The Pony-Tail Myth and Other Dire E-Mail Warnings

Success-based learning means that students are guided through what they need to learn in a highly positive way. Practices go step by step starting with where each student actually is. Success is defined as progress for each individual student rather than as perfection according to some standard of the teacher. Students are coached as they do the practices so that they can do them correctly as much as possible. They are given feedback about how to improve in a context that communicates, "mistakes are part of learning." As soon as a correction is made, a student is given the chance to repeat the practice right away rather than being left with a feeling of not having done it right. Students are encouraged through compliments and cheering.

If students have a hard time, they are given support and acceptance for whatever they are feeling while being helped to keep trying.

To make the importance of choosing the right training clear, I want to share with you a personal example from my own life. Many years ago, my husband, Ed, and I signed up for a class organized by our hospital to prepare prospective parents for childbirth. After the first session, Ed said emphatically, "We are NOT going back to this teacher!"

"But she was a nice lady and knew a lot!" I protested. "She must be okay if the hospital recommended her. And we don't have enough time to find another teacher! Besides, it will be embarrassing to stop after we started!"

"That doesn't matter," Ed said. "This woman spent more time talking in a graphic way about all the things that can go wrong with a birth than on practicing the skills we want to learn. You are extremely suggestible. I'm afraid that just listening to her stories will give you trouble. I'll call the teacher and make a polite excuse and figure out where to look for a better class for you."

We ended up finding a wonderful positive teacher who led workshops out of her home and we were lucky enough to be able to have natural births with both of our children. Years later, I learned that our hospital ended up asking their teacher to leave because an extremely high percentage of her students had problems with their births.

Whether you are looking for a self-defense class or any other important training, pay attention, like Ed did, to uncomfortable feelings you have about someone's approach, no matter how highly-recommended the person is and no matter how much you like the teacher as a person. Often very well meaning knowledgeable people try to teach through talking about what can go wrong rather than through helping their students practice how to do things effectively. Remember that what programs actually do is more important than what their literature or representatives say they are going to do.

In KIDPOWER TEENPOWER FULLPOWER International, we do our best to uphold high standards for all of our services. Please let us know if ever we do not follow through on this commitment.