Principles of the Alexander Technique: What It Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do for You Second Edition by Jeremy Chance

Author:Jeremy Chance [Chance, Jeremy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00DG9MJE2
Publisher: Singing Dragon
Published: 2013-01-14T22:00:00+00:00

5

Teaching Lineages

Alexander was an enthusiastic horse rider and his technique is used today as part of the training of equestrian riders on the German Olympic team.

‘Don’t come to me unless, when I tell you you are wrong, you make up your mind to smile and be pleased.’

F. M. Alexander

The Alexander work evolves more like a martial art than a remedial art. Its development more closely resembles that of aikido than chiropractic. Although there is no formal ranking system, still there are a number of terms used by teachers to denote a particular status. At the top you have the ‘master teachers’, who may loosely be defined as the founders of the primary teaching lineages that currently exist in the Alexander world. Then you have ‘senior teachers’, ‘directors of training schools’, ‘sponsoring teachers’, ‘junior teachers’, ‘second-generation teachers’ and many other descriptive terms along those lines – not unlike the various coloured ‘belts’ found in the martial arts.

The Alexander world’s version of a ‘black belt’ is becoming a Director of a training school. Directors are an influential group and meet and discuss issues regularly in many countries. To qualify, you must have been teaching between seven and ten years, depending on the rules of the individual society, and be recognized as a person with the necessary skills to both teach and organize a teacher training school.

No one comes out of high school and trains to be an Alexander teacher as a career. The training is a considerable investment, both in time and money, so most teachers are highly motivated to understand and apply this work to themselves. For most teachers, it’s a decision of personal growth and development. Quite a few trainees continue with their original occupation upon qualification – as a dancer, singer, yoga teacher, musician or suchlike – using their new skills to help others in their chosen field. Occasionally, they don’t teach at all – instead concentrating on applying what they have learnt to enhance their own skill.

Your teacher’s qualifications

There are two independent networks that oversee teacher registration, training and general standards. The largest is the international network of Alexander Technique Affiliated Societies – affiliated because, while they all recognize each other’s members, each still exists as a separate organization with its own constitution, by-laws and standards. The second network is one organization that calls itself Alexander Technique International (ATI) and, as the name suggests, it consists of members spread across the world. Some teachers belong to both groups. ATI differs from the Affiliated Societies because it operates under a radically different set of ground rules for the training of teachers.

The Affiliated Societies currently exist in America, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland and the UK – see the Resources at the end of the book. They have what is called ‘the 1,600 hour standard’. This means that any teacher on a training course approved by one of these Societies must have completed 1,600 hours of training under quite strict conditions. These conditions

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