Fewer than one percent of the world’s Alexander Technique teachers teach the Technique full-time (more than 25 hours a week). Almost all Alexander teachers have fewer pupils than they’d like.<\/p>\n
Alexander pupils are scarce and therefore particularly precious to the teacher. So it hurts when you lose one.<\/p>\n
So why do Alexander teachers lose students?<\/p>\n
I suspect the primary reason is that we make the student feel wrong.<\/p>\n
It’s easy as a teacher to start pointing out to the pupil things he’s doing badly. Let’s say he holds his breath when he gets in and out of a chair, tips his head back, tightens his neck, compresses the torso, locks his knees and generally acts like a right wally in this daily task. <\/p>\n
Telling the student, “G-day mate, you looked like a right wally there” generally does not create a lasting student-teacher bond. <\/p>\n
The teachers who make a go of it with Alexander Technique make their students feel amazing. Julia Caulder and Michael Frederick are a couple of masters of this in Los Angeles. I want to be more like them. <\/p>\n
I come from a background that gloried in pointing out to people where they were wrong. I’ve always enjoyed taking the mickey out of folks. It kept them at arm’s length.<\/p>\n
As I head into my dotage, I’m trying to let go of my scathing ways. I want to help people, not hurt them. <\/p>\n
As a teacher of the Alexander Technique, I assist people in noticing how they respond to stimuli and I show them various ways of letting go of responses that don’t serve them. Instead of telling them where they’re going wrong, I try to activate their thinking so that they can see themselves more accurately and not need a guru to point things out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fewer than one percent of the world’s Alexander Technique teachers teach the Technique full-time (more than 25 hours a week). Almost all Alexander teachers have fewer pupils than they’d like. Alexander pupils are scarce and therefore particularly precious to the … Continue reading