"what do you mean, advanced?"

I have to be honest, part of what I have loved about this blogging experience is the exploration of words.  While I still enjoy throwing a word or two out there that may or may not fit the bill, I have also become more mindful of the true meanings of a word before I gently place it into my ramblings.  If you consider the fact that different sources may have slightly different definitions and that we, as the funny little creatures that we are, have our own spin, this English language becomes much more complicated than you can imagine!  Having said that, I am firmly rooted in my belief that clear communication can lead to world peace, but that post is for another time. Pretty advanced thinking, yes? I guess it depends on how you define advanced. 

At this point, you are probably once again asking yourself "where is she going with this?"  In fact, there is a really good chance that question comes up every time I open my mouth or put something in print. I'm okay with that, obviously.  The answer is that I found myself pondering said definition as I considered the nature of my recent advanced yoga teacher training.

I think it is safe to say that no one really knew exactly what advanced meant going into our training.  What we knew was that we would get our 500 hour teacher training certificate at the end.  The experience, however, epitomized what I believe as an educator, advanced should/could look like.  It wasn't just about learning advanced postures, though we did.  It wasn't just about learning how to teach those postures, though we did.  It was about learning- about ourselves and how we live or want to live in this world, about the history, philosophy and mythology of yoga, both classical and tantra. It was about being immersed- in the culture, the conversation, the struggle.  It was learning how to go with the flow, not just how to teach flow. It was about relationship- to ourselves, to others and the universe.  It was learning about learning and learning about teaching.  We learned how to delve deeper, synthesize and analyze, this sometimes foreign language.  There were high expectations yet the testing was not standardized.  You were encouraged to take risks, fail, try again, risk again.  This was the time and the place to do so.  What an incredible balance and an incredible gift.  We as students were all so different from one another in what we knew, in how we processed intellectually and emotionally and in our wants and desires from the shared experience.  And it worked.  I could not think of a better way to advance someone in a pursuit, any pursuit, but that is just me.   

But here is a question for you.  How do you define advanced? It's okay to look it up if you think this is a trick question. It's not. What I'm really getting at is "how do you define advanced and thus what value/ importance is placed on that term for you or others?"  We have advanced degrees, advanced placement courses, advanced career opportunities and advanced thinking. We have children, in fact, who are obviously much more advanced than their peers, right?  One might argue, or I might argue if I were the arguing type, that it depends entirely on how you define advanced.


This post is dedicated to my Sacred Lasya Teachers; Danny Arguetty, Coby Kozlowski and Katie Brauer.  Thank you for this gift.