[Tango-L] Criteria for choosing teachers
What do you think should be the criteria of the local tango club for the instructors that it chooses for their Argentine Tango instructor list? The club wants to be fair, but is also aware that everyone who teaches Argentine Tango is not necessarily qualified to do so (If you ask any Arthur Murray franchise if they teach A. Tango, they will say yes despite having no knowledge of it.) So what should be the criteria? Lessons for # years? Ongoing public group classes in Argentine Tango? Visited Buenos Aires? Danced in Buenos Aires? Taught in Buenos Aires? Invited to teach A. Tango in out of state workshops? Lois Minneapolis ___ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
Re: [Tango-L] Criteria for choosing teachers
1) Are they a member of the club? 2) Do they support the club by attending milongas and sending their students? 3) Have they taught a class prior to a milonga and was it well received by the students? 4) Are they able to dance both stage and social tango or do they only dance teach stage tango?? I think you must start at a very basic level herenot that your other criteria would not be useful, I think they might be obviously discriminatory. Let's face it, we have had long-time Argentine dancers from BsAs who could not teach their way out of a basic step. I think you also need a disclaimer saying you do not endorse any teacher to make it fair. From: Lois Donnay don...@donnay.net To: Tango-L Tango-L@mit.edu Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2013 3:44 PM Subject: [Tango-L] Criteria for choosing teachers What do you think should be the criteria of the local tango club for the instructors that it chooses for their Argentine Tango instructor list? The club wants to be fair, but is also aware that everyone who teaches Argentine Tango is not necessarily qualified to do so (If you ask any Arthur Murray franchise if they teach A. Tango, they will say yes despite having no knowledge of it.) So what should be the criteria? Lessons for # years? Ongoing public group classes in Argentine Tango? Visited Buenos Aires? Danced in Buenos Aires? Taught in Buenos Aires? Invited to teach A. Tango in out of state workshops? Lois Minneapolis ___ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l ___ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
Re: [Tango-L] Criteria for choosing teachers
Political issues sometimes makes it hard for a community organization to make subjective judgements. One objective criterion is the degree of professionalism offered by the teacher: (1) Do they have regular, on-going, group classes? How many? (2) Do they have a website, email, phone number? (3) Do they have liability insurance (like a yoga teacher would!)? (4) Do they have an actual resume and curriculum on file with the club? (5) How many years have they been teaching? One way to get past the political issues, is to have two tiers of teachers. You can list all the self-declared teachers who meet the minimum of being a member of the organization. But, only highlight as Professional Teachers those who meet a higher standard of professionalism according to objective criteria like those listed above. Maybe the enhanced listing on your website gets a picture, a link to their website, and the days times of their classes. You can list the Other Teachers with less information. If one of the less-professional teachers upgrades their profile, then let them move to the highlighted tier. I think the most important measure is whether the teacher offers ongoing classes. When a newcomer comes into the community, you want to refer them to teachers who can deliver a year of training. (Ballroom tango is not Argentine tango; that is not a hard boundary to enforce.) On Jan 10, 2013, at 1:44 PM, Lois Donnay wrote: What do you think should be the criteria of the local tango club for the instructors that it chooses for their Argentine Tango instructor list? The club wants to be fair, but is also aware that everyone who teaches Argentine Tango is not necessarily qualified to do so (If you ask any Arthur Murray franchise if they teach A. Tango, they will say yes despite having no knowledge of it.) Lois Minneapolis Tom Stermitz c: 303-725-5963 http://www.tango.org Denver, CO 80207 ___ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
Re: [Tango-L] Criteria for choosing teachers
I've heard a saying that Tango dancers vote with their feet. Because of political issues, you might list everyone who asks with a link to their website and let people decide by trying each one. Word of mouth will spread. (But I wouldn't add a ballroom studio unless they had someone everyone agreed was an authentic AT teacher. Not someone who just has ballroom AT syllabus DVDs to teach from.) On 1/10/13 3:44 PM, Lois Donnay wrote: What do you think should be the criteria of the local tango club for the instructors that it chooses for their Argentine Tango instructor list? The club wants to be fair, ___ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
