to yourself.
Here is a more detailed explanation of teacher:
Teaching, to my philosophical perspective and belief, is more than mere instruction and it requires, is critical, learning while teaching and teaching while learning. After all, sometimes students can present perspectives and perceptions that will be beyond the teacher and therefore should “INSPIRE” the teacher to continue on-going learning processes of analysis and synthesis, etc.
Training is training and it is best to not assign any particular meaning to it because then it loses its ability to teach and becomes dogmatic unchanging and stifling rather than inspiring, fluid and changing/changeable.
"I can instruct you on how to do kata, I cannot teach you how to use kata. I can inspire you on how to use kata but you have to learn how to use it yourself." - cejames
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