The idea of teaching has been rumbling around my brain for several years now.
To fully master a subject, you must be able to teach your craft competently to others. To convey your catalogue of accumulated knowledge, if you will. What has kept me from charging full tilt ahead was the doubt that I had very little original material to share; that my knowledge was borrowed from the giants upon whose shoulders I stood. And trust me, over the years, I’ve met and learned from enough giants to cast a GOT HBO special.
What I’ve realized is that I have almost twenty years of learning under my belt. I’ve always been that keener academic, 3 rows down, a little to the right (so that I could observe not only the instructor fully, but the entirety of the class). I spent years quietly watching how my classmates digested the information we were fed, and I noted that it was important to cater to all types of learners: visual, auditory, kinaesthetic.
I also committed as much as I could to my long term memory banks. To this day, I couldn’t tell you what I had for supper yesterday, but I can give you the degrees of flexion that the vomer and coccyx posses, and the relationship between the two. I can tell you that the temporal and ilium share a relationship, and that the talus and the occiput are the Romeo and Juliet of Osteopathy, forever distant but intimately related in function. I can describe the essence of vitality and juxtapose it against the stark mechanics of the lever/pulley system our bio mechanical texts have reduced human physiology to. You wanna talk anatomy? I’m your gal.
But although it’s been a cool trip, I know that the biomechanical texts aren’t giving us the full story.
You see, for as long as I’ve had a body, I’ve wondered how it operates. Down to the minute detail. This curiosity keeps me fully engaged and excited about the inner workings of the human being, not only in body, but in mind and spirit as well. What a fascinating package we have been gifted for this limited time on this precariously balanced planet. It keeps me up at night! If I were a celestial student of the cosmos, I’d probably be a silent, unassuming moon…a few planets down, tucked slightly behind Saturn.
So I thought to myself “Self: What makes a good teacher?”
And the answer I came to was: “One who cares very deeply about their subject matter. One who has devoted their existence to knowing and honouring their calling. One who is at once satisfied and dissatisfied with the answers they’ve uncovered, which causes them to dig even deeper.”
Diploma/degree/doctorate in Osteopathy = DO = Dig On
And so it appears, I fit the criteria for being an Osteopathic manual practitioner. And one who might very much enjoy teaching.
And I am terribly excited to embark on this new journey to help others become just as engaged, just as excited, just as devoted to the profession that has gifted us not only a livelihood, but a deeper life purpose. I firmly believe we find ourselves when we lose ourselves in selflessness. When we serve others.
And so it is with great gusto that I invite you to share in all the knowledge I have collected over these 20 years from all the giants that have come before me, so that one day I may elevate you just enough for you to see your own potential. My colleague and friend Carl York has co-founded our new seminar company: Ostegenics and we are very excited to begin.
Let’s go. Class is in session
Amanda is a Halifax-based Manual Osteopathic practitioner who has trained with the College d’Etudes Osteopathique as well as the British College of Osteopathic Medicine. Amanda practises a heart-centred approach to Osteopathy and enjoys working with humans of all kinds.