Does a Teacher's sex make a difference?

[robd]

Prompted by
1 - The earlier thread about a teacher's age
2 - Comments in another thread debating the merits of certain teachers
3 - The wish to put the word sex in a thread title

I wonder if there are any views out there about the gender of teachers and whether it affects the experience of the class i.e is having a female teacher (assuming she has a male demo) more beneficial to the ladies attending and vice versa with a male teacher for the leads?

In my fairly limited experience I have to say that I have preferred male teachers as for me they have given more tips to help the man's leading, presumably because this is where their own experience lies. Is the reverse true for the female teachers and following? Am I due a diploma from the College of stating the bleeding obvious?

Robert

[robd]

And no, I don't know why the board has decided to concatenate my carefully formatted message into one long string of text

[Minnie M]

Does a Teacher's sex (appeal) make a difference?

not forgetting a (where's the whistling smilie gone?)

[killingtime]

I'm not sure it does as much as the skill of the teacher. I'd certainly say the female teacher in Edinburgh injects a little bit of style advice for the girls but it doesn't seem detrimental to her teaching the lead.

At Southport both teachers had mics on. This lead to the interesting situation where they could both give advice. Maybe this is the best scenario; I certainly thought it worked well down there. However I would expect that sometimes one of the teachers would just start wittering or talking over the other one; which wouldn’t be good.

[Minnie M]

silly moo ..... still not sure of this new software

[Tessalicious]

And no, I don't know why the board has decided to concatenate my carefully formatted message into one long string of text

That would be because you're using WYSIWYG editing - go to Options to change.

And personally, I would agree that a male teacher is in general more helpful than a female teacher - especially, from my point of view anyway, when I'm leading in a class.

This is partly because in most cases the teacher is more likely to be consistent than the demo, and it is more important that the leader is consistent than the follower (styling and speed of spinning can usually vary without being completely offputting), and partly because it is really the leader who learns something concrete from a lesson, while followers just learn how to follow, or alternatively how to backlead, a new type of movement.

I don't mean to say, of course, that the many female teachers I know* aren't both great teachers and lovely ladies - but that men generally need certain things spelling out to them which women take for granted, and therefore might not go into so much detail over

*or for that matter male demos .

[Lynn]

At Southport both teachers had mics on. This lead to the interesting situation where they could both give advice. Maybe this is the best scenario; I certainly thought it worked well down there. However I would expect that sometimes one of the teachers would just start wittering or talking over the other one; which wouldn’t be good.

I think that both contributing is best, and two people who teach (or teach and demo) together regularly will get to a level of co-operation where the second person knows how much/little to chip in.

And you get teaching duos where both seem to have equal input and can therefore comment on whichever bit of the move is relevant for either lead or follow (eg Nigel and Nina) which works very well indeed.

[robd]

And no, I don't know why the board has decided to concatenate my carefully formatted message into one long string of text

And bizarrely it's now appearing as originally intended. I'm going mad, I'm sure or someone's working on the system today.

[killingtime]

And bizarrely it's now appearing as originally intended. I'm going mad, I'm sure or someone's working on the system today.

The forum fairies came to help you; obviously.

[TiggsTours]

Personally, I don't feel from a follower's perspective, that it generally makes a blind bit of difference, seeing as very few teachers ever teach how to follow! The best combination, IMO, is when there are 2 teachers, one teaching the lead, one teaching the follow, and both giving tips to the other on how to make the lead/follow easier for your partner, something that rarely (at the most) happens in Ceroc teaching.

[2leftfeet]

Have I got this wrong???

Does a Sex Teacher make a difference?

[robd]

Have I got this wrong???

Does a Sex Teacher make a difference?

Is lead and follow essential in the bedroom?

[RogerR]

As long as the teacher and partner can get the men to lead well and the women to follow the lead then all is well and the teacher's gender is un important.

