FOR TUTORS AND POTENTIAL TUTORS
PLUS "SPIRITUAL TEACHERS"
(Diana Hughes - Regional Training Officer)

INTRODUCTION
As tutors we need to remember that we are all learning all the time. We should be learning from our students as well as they from us. And whether we are directly involved in healer training yet or not, we have a duty to all, to our patients and to all we come into contact with, to give of our own spiritual knowledge and understanding in the best way possible. We all come into contact with our new healers and probationers - they are the future of the NFSH, so it’s a concern of us all how they are trained.

NEED FOR MORE TUTORS
There is a need for more tutors - especially in our region! I know this might came as a shock. It is only too human to get quite comfortable in our own little empires as we all probably do, and feel quite threatened when there’s a possibility of another tutor on our patch. But for the good of the students and the future of the NFSH we need to overcome this. And with care, consideration and careful planning, and with tutors getting to know each other this need not be a problem.

There are two reasons I would like to see more tutors applying. Firstly, it has become apparent that it’s essential that people should have some choice about who they go to. The local tutor, for various reasons just might not be suitable for some students, or might not be offering courses at convenient times.

Secondly many tutors generally have dropped out of the new training scheme, either for health reasons or other, and they do need to be replaced. So if anyone is thinking of becoming a tutor, please feel encouraged to go ahead and make enquiries and find out what is involved.

GOOD TEACHING AND ON GOING SELF TRAINING
We all need constantly to reassess our teaching skills- this applies to everyone, not just the tutors, because we are ALL teachers in one way or another, just as we are all healers.

Specifically for tutors though ...we need to make sure we have some ongoing training ourselves, because we all do get stale in our teaching methods. Also we have to remember that nowadays people are coming into healing with often considerable spiritual knowledge, so we do need to respect that, and not treat everyone as raw beginners.

In the future, there will be a requirement for tutors to have ongoing training, so I’d like to begin to prepare for that in the region by suggesting we organise something ourselves in the meantime. The options would seem to be:- ....

1) A tutors’ training day or half day every so often.

2) An hour or so after regional committee meeting whenever it was felt to be needed.

I think it could involve a short sharing session in which problems could be aired and also tips shared about what worked well.

I would also like to see maybe a short presentation of some topic by each tutor in turn, perhaps with little asides about what they were doing or hoping to achieve, with a constructive feedback session from colleagues afterwards. This need not be threatening but could be fun and very helpful!

NEED FOR PERSONAL CHANGE
We have all been trained ourselves and we’ve all probably experienced both good tutors and not so good tutors during the course of our own training - I know I have. I’d like to share a little with you .... I used to be a bit of a ‘talk and chalk’ person when I first started teaching ....lots of information given ...no time for questions ... much less practical ...because that’s the way I was taught and that’s the way I thought it should be done.

Then I went on observation at Jack and Jan Angelo’s courses 3 and 4 .... rushed home and completely revised all my courses!! I realised what a difference a good tutor and more open approach could make.

I think as tutors we should always try to grasp opportunities for positive change. Perhaps consider re-evaluating our delivery where necessary and be open to change where ever possible for the benefit of our students. They are, after all, our future. So let's take this opportunity, as we all rewrite our course material to fit the new scheme, to incorporate some of the things I've tried to draw to your attention where we might be able to improve our training skills even more.

EXTERNAL ASSESSORS
In the future also it will be necessary for tutors to be regularly assessed by external assessors at least every three years, possibly more if there are areas of concern. So again ... let’s prepare for this before it happens!

So here’s a little inventory for us - let’s all think about this, whether we are a tutor or not.

Tutors - we need to regularly ask ourselves .....

Are people getting the best out of our courses? Let’s look around us during our course delivery ... at the participants’ expressions ... are they looking bored and asleep most of the time .... this should be telling us something!

And how might we describe the atmosphere on our courses?
Warm? Cold? Friendly? Welcoming? Conducive to enjoyable learning? Let’s be honest!

Is it maybe too much of a schoolroom, with a lecturer, delivering a course, rather cold and distant? This is how courses used to be delivered, and might have been the style when we ourselves trained, but it just isn’t the way it’s done nowadays.

What we are aiming for is a warm hearted teacher who encourages participation - this is how effective courses need to be taught nowadays so we do need to consider if this is our style, and if not try to make some changes.

Do we encourage participation? Or is there maybe too much emphasis on getting through our material to allow people to stop and discuss things?

Are we perhaps talking “At” them rather than to them or discussing things with them?

