What do you think the forum can do to attract some quality teachers?

[thelerner]

Bauguakickass mentioned this in a thread. Having experienced members is great. Having actual teachers is even better.

 

What can we do to get more? It might be as simple as asking a few respected teachers to join and post a little about there art. I'd suggest members ask there teachers to do just that.

 

Or we could make a list of online teachers, their facebook or regular sites and let them know about a particular thread on the bums and if they'd care to add there expertise.

 

In either case it'd be wise to warn them to be thick skinned here due, its a wide sometimes wild audience.

 

It might be good to give the Intro Steward the ability to fast track teachers.

[BaguaKicksAss]

Personally there are 2 very well known and highly respected Taoist authors/teachers who I wanted to invite over. I never did though due to the far to many insults flying about in what seemed like most threads on the board for some time. I do feel I can invite them over now .

 

Aside from the less insults, just inviting folks would work perhaps. Through keeping them around could be more difficult...

 

I see Dr_D doesn't post often for whatever reason (I'm guessing lack of time). The thing with experienced teachers is that they tend to be very busy... teaching people.

[Yascra]

In either case it'd be wise to warn them to be thick skinned here due, its a wide sometimes wild audience.

 

I'd say in comparison to some buddhist and esoteric forums I know, it's quite well-tempered in here.

 

Being offended isn't nice for anybody, including members that are not experienced teachers.

 

On the other hand I'd expect most experienced teachers to be sufficiently balanced to deal with that. The problem I see about that is more that, well, if you're guiding retreats in some mountains you might have a daily rhythm of life that's not compatible with checking mails and reading through a forum.

Actually I myself don't trust anyone who looses balance just because I insult him or her a little. On some level I tend to check people concerning those properties, and most fail due to arrogance or other lack of virtues.

 

It might be good to give the Intro Steward the ability to fast track teachers.

 

Urgs, I don't know what Chang thinks about that idea, but for me, thank you, but NO... how would I make sure that someone is a teacher and not a clever sock-puppet anyway?

 

Concerning the criteria I know to test whether someone is a good and experienced teacher, you might calculate between two and six years or more for that to be done. I'd guess checking IP and introduction are the faster way

 

Edit: In general I'd say, for a teacher to be available to persons via internet you need some teacher to like internet contacts, and the rest would be done by offering an adequate place/environment and atmosphere. If someone doesn't like this kind of communication, I'm afraid you'll never make those persons stay that long.

Edited April 7, 2014 by Yascra

[JohnC]

Have a 'certified teacher' label maybe.. with some mod powers in their own threads. That the mod team approves. (teacher for 5-10 years.. or whatever required)

 

Most of the problem though is immaturity, and a lack of respect for different people's opinions on the nature of the universe. This is most of the harassment posts we see of, "NO THAT ISN'T HOW THIS IS IN THE WORLD, IT'S ACTUALLY LIKE THIS!'

Same issue amongst different religion/bible groups.

 

How to solve that? Not sure... ban the shit out of anyone that even hints at a lack of respect for another persons belief?

 

John

[BaguaKicksAss]

Have a 'certified teacher' label maybe.. with some mod powers in their own threads. That the mod team approves. (teacher for 5-10 years.. or whatever required)

 

Most of the problem though is immaturity, and a lack of respect for different people's opinions on the nature of the universe. This is most of the harassment posts we see of, "NO THAT ISN'T HOW THIS IS IN THE WORLD, IT'S ACTUALLY LIKE THIS!'

Same issue amongst different religion/bible groups.

 

How to solve that? Not sure... ban the shit out of anyone that even hints at a lack of respect for another persons belief?

 

John

 

I wouldn't want to ever have someone with only 5-10 years teaching experience be a certified official teacher. Do more harm than good in many cases when that new.

 

Well also the idea to me just sounds like "new way to promote people's overpriced fancy retreats".

[thamosh]

Its easy.

 

Take some of the ad revenue from here and pay some teachers to write articles on taoist related subjects on the forum.

 

They could do it for free but you will get one hell of a better article filled with more info if you pay.

 

Its becoming apparent that taoist and kung fu forums are taking over what the magazines use to do.

