Dance Teaching Vs Box Ticking

In a certificate driven world, the emphasis on completing a task with all the necessary sections ticked unfortunately means we're becoming a box ticking society. It's apparent when applying for a mortgage, it's apparent when beginning the process to get married and I'm sure it's apparent when getting your kids into the local school (I've not ticked that box yet) 

These are legal requirements, cool, but I didn't realise that taking your primary ballet exam was legal procedure. 

Using a syllabus to teach definitely has its pros and its cons, that’s not what this blog post is about, nor do I think there will ever be a blog post from me that brings that to the alter! (The Rosina Andrews Method that teachers attend my intensives on is a teaching method that can be applied to all forms of dance and used alongside any syllabus)     

Earlier on a social network group I saw a worried teacher concerned about the leg of which her primary class test little dancers should start their gallops on; a discrepancy had occured in the notes vs the DVD. Rightly so, as I'm sure the examiner will notice this in the clarity of the teachers work and could mark the children down for it. As dance school teachers we're so careful to make sure everything is 'so' for the exams. The worry of a child coming out with a mark that they or their parents do not like straight away affects our business. We've all heard it "We're going to the school down the road, they all get 100% in their exams and medals too" 

But this is where it's all going wrong. 

My first thoughts were; 

Why does it matter which leg a child gallops on as long as they show their gallops. 

How does the teacher get her 5 year olds to start with the correct leg consistently anyway!? 

If you feel like this then forget ticking the boxes, dance outside of them. The kids and you will feel much better and they'll probably do better in their exams, as you'll have spent more time teaching them how to dance than tearing your hair out getting the correct leg to match the book.