Are we flexible in our own views and willing to learn from our students too? Do we recognise that there is often more than one equally valid point of view, and that it is often ok for students to hold contrary views from our own?

As we all know, the tutor is in a very powerful position - so are our students afraid of speaking out in case they upset us?

Do we find ourselves favouring some students over others?

Do we try to draw out the quiet ones?

Are we careful to respect other people’s belief systems and guard against making inappropriate remarks about say, religion, which might upset and offend.?

Is the room and seating suitably laid out so that students can see each other and the OHP and visual aids comfortably? Is there sufficient variety in our visual aids to help our students’ concentration?

Do we mingle with them at break times and try to get to know them as individuals?

These are just pointers to think about. Can we think of anything else which might be going wrong?

Here I’ve focussed on what might need to change on our courses, because of recent feedback I have received as RTO, but we could equally well focus on what works well, which could be the topic for another session.

This period, between the demise of the ‘old’ courses and the introduction of the new training scheme is such an excellent opportunity for us to rejuvenate our teaching skills ... as we rewrite our courses for the new scheme, let’s rewrite our teaching skills too!

GIVING INFORMATION TO PROBATIONERS.
It is essential as tutors that we keep ourselves up to date with current information and give correct information to our students and probationers. There have been various myths flying round the region which I have got some definite answer to from Janis recently. Please see the Probationer Myths elsewhere on this website. And if there are any more flying round which you know of, which ought to be properly investigated, please do let me know.

As responsible tutors please let us make sure that we give probationers correct guidance in future as far as we can!

IF YOU ARE THINKING OF BECOMING A TUTOR .....
We do need new tutors in all areas as already stated earlier. The requirements for qualifying as a tutor are getting tougher, as it is important to maintain standards and only recruit the very best people to teach our future healers. But seriously dedicated people who feel their teaching skills could be utilised in this way and who would enjoy this path of service should not feel discouraged by this.

Both the following will be under revision, but a possible way to start might be to aim to teach the Introduction Course before progressing on to become a full tutor.

ANYONE INTERESTED IN BECOMING A TUTOR FOR NFSH PLEASE APPLY TO JANIS WHITE AT CENTRAL OFFICE.

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN TEACHING OTHERS?
DO YOU LOVE HELPING OTHERS TO DEVELOP SPIRITUALLY?
You may not be an official tutor, but we are all of us spiritual teachers, just as we are all students, constantly learning from each other. The essence of true spirituality is perhaps the recognition that we are all essentially beings of light, who are just at different levels of enfoldment, and a wish to help others to evolve is part of this. Many of us have some interest in teaching others, and we all distribute knowledge and wisdom to others in some way. I feel that all of us have something to contribute.

I am in the process of setting up an email discussion and information group on topics of interest to tutors and anyone interested in teaching or helping others to evolve spiritually, which you can take part in if and when you have time, or not, as you wish. This would be in addition to the more public method of sharing via the forum, but might enable us to share and discuss things in greater depth.

The object of the group would be to keep us all interested in keeping our teaching 'alive' with new ideas, and to keep us thinking about new things, stop us getting stale. This applies to all of us as spiritual teachers and especially to those of us who are tutors or potential tutors. We in Region 9 haven't yet got an ongoing tutors training program off the ground yet, but are many of us probably engaged in rewriting our material for the new training scheme so it is an excellent opportunity to incorporate new ideas, new thoughts and material and discard what is no longer relevant.

If you are interested in joining the email group please contact me via the usual channels. I shall be delighted to hear from you!

And please check out the forum and add your comments and views there as well.

To start the ball rolling I should like to include a little from the email I sent out earlier for your consideration. Thoughts and answers to the forum please.

A quote attributed to Jesus from the book "The Way of the Essenes"
"The one who speaks from the heart uses the full weight of his words. YOUR TASK IS NOT TO PERSUADE PEOPLE BUT TO MAKE THEM UNDERSTAND, and truly the two terms are worlds apart. One who is persuaded, is only the plaything of his intellect and words make him fluctuate according to the fancies of philosophies; ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS IS ONE WHO KNOWS"

So as tutors and spiritual teachers, what do we think of this? Is this how we try to teach our students, or do we try to 'persuade' them to our own way of thinking? If this speaks to us, let's re-examine how we teach.

Also, many of us are familiar with the old saying, "We teach best what we most need to learn" and I think this is certainly true. As one tutor reminded me, it's our old friend, "Practice what you preach!"

Whatever you think about all this, please let us have your thoughts, ideas, suggestions

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