How Did Our YTT System Happen? A Conversation with Amara Miller
Have you ever wondered how on Earth we got here?
How did we get 200 hours? Who started all this?
Amara Miller has the answers. Take a listen.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
*Knowing where we can go to in the future depends greatly upon understanding our where we came from. The Yoga Alliance started in 1999 as a solution to a problem, and was not initially set forth to monetize yoga in the way we see today. So treating them as an evil eye organization right from the start simply isn’t true. The original intent landed more in the realm of making sure that students were safe and assuring people were somewhat well trained as yoga teachers.
*Nobody could have been prepared for the influx of money into the yoga industry that happened in the late 00s and teens. We simply were not prepared to professionalize and deal with the money that all of a sudden was flowing around as things like ‘yoga pants’ became part of the American cultural lexicon.
*Did you know that the Yoga Alliance approved 100% virtual YTT programs as of this year? What do you think about this? Good, bad? Something different?
*Because it was incredibly contentious in creating yoga teacher standards through the Yoga Alliance, the group of organizing people decided to work through an hours model vs. a core curriculum model.
*Counter culture played a significant role in getting us to where we are today as an industry. A lot of folks, myself included, loved the idea that yoga was outside the box and not everyone participated. I have, in real life in the last 24 months, been on calls with people who were still reminiscing about what it was like to practice in NYC in the 90s next to Madonna and Sting. Yoga was, where the cool kids were. And that attitude informed how we organized ourselves, and I think still does today.
*Finally, lets talk about unions. For those of us who are North America, have you ever thought about what it means to be unionized? Or to help start a new professional organization? I want to plant these seeds how so that when it is time for us to collectively organize ourselves again we can come together with fresh ideas and mindsets.
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