There is much to be said about the student-teacher relationships that are built within the Pagan community. The title of this blog is an axiom that has been around forever, (I think that it is a Buddhist precept) and widely known in the Pagan community.
Being a teacher within the Craft community is not unlike teaching anywhere else. It's a pretty thankless job at times where you feel more like a babysitter than a teacher who is instilling religious values in someone. Just as there is really no paid Pagan clergy, there are no paid Pagan teachers. Trust me when I say that there is a wide variety of teachers out there, good and bad, who are willing to teach. But just because they are willing to teach doesn't mean that they should be teaching. Some don't have the aptitude for it, some lack the patience for it and some should never be allowed to set foot in a teaching environment. Just because you know a subject matter six ways to Sunday, (or at its most basic level, transferring information to another) doesn't mean that you are capable of teaching it . It is my professional opinion that before ANY tradition allows someone to teach, they should go through classes that teach them not only how to TEACH, (developing goals, objectives, lesson plans, etc) but to teach them how adults LEARN (andragogy) as well. Two days of classes, eight hours each, should be more than enough to cover these subjects. When the tradition does this, they get a consistent end result all the time, i.e. high functioning students who represent their tradition well to the public.
I am different than most Craft teachers in that I actually have a masters degree in adult education and I structure my Craft curriculum just like a school teacher would. By doing so I am able to answer critical questions the adult learner may have like "What's in it for me?" or "How is this relevant to my life? job?" or to give students problems to work through so that they can make those connections to their life, their job and in the case of being a Craft teacher, the Divine as well. Accountability is another hallmark of the adult learner. Adults need to be held accountable just like their younger student counterparts. The desire for feedback is just as strong (if not stronger since they understand the larger picture of the connections they are making) in an adult learner as it is for a child.
Probably one of the best books I have read for teaching the Pagan path is called "A Teaching Handbook for Wiccans and Pagan" by Thea Sabin. It goes into detail about how to set up group, how to find students and once you find them, how do they learn and also gives great advice on how to design and implement your curriculum. If you have no teaching experience then this book is a must read for you!
As teachers in this community, we owe it to our students to give them the best possible experience while under our tutelage. As teachers of the Craft we are unique in that not only are we teaching religious values but in everything we do, we must show the Divine to the student so that the student can make that crucial connection as well. Doing so will help them develop their own relationship not only with the Divine within them but the external Divine as well.
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