Quote:
Originally Posted by DKKC
Hi SP7
I would say that the relationship is slightly different the parental one. Students and instructors disagree many times - but they don't always end their relationship. the trouble is that it is very easy for a 10 yrs old to decide to stop going training just because hewasn't allowed to grade. Say you make pact with your kids that if they get straight A in school you'll buy them the toy of their dreams for their birthday. They get C and B some A in school and when their birthday arrives they don't get what they wanted. So they decide to never ever talk to you again and leave home. That's giving up karate for not grading fast enough, in my perspective. And if a kid runs away from home because he didn't receive the toy he wanted for his birthday then tehre is something very wrongwith the relationship he has with his parents and with the parenting style in itself. As I doubt a kid would get this spoilt overnight.
Disagreements between parents and children, teachers and students, instructors and trainees exist - the important thing is geting through these sticky situations together and the younger the child/student/trainee, the more the responsibility to guide, teach and help understand and deal with the situation falls onto the parent/teacher/inscructor's shoulders.
Hope this makes sense!
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Made sense to me, nice way of putting it.
It seems to me that there are two big questions here:
1. Are Kids being graded just because of some kind of fictitious predetermined chronological timeline which says every three - six months to the day one is elligible to grade & progress so long as they have met a preset criteria?
2. Are those being graded pursuing personal improvement, attending class to learn and develop themselves instead of simply doing whatever it takes to reach the next grade?
In the case of the first point, it seems that many dojo's follow this system only to maintain a captive audience. The motivation is always there to attend the next class because that could mean the difference between qualifying for the next grading or not. To me this sounds like the path to an empty road. The only expecatation is the expecation to wear a different belt as time goes on, so what happens after shodan? there is no-longer a foreseeable timeline or strict set of guidelines to follow in order to keep going. The comfort of having these has been removed and the maturity to progress beyond here hasn't been developed. Have they improved inwardly? personally? mentally or only in terms of belt colour? As such, the question must be asked, is this the type of shodan that should represent Kyokushin? is this the type of shodan who has earnt their rank by truly experiencing karate or by turning up to a structured month by month criteria? Is that the true meaning of the kyokushin way? In this situation what does the belt actually mean? If every student turned up to class from the beginning and was told that there would be no belt structure, the only goal would be to be as good as one could possibly be. To me this is more important than scraping in above the next requirements of the next kyu grade, its even more rewarding than meeting the requirements of a kyu grade, and it must surely develop a more sustainable environment for progress of karateka. So with this in mind does stopping children from progressing to shodan hold them back? I think the answer is no, there is always more to develop other than progressing in belt colour.