The one thing that does fail big time is when a female teacher has a female partner. The it is very easy for the loose limbed dancer teacher to try to teach moves that the merely average men in the class never will be able to do, leading to a lack of satisfaction caused by a lack of achievment causing a lack of men

[David Bailey]

Here's hoping my reply doesn't get posted 3 times...

At Southport both teachers had mics on.

Nigel and Nina also work this way, as do many of the main established teaching couples.

I agree this is best, as you can get the male and female perspectives. It works well as long as you know your teaching partner, and you have experience working with them (and you're willing to shut up occasionally ).

But even with two teachers, you still mostly get one "Lead teacher" (typically the man, I believe), and one "sub-teacher"; that way is easiest IMO to avoid over-witterage.

And personally, I would agree that a male teacher is in general more helpful than a female teacher - especially, from my point of view anyway, when I'm leading in a class.

For a leader, sure, but then you never get anything much as a follower - very few male teachers will talk about what to do as a follower, whereas a female teacher may well do so.

*or for that matter male demos .

Lucky escape there, girl

[Ghost]

One obvious difference would be if the teacher is available for dancing with during freestyle. Personally I'd rather dance with a lady than a man. For others "vice versa" and "I don't care" presuambly apply.

I have wondered to what extent female teachers backlead their demos though?

To an extent I've noticed people tend to chat while the teacher's talking (or trying to) more during the class if it's a female teacher , but that's only based on about a dozen teachers so may just be an abberation.

Take care,
Christopher

[David Bailey]

I have wondered to what extent female teachers backlead their demos though?

As far as I know, very little - they've got enough to do, trying to control and teach the class without worrying about whether the demo is leading or not.

Let's face it, as a woman, it's always harder to teach anyway (as you've got to remember the moves from the male perspective), so the last thing you want is a demo who's not a clear and confident lead.

To an extent I've noticed people tend to chat while the teacher's talking (or trying to) more during the class if it's a female teacher

Unfortunately, I think I have to agree. And too.

[Gadget]

I have wondered to what extent female teachers backlead their demos though?

Depends on if the demo gets it right or not
I have seen demos being completley back-led, and I have seen demos actually leading it properly when the teacher mucks up.
Personally, I think that there must be a bit of back-leading (perhaps the wrong term) so that the move can be done in the right timing, pausing to explain at the appropriate bits.
I'm sometimes surprised that teachers can actually "dance" properly: they seem to spend most of their time demonstrating and teaching, or at least in "teacher" mode where their partner (M/F) is looking for constructive advice.
So and

My regular teacher is Lorna, and sometimes Lisa with the occasional Franck (or Mari) standing in - I don't really have anything other than workshops to compare them against. But I've also had Bill as demo for many years and MrFizz in recent times: I suppose they must be in part responsable for passing on their own style, but I don't think I'm ever lacking for instruction as a lead. The teacher normally explains verbally all the parts of the moves from the lead's terms, and moves to demonstrate visualy what is expected of the follower.

[MartinHarper]

One difference is in teaching style. A male teacher can struggle demonstrating female-specific style points, due to anatomy and machismo, and vica versa.
From the POV of learning to lead, I find male and female teachers often approach it differently. Female teachers will talk about the feeling we should give the follower, whereas male teachers will talk about the mechanics more. I find both perspectives useful.
At a standard MJ night, none of this is an issue: style doesn't get taught much, lead/follow doesn't get taught much, so who cares? It's slightly more of an issue at workshops and the like, which presumably is why they tend to be dual-taught.

[Anna]

I always find it easier to learn something off a man.. don't know why.. *shrugs* especially if the guy knows the women's steps too

[animaltalk]

As a leader - I think that I have been to very few classes that have taught well by a lady on her own

However, I think that is just been bad luck.
I prefer double input - ala Rivera LeRoc - very good

On a positive note, I think when there is a good female teacher, the ladies from that class have had been very good to dance with. Perhaps because they have someone high standard locally to watch and get tips from.

They have been more confident at taking the lead from me and have played more
Which I'm definitely up for . . .