Don't judge a book by it's cover

It's a common and even subconscious thing that we do. When someone tells the name of their school, when someone dresses a certain way, when someone tells their job. Our brain naturally starts to make assumptions. But today I am not talking about people, I want to talk about the yoga Teacher Training Certificate (YTTC) accredited by the American Yoga Alliance.

Perhaps the name should be changed to something else, because it shouldn't be that easy to become a teacher. In old Indian culture, only the Brahmins could become teachers. (Let's leave the caste system out first.) In out society nowadays, it isn't that easy to get into NIE. You need to pass interviews, have relatively good grades, and they make you do practicums before you are off on your own. There is a basic standard to be met. Yet in the YTTC, anyone can do it and pass.

The YTTC has become more of a business making model nowadays. People from all over the world fly to countries with lower cost of living such as India, Thailand, Indonesia to do their YTTCs, that are sometimes also marketed as retreats. And after completing this YTTC, they can become certified teachers. Either we are spoiling the meaning of being certified, or society doesn't give a damn about certificates. I believe the former. People who have done proper yoga or any form of similar practice can tell the difference between someone who has done it for 2-4 years WITH professional coaching, as compared to someone who just learnt for a month and picked up random skills from the Internet. There is a difference between self-taught and professionally taught.

Maybe you think I am elitist, but this isn't about money. These courses aren't expensive. USD$1000 or even less, you become certified and you can even run a yoga studio and make millions. Imagine how dilute these skills become. And then you run your own YTTC. The requirements aren't tough, take a look at their website: https://www.yogaalliance.org/Our_Standards/Elevated_RYS_200_Standards

Maybe you think I look down on people who are self-taught. No I do not. I taught myself how to swim. I cut my hubby's hair. But what I don't do is, teach others how to do it and say I am professional.

Yes yoga is for everyone, but if it's so easy then why make a cert for it? It is just like that CPR course I did where the person (I can't bring myself to call him teacher) gave us all the answers, and I suspect one of the answers were wrong. And the course is not cheap you know, but people go for it because they can use their Skillsfuture credits. But can people really save lives, um nope. We can try... but seriously... ridiculous. The standard of the 200h cert is like a ballerina taking grade one ABRSM exam. Even people fail the ABRSM exam but no one fails the 200h cert. The teaching cert for ABRSM is so bloody tough to pass as well. Maybe you are just teaching yoga to beginners, but beginners are actually harder to teach. That's why childhood education is so important because when damage is done at a young age, it's really tough to reverse. Same for beginner practitioners. And yoga practitioners aren't kids. Kids are more flexible and heal faster. 50 year olds or 60 year olds come to do yoga and if you can't teach them the right alignments and right pose variations for people who can't do the standard, those people are gonna hurt themselves.

Honestly I am not against the YTTC. What I am against is its name. Just like how you can't market eggs as healthy because of its high cholesterol content, you shouldn't be marketing the yoga retreat as a teaching certificate. Change the name. Stop the euphemisms.

And to the general public, don't make judgements entirely off certifications. I don't even trust doctors. Do your research, trust your instincts, your intuition. Do what you feel is right for your body.

TTFN