Good Enough To Teach

I recall a conversation with a Conflict Done Well student of mine who is also a professor of the liberal arts. I let her know that I had reached a point in my conflict practice where I felt that I was not executing well enough on the somatic principles I advocate and Martial Nonviolence system that I designed, and that I should probably end my teaching until I could take my next developmental step in mastery. She reprimanded me and explained that people who are good at being students do not expect their instructors to be able to apply what they are teaching comprehensively and with no discernable error, especially in the most difficult contexts, for instance, their own lives. She offered several examples of my helping other people to parse the concepts and practice the exercises involved, which she described as my job description and appropriate developmental stage, and suggested that it would be disservice to close the door of opportunity for my students, including her, just because I am "still embarrased by failure."

She went on to suggest that people who master something technically to the point that their error rate evaporates often become less interested in exploration and innovation because explicit leaps in skill are harder to come by and the project as a whole is less of a challenge. These people often become less adept at sharing their expertise with students and, as a result, less interesting themselves. This is to say nothing of the developmental benefits of assuming that there are almost always hidden levels of understanding on the other side of appearing to have achieved mastery. She allowed that, even if epistemological humility were not among my goals, persisting through ego-distress allows actual mastery that crosses domains to become possible.

It has been a while since this conversation, so I paraphrase. Another mighty woman who could have spoken similar words, my mother, just listened to the story-telling version of this and insisted that I write it down where others can see it, so here it is.