 

But no forum has actually capitalized on this yet.............

[RiverSnake]

Teachers generally want "ready" and open students. If every Bum learns to be more "ready" for the pickin.....I think teachers would likely swarm this site.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

Edited April 7, 2014 by OldChi

[BaguaKicksAss]

As mentioned earlier in the thread, we do have many quality "teachers" on here already. They just don't see themselves as teachers, and it is likely that many of the membership miss it as well .

[Yascra]

Teachers generally want "ready" and open students. If every Bum learns to be more "ready" for the pickin.....I think teachers would likely swarm this site.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

 

Ouh .. picking due to what kind of criteria, please?

I've met some people that had been more advanced than me at that time all stating that I'd be too bad, not sufficiently mature etc to be taught anything .. for short whiles always I've had SOME bad teachers. That's actually what many people are who want to teach, like those aforementioned people with 5-10 years experience.

5-10 years?? Well, some GOOD people go into retreat for twice of the latter and still feel they are not mature to teach. You don't want the people here to run for the criteria of persons who are worse than that? Doesn't lead to much good.

 

On the other hand, some people might practice 50 years+, but if they still lack own realization they'll hardly be able to help you, while a 20-year-old with sufficiently cultivation in former life and good practice in this current life might very well be able to do that job. So obviously "practice time alone" doesn't give you a good hint as well, at least not if you consider that "practice time" is not limited to that very life you're living right now.

Doesn't make it more easy, I'm afraid, but I fear those are things you need to think about.

 

I think those issues are not even OT here, for if you want to discuss about real "teachers" in opposite to just "practicioners of lower or higher level" you really have to consider some of these thoughts, like, what makes a person a "teacher" instead of just an "advanced practicioner"?

 

Finally, there are different levels of students and different levels of "teachers", and if you're further advanced than someone else you might very well be a teacher for that person, why not? Teaching means basically to help someone to progress, and you'll hardly ever learn to become a good teacher if you never dare to explain anything. It's a difference whether you're just a good practicioner yourself or whether you focus, in your practice, on skills that enable you to help others to procede as well. People are different - some are good fighters, some are good in explanation, some might be good via just showing you something.

 

Whether you might be able to teach another person something also comes down to whether you have a connection to them, or are able to establish such a connection, for otherwise they won't listen to anything you say anyway.

 

Well, really not such an easy topic

Edited April 7, 2014 by Yascra

[Apech]

I had an idea when I was a mod for a more strictly moderated teachers forum where teachers would be invited to post on a q&a basis about their system and any ignorant trolling etc. would be split out ...but it fell foul of Trunks level playing field. I don't know if anyone recalls the Bruce Frantzis Q&A we did a while ago which was a success. I thought we should replicate that with other teachers where we would invite questions from the members ... construct an interview around them and then post that as a beginning and then take questions afetr that ina controlled way. This would be separate from the main forums in a special sub ...everything else here would saty the same.

[adept]

The 'best' teachers are often the one's we're not looking for.

[JohnC]

I wouldn't want to ever have someone with only 5-10 years teaching experience be a certified official teacher. Do more harm than good in many cases when that new.

 

Well also the idea to me just sounds like "new way to promote people's overpriced fancy retreats".

 

Great.. then pick a number everyone decides on and label them a certified teacher.

 

The point is indicating someone has experience, and understanding.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Maybe credentials could be determined by who authorized them to teach? If they are certified to teach via Wudang, for example, I'd be very interested to hear their input even if they just started teaching.

 

A Grandmaster is someone who certifies the masters who teach the students. So, some notable grandmasters, imo, would be:

 

Anyone from the temples on the sacred Chinese mountains, including independent hermits.

Jerry Alan Johnson

Michael Lomax

Michael Winn

Chen Xiaowang

 

There are many more of course.

 

Other teachers would be greatly welcome and appreciated, but they might not be afforded the same privileges, like they might want to wear snake boots to keep the trolls of their ankles, while the other will have mod accompaniment to lock people out of the conversation if they're just looking for trouble. We don't bring the jade eggs out so that people can play soccer with them, but they will be able to examine the dragon lines, etc..

