on teaching
We are one week into the new academic year, and I am reminded again of just how much I love teaching. There are several coal faces in academic life: one is this interaction with students; another is facing a research question that remains intimidating and mysterious; a third is taking on a new administrative responsibility and navigating a different aspect of university life.
I find joy in starting a new year and teaching a new group of students. Each group of students has its own personality, and I’ve always enjoyed the conversation involved in getting to know someone new.
Something similar happens in aikido, though not quite so starkly. We welcome beginners all through the year, but with the new students arriving at the beginning of the year, and older students wanting a change to their standard routine, we get a bulge of new people at this time of year.
This means we need to remind ourselves of the basics, falling and stances, basic movements and the foundational techniques, so that the joining beginners develop an understanding of how to move and how to fall.
But with both groups, I get once again to share the insights I’ve developed over the years. This gets back to things I’ve talked about to some extent, for instance the distance between experienced teacher and beginning student. I have to be especially sensitive to this distance in working with the new students, but I always enjoy the reminder.
multijimbo 