Knights Teaching

This is for the Knights

When you became a Knight. Did you know how to teach? Or did you learn as you went? Did you require help from other Knights to perfect your style of teaching? Or did you choose to use your status as knight for other important tasks rather than Teaching?

It depends on how you define 'knowing' how to teach...

My 3-year full time university degree was in teaching, I am qualified as a school teacher, I teach singing in a school as one of my jobs...in theory I 'know' how to teach. As I say, I studied nothing but teaching 5 days a week for 3 years, including plenty of practical application.

As it turns out, it doesn't necessarily mean anything at all. I wasn't very successful at teaching Apprentices. Most of the Knights around here are infinitely 'better' at it than I am yet very few of them have received the formal training that I have.

Often the best teachers just have a natural feel for it without needing to 'learn' how. I do think that teaching is a skill that one can always hone and evolve, but I tend to think those things are better when they are allowed to develop organically with experience over time rather than through study.

I would hope that Apprentices here are happy to be a part of this learning process for the Knights and that they would not only not expect their Master to be the finished article as a teacher, but would also understand that with natural evolution, the finished article doesn't even really exist...

Hi ...

Actually both.

I've been doing this for a while (just not with all you guys). I had also been a teacher at the university/lycée level for a number of years. So, there was some experience behind me.

Then again, every learner is different, with different needs, different interpretations, different goals, dreams and neuroses which may or may not match up to mine. But at the same time, there are a lot of similarities in human beings - similar psychologies (no matter the infinity of variables otherwise), the soul's bliss/torment and just the human condition with all its various pressures, pains, ecstasies and wonders.

The best lesson I ever had in how to be an effective teacher came from a professor that I had years ago. She was a damned great historian, an impressive human being (even if a little scary sometimes), who told me that there were only two indexes that need to be respected to fulfil the vocation :

1. Love what you teach ;
2. Love who you're teaching.

The rest is merely "details".

In various teaching situations, including (perhaps especially) here in the TotJO, I've discovered the she knew what she was talking about. I tend to impress this upon my apprentices, who could probably tell you whether or not I'm getting it right. They are, in a way, the only CV one could believe anyway ... The rest is, after all, merely "details".

I like this topic :blush: Not an subject I would think about in the first place. If I may be so free, do the different teaching styles at the temple give different ways of understanding? Like all knights teaching by use of some kind of protocol, or more teaching with feeling? Perhaps both? Just wondering how an each teaching style can assist in the unique shape of each Jedi.

- Aqua

Aqua, that is a lovely question.

Every Knight teaches in his/her own unique way. There is no standard lesson plan for an Apprenticeship. That is what the IP is for. The basic knowledge of the Doctrine and Jedi Studies. In the Apprenticeship phase, a good teacher will be able to assess what the student needs or wants, and will be able to provide appropriate lessons. The teacher assigns point values to these lessons (for instance, the IP is worth 100 points, though you don't know how many each lesson is worth). Once you reach a certain number of points, there is cause for evaluation to see if a student is ready for Knighthood.

Points do not equal promotions. They only serve as a benchmark to keep tabs on how much work a student has done.

Apprentice lessons range anywhere from reading books to interviews to doing projects to writing essays to anything in the world that could be communicated. I've watched videos and seminars for training. And, the subject is really customized to the student.

This is why choosing a mentor/mentee relationship is so important. If it is a bad fit, the apprenticeship will not be effective.

-Connor

I think the purpose of teaching is to help you come to your own understanding, not someone else's.


Edit: Sorry, my comment was to Aqua

I can teach, I have...

But I came to totjo to find myself, have some conversations, and maybe help a person or two and was reluctant to teach... Hopefully, I have helped at least one person, lol...

Fr. Jon sort of goaded me into it, lol, challenged me is probably a better way to say it, but I drug my feet, lol...

And I appreciate it, now... lol...

I dont feel I have anything to really offer, no 'total' package of what a Jedi should be...

But, I do have examples... examples of trials and tribulations that I have lived, or observed in others...

And, I do like to talk, :lol:...

Do you believe the Ability to Teach a student is necessary in order to earn and hold the title "Knight"

Say for example...I become a Knight here and chose not to teach a single student due to a lack of experiance in the field or not comfortable in doing so or simply chose not to. ((This is just an example Id teach if asked)) would i still be a Knight? Or would I lose that title due to that decision.

Jestor wrote: I can teach, I have...

But I came to totjo to find myself, have some conversations, and maybe help a person or two and was reluctant to teach... Hopefully, I have helped at least one person, lol...

Fr. Jon sort of goaded me into it, lol, challenged me is probably a better way to say it, but I drug my feet, lol...

And I appreciate it, now... lol...

I dont feel I have anything to really offer, no 'total' package of what a Jedi should be...

But, I do have examples... examples of trials and tribulations that I have lived, or observed in others...

And, I do like to talk, :lol:...

Dear Jestor, you are so funny explaining that you have nothing to offer, :side: Did you know that? I think that if you have the feeling that you have nothing to offer, you are offering the greatest offer to Jedi who has everything.

Kitsu Tails wrote: Do you believe the Ability to Teach a student is necessary in order to earn and hold the title "Knight"

Say for example...I become a Knight here and chose not to teach a single student due to a lack of experiance in the field or not comfortable in doing so or simply chose not to. ((This is just an example Id teach if asked)) would i still be a Knight? Or would I lose that title due to that decision.

Our Knight rank does not require the teaching of another in a one-on-one manner...

But, to remember that we all teach through our actions, and to be mindful of them...