Subjective Experience vs Objective Truth.
As a teacher I am fascinated with how other teachers fill their students minds with the curriculum or area of interest and I realized that some teachers teach a perspective that they personally learned about - which is called a Subjective Experience but they are teaching it as an Objective Truth.
When you experience something and it works for you and you share it as a way of working for everyone else - you are a bit misguided in how to instruct others.
If you share your experience as 'truth' for others it can become confusing to many of your students as what you are teaching is not applicable to everyone but they feel as though they are out of your 'club' by not agreeing with it or it just does not work for them. I have heard that people in those circles are shamed or belittled by 'not trying hard enough' or 'not doing it right'.
Instead of the teacher saying, 'This is not applicable to you." - their students are made to feel as though they are doing something 'wrong'.
The other end of the spectrum is learning something that can be universal - or Objective- and guiding people that want to learn about this method based on their own subjective conditions. This requires much more work and experience on the teachers part as its not just based on your own experience but based on the many experiences of OTHER people.
The teacher has to drop their ego and become humble in working through other peoples frustrations.
If you are a student - how is your teacher helping you through your frustrations of learning what they are teaching?
Companies, manufactures and teachers do not usually like to work through or even ask others about what they are frustrated with as it may make them look negative or not being a 'perfect' brand - so, in their own lack of esteem as a teacher or based on their ego they will make their students take the blame or shame them to submission and if they do not submit the student leaves the environment.
Teaching your subjective experience as objective truth is unfair.
An experienced teacher asks their students what they are struggling with and guides them through their frustration to help their unique situation even if it is outside the scope of the teachers objective experience and this is where humility comes into the picture as now both student and teacher learn from each other. This is my own personal favorite way to expand as a teacher AND student.
A good teacher is a guide more than a dictator.
While I have my own walk of mastery (look for the blog on The Five Stages of a Hairstylist blog) - it is based more on learning from my students more so than attending another hair show or trade event. When I have live trainings or online courses I actually learn a lot from my participants and clients than I do from attending other hair shows.
I never call myself a 'master' as that is a phase of life one goes through - a stage to learn from & experience life more so than gain a title to impress others with.
I believe it makes you either more humble or more arrogant - and its easy to discern which one the teacher is based on how they treat their students.
I learned long ago that getting more money or winning the lottery doesn't change you - it only brings out and enhances more of who you already are.
A good teacher becomes better not by forcing their method on others - they become a master only by learning from their teaching environment and guiding their students based on previous teaching experiences that they (the teacher) learned from.
You may have a message with methods to back that message up - but you can not let the methods dominate your teaching, as the Message is timeless.
I see many in the curly world learning all sorts of methods and overall use them in seasons of working on their clients or doing their hair at home. Methods can be impulsive or irrelevant - they can also be relevant to the time frame that is only determined by what others are doing - so that you fit in or do not experience FOMO (fear of missing out).
And yet, Methods can enhance your overall work as well. What impacts your learning is more of the teachers Message AND their Method working together in a Masterful Way.
A teachers Message is timeless and it lasts longer than their methods do. Your Message is deeper than the technique you are teaching or the way to achieve a result. The Message is what is ingrained in your students heart more so than what you are teaching for their hair.
Many times your message is felt unconsciously as a gut response of being pleasant or unpleasant and your participants can 'feel' or 'sense' this but they can not put words to express it, so they act on it by leaving or telling others about the 'energy' they experienced from you was not a positive experience.
Your Message is part of who you are and what you do.
It reflects why you do what you do.
Your Message is more about what you believe and how you deliver your beliefs that is more powerful than a method.
While we need both - a misguided teacher can over-ride what they do and confuse others that can distract from their overall vision of helping others.
It takes wisdom to navigate how you impact your students based on the strength of leaning into humility more so than your ego.
Wisdom is achieved by learning more from your students feedback more than your ego refusing to listen to them.
In the spirit of learning from you & those that read my blog - I look forward to your feedback or response to this article as to how you view teaching your own method and learning about your own Message and how it impacts your students with frustration or success.
For now,
Curly Hair Artistry
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