TEACHING / CERTIFICATION

J and G: Without a doubt the quality of individual instructor is a comment on the entire population. Twice on cases whose disposition was handled in committee the issue was what do about the complaint from without about the behavior of "one of us." We had to grovel, of course.

Your inquiry and interest prompts me to emphasize a few ideas that have presented themselves as a consequence of testing alot of candidates. You should know first that my perspective is that the CCI program is mainly a quality assurance program for our students. I say that because nobody has to have one of our certifications to teach fly casting. The CCI program certifies teaching ability not casting performance. And the complementary observation is that no candidate is entitled to certification not matter how hard he tried, how much he spent, how deserving he feels, or how much I like him.

Particularly instructive were the candidates that failed. Failure to prepare adequately is the main reason that candidates didn't pass. The teaching questions are a major issue, especially for those who have no experience in front of a class. And the candidates who failed were not always deficient in content; their failure was in form. Here's an example. If the examiner has to beat a short answer out of a candidate to the inquiry about the length of the cast and the length of the stroke, or if the examiner has to gag the candidate who can't keep in mind that he is supposed to be addressing a student, or if the student will revise whatever he said with slight encouragement showing that his confidence level is low, then that candidate does not know what the form of an acceptable answer is. And he will not do well with students. Frequently what I see among poorly prepared candidates is the hope that by their recogizing the right answer, they will be credited for competence. That expectation is, I suspect, a result of deficient education models.

I wrote The Roadmap article for The Loop as a remedy for deficiencies in form. It was aimed at a CCI prospect who wanted to know how to get ready but was unlikely to pay for a prep session. You may recall that it's the article that included everything from what to read to what to wear. CI candidates buying and studying "texts" seems like a prescription for failure.

On the matter of paid for prep--buying a prep course will not make a good candidate out of a poor one. It might improve a good one, but so far I haven't seen an example. The best candidates have always prepped on their own, armed mostly with committment and good models. The workshops that we require vary in quality and content. The students would probably prefer one that coaches them for the test, i.e, tells the the right answers. And sadly, I have observed one that was exactly that. When workshops deal exclusively with content, they miss. If the workshop also includes some guidance on successful teaching approaches such as giving students some time without close assistance to experiment with failure, that's an improvement. But, I have never seen a workshop that emphasized how to succeed as a teacher.

So, part of the clear expectations set before candidates should be that certification is our response to what the candidate does not who he is. Visceral guidance suggests that frequently certification is read as a personal validation which it emphatically is not. The CCI program is not Skull and Bones, thank goodness.

Our discussion group is a excellent site from which to renew the emphasis on teaching. Recenty, that was attempted. Here's an inquiry. Were there 139 responses to the question about thumb position on the backcast? I'm guilty, too. I read one that would work, and yet hand position on backcast remains the single-most predictable problem that students present. Just telling student to not do it usually doesn't work. If a teacher knows why that's the case, he's moving toward what will.

DD .... Your article was a good one. Remember, however, that it was printed in THE LOOP. The CCI candidate usually is someone who doesn't even know the journal exists ...... and, until certified, doesn't have access to it without assistance from one who is certified. I think this is one of the problems with the candidate obtaining information to use in preparation.

I think we need a CCI study guide to give the applicant some idea of the scope and breadth of the certification processes. This need contain no, "answers" to exam questions at all, but should help provide the candidate with some advice as to how to prepare.

I'm convince that candidates who seek help on how to teach from you and/or other qualified casting educators, he/she will not only do better on an exam, but (much more importantly) will turn out to be a better instructor.