The Diversity of Education
Generalists & SME’s — The Diversity of Education
by Sarah Sloane
There are two primary modes of educating in our current community: people who are knowledgeable about a particular skill that have a drive to teach it (the Subject Matter Experts), and people who love teaching in general but do not have a particular single point of passion. And while both of these are valid (and respectable) reasons for teaching, they unfortunately do not create a full experience.
The first times I taught classes, it was because I was asked to share some skills or techniques that I knew (namely, knife play and needle play). I had a great time doing so, and I found out something that I’d suspected about myself for years: I loved being a part of the passing on of knowledge. I got a huge charge out of watching people’s nods of understanding, seeing the smiles on their faces, and most especially watching them realize that they could make their fantasies and desires happen in a way that was safe and respectful for everyone involved. I chose to continue to teach because becoming the channel for education was something I was called to do.
A dear friend of mine, however, is very very good at one thing: rope. He lives it, breathes it, gets off on it — in fact, I suspect it makes up a main part of his diet, too! When he picks up rope and talks about it, he makes it seem so exciting that learners in his classes can’t help but get the enthusiasm. And he’s only interested in rope — not M/s relationships, not flogging, just rope.
The challenge is that both of us feel a pull to become the other — he is constantly asked if he teaches other classes in other topics, and I’m often asked to go into a 301 level on some of the topics I teach. And when we want to continue being able to do what we love, we have to gain some of the skills that the other side has. In a corporate world, we’d have options — there are a number of (pricey) classes that are available to help teach employees how to teach what they know, and still other (often more pricey) classes that help people become corporate trainers, who can walk into any room and teach on a variety of topics.
The reality is that, unless and until we have a paradigm shift in the kink communities about the value of education, we will have to make do with building our own bridge-crossing skills. Coming up with a couple hundred bucks is hard enough for most of us, but doing it in order to be eligible to teach at other events where there is very little or no financial return on investment makes even less sense.
There are some ways to grow these skills organically, however, and while they may not give you the results as quickly as you might wish, they are some solid ways to move at a pace that works for you, and that helps you build a long-standing good reputation as an educator without sacrificing your money, time, and energy in areas that aren’t good directions for you. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
-Know what your educational calling is (or even what you suspect you might want to be capable of doing well down the road). Do you want to teach a few skills that are your passion, or do you want to be an educator with a broad range of classes? Knowing where you are on the spectrum of SME to Generalist is important, both at the moment and where your goals are.
Keep in mind — not everyone is required to be either an SME or a Generalist, or some combination of the two — each presenter has a special skill set that they can bring to the table, but the core of what makes someone successful is their passion. As presenters, we need to own our reasons for teaching, and we need to be mindful of them as we follow our path. We will have to make decisions at many points down the road, and being clear on our motivations to teach can help us make those decisions in a way that feels good for us.
-Find your role models. It may be someone in your local area that you can hang out with from time to time, or that you can see teaching at groups and events. It may be someone across the country that you’ve only met once, but participates in online forums & blogs. It may be someone that doesn’t formally teach, but has a grasp of the concepts that you have used as a basis for your own understanding. Regardless of where you find them — you must find them. These are the people that you will learn from, and whose experiences will guide you — both positively and negatively — as you grow. One of my most potent role models is a woman who I suspect has no earthly clue how greatly I look up to her, but she embodies the kind of educator and community member that I strive to become. And yes, as sappy as it sounds, there have been times when watching her perform her calling within our community inspires me to go further, trust more, and work towards becoming even better.
-Create your statement of purpose. If you’ve ever listened to me teach a class on polyamory or service relationships, you’ll know that one of the things that I believe is integral to our ability to get what we really want is the creation of a mission statement. We often just blunder about doing whatever we think is the right thing to do at each moment, while never actually stating what the best direction for ourselves actually is — and the two end up never meeting. Taking some time to write down why we teach and what we want to both give and gain as an educator can help us to evaluate everything from what direction that we’re heading in to what events and groups that we want to teach for and how we grow & gain skills to help us. It doesn’t have to be complicated, or a multi-page statement. A few sentences will do the job just fine — and if you’re looking for inspiration, a quick web search for them will yield hundreds of company & organizational mission statements.
-Look for the gaps in your knowledge, and fill them. Don’t know much about flogging? Go to a class, or talk to someone who really loves it. Even if you never plan on teaching that topic, your knowledge of it can help inform your responses to attendee’s questions or even give you the basis to extrapolate how floggings might fit into a scene involving the topics that you feel driven to teach about. Bingo for learning about relationship styles and gender perspectives that may not apply to you. It doesn’t even matter if you really enjoy the activity — learning about it helps you to understand more fully the various experiences that your students & fellow educators discuss. Who knows — you may even find that a topic that was previously boring to you becomes something that you really want to invest more time learning about (and perhaps even becomes your newest “favorite activity”!).
-Go to classes that you also teach (or hope to teach) by other educators. Regardless of the experience level or teaching skills that they have, each person has their own way of talking about their favorite topic that is totally unique to them, and it helps us to share in that knowledge. Do be mindful, though, that it’s incredibly poor ethical form to lift another educators class title, or use their handouts without permission; many educators spend hours upon hours honing their presentations and materials, and using them without permission is disrespectful to not only the presenter but also to the people who might be in the audience when you teach. What is good form is to ask permission to utilize sections of their material (with correct attribution, of course), and to mention in the classes you teach the names of the people that have taught you particular techniques or inspired you. We all want to know that we make a difference; if you point out the people who make a difference to you, it honors the work that they did before you came along, as well as the work of the people who taught them.
Having a range of knowledge that is both broad and deep doesn’t happen quickly. However, when we spend our time finding what feels right to us and following our passion, the experiences that we offer to students (as well as our own experience of our work as educators) becomes even more meaningful and enriching. Take some time to take stock of where you are, and where you want to go — and take some additional time to step in the direction that will take you closer to being the best educator that you can be.
Sarah Sloane is an AOLd Guard leatherwoman who currently hails from
Chicago, IL. Sarah came up in the BDSM / Leather / Kink communities in
the late 1990’s, and has been teaching passion with a passion since
2000. After being a kink nomad, teaching hundreds of classes in the US,
Canada, and overseas for over 12 years (while based in her home state,
Virginia), she’s grateful to have found a place in the Chicago
community, where she manages The Pleasure Chest and serves on the board
of LRA. Sarah is also an accomplished writer, with columns for websites
such as Fearless Press and Eden Fantasys, and chapters in books like
Tristan Taormino’s “The Ultimate Guide to Kink” and Lee Harrington’s
“Rope, Bondage, and Power”. When pressed, she identifies as a queer
dominant with a penchant for cigars, knitting, and her family of choice.
