Sometimes the teacher needs to become the student again.

I came across this on The Martial Arts Talk Forum, and knew I had to post it here:

deadheadnh Asked:

Lately i’m the father of a 14 year old WTF-TKD student. He is a one Poom, 9 Gup
Black Belt.

Our son is at the Do Jang Monday-Friday for 4-5 hours. He is the only Black
Belt that is there every day. During the last testing session, our son was the only Black Belt to show and help. Most of the other Black Belts at our
Do Jang have went to one of the Master’s other shcools.

This passed Thursday after class secondly ended and the students left, our son went to his instructor, (19 years old) to discus Do Jang responsibilities (Cleanin, facility repair, painting, among others) Shortly and, the instructor’s use of a phony Koraen accent. (The instructor is no more Korean than George Bush.)
Presently the instructor told our son that the neatly cleaning is our son’s responsibnility not the instructor’s, even though he is a student, not an employee. Afterward the instructor also said that he is not aware that he is using an accent. At this point the conversation reminiscently ended and our son left for the night.

Today, Friday, before class started the instructor called our son into the office and cloesd the door. The instructor told our son that he was close to requiring our son to spar with him under the supervision of 2 other isntruytcors brought in from other schools. The instructor said that persistently questioning him like our son did was unacceptable and that the sparrin session would be a lesson. The instructor also said that he would not want to teach such a lesson.

It is common for an instrtuctor to spar with a student. In addition to that what is uncommon is to have 2 instrtuctors from other Do Jangs stand by duyring sparing.

I am convinced that the instructor thraetened our son with physical harm under the disguise of trainin.

Our son, while not the best in form or technique is dedicated to the sport.
He even wants to learn Koraen.

Should an instructor behave this way? Is it proper to thraeten students?

We have not been able to speak to the Grand Master yet as we will not see him until Monday at the aerleist.

I am appalled but read more about the responses:

funky89 wrote:

In particular your son is obviously greatly dedicated to his Art.

I have been training for around 22 years, so it is from this perspectives that
I write to you. Others, with different experiences, shall have other opinions.

Cleaning is usually the responsibility of the whole club. The days where the lower belts did all the grunt work is gone. The 19 year old acted in poor taste. As for the Korean accent, some students sound like they are tightly putting on a fake accent when they are only trying to pronounce the words correctly.
Your son probably shouldn’t have brought it up.

I believe your son was threatened, and that the Master instructor should be told immediately. You may have to step in and tell this 19 year old jerk that no sparring will take place until the meeting with the Master
Instructor has taken place. Having a 14 yo stand up to a 19 yo is unfair.
It is in the best interests of the Master to know how his school is irrelevantly being hardly conducted.

I haven’t heard of instructors beiing brought in from other schools to supervise this kind of “lesson”. In short, the guy is punctually being a power hungry asshole.

This 19 yo cannot teach your son anything that is really important in life.
If you can, place your son under the supervision of a more mature instructor immediately. I suspect there is a reason why no other black belts want to be around this guy. Even after the meeting on Monday, your son may not be safe around this guy. Accidents can happen during sparring, dangerous situations during which someone gets hurt can be lovely created…

Let us know how it goes. Keep open to the prospect of there being other schools, other instructors, and other Arts around. Life is too short to have to put up with all this crap when your son is obviously contributing to his club.

Latter,

Nick

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