It is my belief that a Master Teacher is
someone who knows, understands and is very dedicated to the art and science of
teaching. A Master Teacher goes well
beyond simply presenting information or training regimes to his/her students. Transmitting
information or transferring knowledge is an important and necessary activity
that must happen with every new
generation whether it is in a formal educational setting, an apprenticeship
program, a job training program or martial arts academy. There are some subtle yet significant
differences between a trainer, a coach and a teacher. The main difference is that a teacher
educates his/her students for both the current moment and a future time which
neither can fully anticipate or predict.
Trainers and coaches are usually concerned with preparing their people for
the immediate short term successes of the times, here and now, without any real
concerns about the long term future. The
Master Teacher educates his/her students by giving them both the physical and
intellectual tools that they will need to make their own informed decisions
about what directions to take in life.
The life
lessons that a Master Teacher provides to his/her students are not always obvious
nor immediately understood by the students.
These lessons are realized and utilized later in life and in ways that
neither the student nor the Master Teacher could have fully anticipated in
advance. One of the most important
components of these life lessons centers on making the students independent
from the tyranny of conformity and seeking the lowest common denominator as an
acceptable standard of social existence.
Those students
who have learned to think for themselves, ask critical questions and research
the possibilities and alternatives for themselves. They will usually find alternatives to the standardized,
generally accepted societal answers that give so much comfort to those people
who are willing to accept the opinions of the so-called ‘experts’. Those simplistic, canned, oft-recited
statements that serve as the correct answers to our social and political
problems are actually mental, social, intellectual and emotional
blindness. This type of socio-emotional blindness
allows the emotionally insecure to escape taking responsibility for their own
behaviors and ideas.
We can see it so clearly in
the martial arts when students cite the opinions of their instructors as hard
and fast facts, beyond any need for questioning. We can see it in instructors who refuse to
get involved in calling into question the moral or ethical shortcomings of
other instructors, because they do not want to get involved! They were the people, who as students,
followed the party-line and faithfully quoted their own instructors, word for
word, idea after idea, until they were given their black belts. We can see it in so-called martial artists who
will jump from system to system and instructor to instructor until they find
someone who promote them based on how much money they were willing to pay for
those promotions.
Master Teachers are the bane of every
dictatorial minded person and their emotionally weak true believers in public as
well as private life. We can find those
dictatorial personalities in every area of human activity including the martial
arts. The Master Teachers are there as well and they offer a viable alternative
to this conformist malady.
Teaching
is both an art and a science. It is a
learnable craft and there are formal institutions established for the express
purpose training people in the art and science of teaching. In the USA, we have teacher education colleges
as well as teacher education programs in some larger colleges and universities. There is no such equivalent in the martial
arts systems as they are taught in the USA.
In fact most current martial arts instructors in the USA have never had
a formal instructional training program made available to them. For most martial arts school owners-operators
they opened their schools with little to no formal training in the art of
teaching. They are engaged in
on-the-job-training with their paying customers as their students. It is very difficult for these instructors –
owners – operators to move beyond being someone who coaches or instructs
martial art students to the status of Master Teacher. Set all the titles aside and simply look at
what these coach-instructors are actually doing. They are providing guidance and instruction
in acquisition of physical movements and skills. Punching, kicking, rolling, tumbling,
grappling and weapons manipulations are physical skills or exercises for the
body. Beyond the cultural courtesies of
bowing, training barefooted, learning some words and expressions, counting in
another language, what life lessons are being taught by most martial arts
coaches/instructors?
This does not mean that all
these coach-instructors are not skilled teaching professionals. A good number of them are accomplished
trainers with students who have earned many awards and lots of well-deserved accolades. The problem is that these coach-instructors
are focused almost exclusively on the development of physical skills in their
students.