 

 

?

[thelerner]

When I started a 'Q's For Teacher Response Only' thread, It felt like I had put out Spam bait.

 

Mods have a hard enough time without having to check and issue 'credentials' plus put out fires such credentials would bring. Still even with official Teacher status it'd be great to bring more of 'em here.

 

Let me throw this out. At some point we could start a thread 'Are you a Teacher? Tell us about your Art & Experience In It' and make clear that this would be a no spam, no troll zone. The noutroll zone as it were.

[Yascra]

Great.. then pick a number everyone decides on and label them a certified teacher.

 

The point is indicating someone has experience, and understanding.

 

You know, generally I do like the idea of having some kind of a "proof"-sign that someone has experience and understanding.

I'm just afraid if it would be so easy to find an agreement on who is really experienced and has understanding, there would already be something like an official world-wide sign for it.

 

Usually you would search for an enlightened master, or in Taoist words, someone who has the Tao, to confirm your progress. I do agree that it would be great to have a world-wide, religion-unbiased list of those people available somewhere, so they could give such labels. But I'm afraid it's not realistic that this will ever be done.

And such systems of being allowed to give others some label seem to have a tendency to lead to decline, at least if any kind of power comes with having such a label.

[Friend]

To ask their students to invite their teachers on board to read some stuff to make an impression

before they post.

[BaguaKicksAss]

I have unfortunately found that those who are famous teachers are often (but obviously not always) more due to good promotion skills and politics, as opposed to being enlightened or extremely good at what they do.

 

Now if we had a prerequisite of all folks posting as recognized authorities not advertising at all whatsoever, and not charging people for teachings, then I might be all for the idea. With as many google hits as this site gets, there have been times where it seemed like little more then a new way for folks and their students to promote themselves. I'm glad this is lessened. Every post starting with "my system...." or "my teacher..." gets old quite quickly.

 

Also that whole board rule about how no one member no matter how awesome and enlightened they may be, having no say or power or authority over another rule would have to be completely thrown out the window to go with most of the suggestions in this thread.

 

Instead I figure just having an enviroment with interesting enough conversation, true seekers, and quality enough members, that they would just want to hang around because it is interesting and there are those of like mind.... :>.

 

/cranky Tech .

[soaring crane]

The thing about teachers, and especially big-name teachers, is, they need a relatively captive audience. TTB is not a captive audience. It's an extremely eclectic gathering.

[GrandmasterP]

Teachers are busy people and it is nice when one pops on here share hints and tips.

Teachers and/ or their students heavily promoting their product and, sometimes; being disrespectful of other teachers schools I didn't like but that seems to have disappeared nowadays, which is good.

If there was a 'teachers' staff room' type of thread then someone would have to decide who was let in and permitted to 'teach' on here as a 'TTB accredited teacher' and who wasn't.

Not a job that I'd relish.

Edited April 7, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[adept]

What about teachers with diploma's ?

[soaring crane]

What about teachers with diploma's ?

 

they just kind of appear uninvited

[GrandmasterP]

Yay.

Diplomas are good.

That way the Mods ( or someone at TTB) would only have to verify the validity of each Diploma awarding body...

NARIC can do that ( for a fee) -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Academic_Recognition_Information_Centre

Ensure that the teacher carried indemnity insurance in case anything 'taught' via TTB was claimed to have caused them harm by someone 'learning it' via TTB.

Validated each TTB teacher for child protection purposes in each state or jurisdiction the teacher lived in as well as the state or jurisdiction of the students they were teaching via TTB.

Piece of cake and the lawyers would love it too.

Come on Mods.

You know it makes sense.

 

 

:-)

Edited April 7, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[BaguaKicksAss]

Only if I get to teach necromancy....

 

[GrandmasterP]

Equine necromancy.......

( flogging a dead horse?)

[Friend]

What about teachers with diploma's ?

 

Diploma said that he has passed the standard testing procedure and has learned.

It not says how far the skill and abillities is.

It says that to the time he reach the Diploma he has learned that amount to enter the door.

If he get better or worse is by seeing what he is now.

He may be good in the past but how is he now, he have been worse in the past what is he now?

.