Loyalty and retention in Ashtanga

 

Based on what I have been seeing so far, I guess there are teachers who think in terms of customer retention instead of student loyalty, and that could be a major problem. Let me try to explain my point of view.

Why students stop going to a shala for good o why there's a recurrent coming and going of students? And why the student base is not stable? In business jargon: why the churn rate or at least the students' turnover sometimes is so high?

Well, apart from obvious reasons like financial resources, change of residence or working site, as well as injuries or illness, which lay on the student's side of the equation, and not taking into account situations plainly independent from both parties like those we have all been living and suffering during the past two years, it's important that teachers be clear that they might need to take a long hard look at themselves and at their approach to students and teaching alike.

When students are regarded as "money bearers", I mean as customers to squeeze out only, the outcome is predictable.

When instructors are interested in the status of "being a teacher" instead of staying focused on teaching, when the role is more important than the task in their eyes, omens tend to be bad.

When the stress is put on the number of students they could get instead of the quality of teaching, the kind of practitioners that teachers do attract is usually poor.

When the practice is left in second place, it can be really complicated to connect with students.

When there is a lack of commitment from a teacher, students tend to feel lost, go astray and eventually desert the shala or, far worse, abandon the practice.

When certain patterns call teachers' responsibility into question, expert practitioners can feel it and might react or behave accordingly.

When the unwritten and frequently unspoken teacher-student code of conduct is broken from either party, trust will be lost and earning it again is quite complicated.

All in all, this party game, this sort of role-play, should not be about recognition and validation, and must not be a power struggle either - and this is true for both parties. Because such teachers and such students are dull blades and, most of all, are no real friend of the practice.