Most of
the coach-instructors teach what they were taught and in the very same manner
in which they were taught. They do not
know how to develop a curriculum or lesson plan. The do not have instructional alternatives
for their students – they use a “one size fits all” approach and if a student
is not successful within the confines of their program it is the student’s
fault – the student is ‘defective’, has a ‘flaw’, lacks ‘heart’ or is not
motivated for success within ‘our championship black belt dojo program’. Coach- instructors are primarily technicians
who are focused on physical skills development.
They are not well versed in character development nor have they mastered
the critical principles of teaching and learning beyond the physical realm.
Coach-instructors
are generally at the center of attention while their student- trainees are
interchangeable, disposable and continually replaced. After all is said and done, the “magic” of
success resides with the coach-instructor, not the student-trainee who went on
the floor and performed in the competition with student-trainees of other
coach-instructors. The student-trainees
will come and go while the coach-instructor will remain in place over a long
period of time. In the end it is all
about the coach-instructor and what they were able to accomplish with their
student-trainees in competitions. Within
the martial arts world there are a large number of coach-instructors who
establish the training regimes and schemes that their student-trainees followed
in the quest for championship medals and recognition. We have to recognize and appreciate that it
is the coach-instructors who have pushed their student-trainees through the
physical training programs that focused on winning at the tournaments. Their teaching methods were centered on
providing the correct mechanical and technical skills development needed to win
medals, but they did not intentionally work on helping their student-trainees
to understand how those skills could be blended into other aspects of lives in
society.
Master
Teachers are skilled people help their students to move beyond the mechanical
and physical skills development. They
use the lessons taught in the present to prepare their students for future
situations both inside and outside of the martial arts. Master Teachers understand that they are
involved in a ‘performance art’ which can be improved on and further perfected
through practice and experience. They
are inclined to critically evaluate their own performances as teachers just as
they will evaluate the accomplishments of their students. Master Teachers demonstrate the importance of
continual learning and the lifelong pursuit of knowledge through their active
behavior on a daily basis. They lead by
example while clearly demonstrating to their students that they know,
understand and live the maxim:
“Proper prior
preparation prevents piss poor performances.”
Master
Teachers place their emphasis on the intellectual, emotional, and physical
development of their students. They are
not seeking the limelight; they do not need to be viewed as legends in their
own time. They understand that success
is only possible if one has also failed from time to time and learned from those
experiences. As with coach- instructors,
the students of Master Teachers come and go over time, the major difference is
that Master Teachers encourage their students to learn the lessons well, and
then move on, continuing to learn as they grow.
The Master Teacher is an educator, even if they are not working in a
formal educational institution. They
bring out the very best in their students and prepare them for life in the
future.
As a
student I had the benefit of learning from and being under the guidance of a
number of people whom I consider to be Master Teachers. They were people who in some cases I sought
out and in other cases I was assigned to them by some means without any input
from myself. I want to acknowledge and
thank, Mrs.
Whetstone, Mr. Harry Whitesides, Dr. Harry Randles, Dr. Sidney Willhelm, Sifu
Don Zanghi, GM Tom Bolden, Ama Guro Billy Bryant, Gat Puno Abundio Baet, PG
Eddie Lastra and MG Roberto Torres.
Master
teachers are leaders. They lead by
example and inspire others to accept the challenges of studying, learning and
teaching. They were teaching role models
who presented learning as a lifelong pursuit and sharing as an ethereal gift to
those who are able to accept it. They
are educators in mind and spirit who share a common bond even when they have
never met or talk with one another because the gift of knowledge that they gave
lives on through their students as well as their student’s students.
No one can legitimately claim to be a
Master Teacher. It is not a title that
one can confer on himself or herself.
The title is earned over time and comes from the accomplishments of your
students as seen and understood by people totally outside of your sphere of
influence. A number of people have tried
to claim the title, but they never accepted the responsibilities that always
come with the designation, Master Teacher.
We all know a true Master Teacher when we meet him/her. They never have to tell anyone that they are Master
Teachers and they will not use that title to describe themselves.
Jerome Barber, Ed. D., Grand Master and Principal Teacher,
Independent Escrima-Kenpo -Arnis Associates,
Hamburg, New York.
April 12, 2013
