Patrick Macdonald It is the job of the teacher of the Alexander Technique, without disregarding other ways, to deal with the one for which he or she has been trained. Alexander left us with an idea of how to improve ourselves and our pupils. All this must be done with extreme skill and precision. I am happy to find that the knowledge of the technique is more widespread, but I am concerned that the extreme accuracy of Alexander’s skill should be unaffected. Without that, the Alexander Technique loses its justification. Six essentials for a teacher of the Alexander Technique are:- 1.Knowledge of the history of Alexander’s discovery and the evolution of his teaching technique. 2.Knowledge of the principles upon which the teaching is based: a. Recognition of the force of wrong habit (wrong use) b. Inhibition of reaction to stimulus to overcome wrong habit c. Recognition of faulty sensory awareness d. The giving of directions e. The Primary Control 3. A reasonable standard of good use with a tendency to improve. Without this tendency, deterioration is likely, with the consequent impairment of teaching ability. 4. An ability to bring about inhibition of reaction in pupils and the sensitivity to see and/or feel when it is not present, even when its absence is by no means obvious. 5. An ability to bring about in pupils the phenomenon known as “letting the neck be free, to let the head go forward and up, to let the back lengthen and widen”. 6.An ability to explain to pupils what they should not do, what they should do and how they should do it, and guidance to continue to practice it in the absence of a teacher. I have listed these six items not necessarily in importance but rather in time sequence, as I expect 1, 2 and 3 to be learnt before 4,5 and 6. Both teaching and learning to use the Alexander Technique is fairly simple but by no means easy. The necessary changes are mostly small and very subtle. The amount of change that is required can and usually should be very small in actual movement, but the difference of direction in the flow of force can and often should be very great, even as much as 180 degrees. Unless this is recognised the necessary changes are unlikely to take place. A proliferation of verbiage is unlikely to do the proper job. This is what makes the Alexander Technique difficult, for the changes must be very great and very small. People who have not been accustomed to having the technique are unlikely to understand what I’ve just written. This is unfortunate, but it is a truth that needs to be faced. Knowledge about the Alexander Technique is now very widespread compared with twenty years ago, but knowledge of the real thing has not greatly increased. Indeed a lot of what passes for the Alexander Technique is inaccurate and misleading, and a lot of what now passes for the Technique is something that would have horrified F.M.Alexander. True, this is a phenomenon in many disciplines. Indeed what has not yet been done is the setting of standards of teaching of the Alexander Technique. The work has spread into five continents and what is spreading is fairly thinly spread. There are a number of people who have a good idea as to what this technique is about, but they are a diminishing minority. The Technique is very simple, but I do not say that it is easy. Indeed for most of us it was not easy at all. What knowledge and art are acquired without a lifetime of servitude? By now the reader may understand that the learning of the Technique is a delicate art. The skill should be literally in the hands of the teacher and no other means would replace them. To be able to choose to direct one’s organism rightly rather than wrongly is, as Alexander wrote, “Man’s supreme inheritance”. On Other Techniques There is no reason why other techniques such as yoga and Tai Chi cannot be associated with the Alexander Technique. However, to be valuable the Alexander Technique must be the important part of the association. If the other techniques become the dominant ones in the association, then it must be so that the Alexander Technique will be lost. Be clear with your technique. Learn the use of the self and bring it to bear in whatever you are engaged in.
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