I agree with you.
But, in my personal situation. My instructor is not to blame. There are different people in different parts of the country. If you were to visit here, I'd not have to explain a thing. I come from a very poverty ridden backwoods part of the world. People use TKD as a cheap baby sitter, or they come to do "MMA", or they come because they want exercise. They don't look at it as a lifelong commitment. They've seen enough ATA to know your "supposed" to be yellow belt in 2 months, regardless of your skill level. They don't "understand" and no amount of explaining will make them see any differently.
It's a matter of choices you make. I understand that your instructor is trying to make a living, but on the other hand - where is the limit of compromise?
The region I live in was the second poorest part of the European Union just a couple of years ago. Remember, we can give people a fish and feed them for a day, or teach them fishing and feed them for life. In my school, the students can train for free if they get to a black belt, or if they are in the National Team, or if they work for the school. Simple things - advertising, helping with demos or tournaments (I don't mean refereeing - I mean carrying the tables, cleaning the mats, escorting teams from other locations), mending the equipment. Nothing is given, just like in life. We should actually teach people that there is NO easy way, otherwise they will look for an easy way in life. They need a belt, they get it. They need money, the government should give it to them. Miracles like unemployed people in locations where workers are needed (yes, we have it over here...).
Every year I'm in Moldova for a couple of days and a tournament. They are the poorest country in Europe. When I first got ther I had an impression of East European pre-WW2 villages live in front of me, just like I saw it in the history books. What we really liked was the fact that they had a great MA spirit. Black belts were few and really of a black belt caliber. Most students wore lower coloured belts. I spoke with their instructors and found out that the tests are hard and pretty expensive, and still - many people are willing to train. I still remember a group of Moldovan students coming 1000 kms to our tournaments - 6 people in a 5 person car, the 6th one crossing the border by feet to avoid being fined, withb the instructor driving all the way. They didn't have enough money, but they had a heart!
I was shocked to hear a question from a student from another school asking me if anybody ever failed a belt test in our club. Sure thing - I answered - it happens, if there is a test, there is a possibility that you will fail. It doesn't happen very ofthen, as the higher grades do know when to test and when to wait
The second question was - how many people quit because they failed a test. I had to think for a while and answered - I remember two of them. The student said that in his school everybody tests, everybody passes, because if somebody would fail, s/he would quit the very next day for sure. I thought that something goes totally wrong there.
I think it's our fault, the instructors' fault, that we chose to accept the excuses, go the easy way and dropped to the expectations of many customers, instead of helping them to rise to the level we want them to achieve. I firmly believe that we can create a good MA program without compromising the snadards. It's also about teaching people that the belts are not everything. Just that and as hard as that.
the training. My daughter earned her 1st dan at the age of 14. Thing is, she tested with several others and she had to do exactly the same things that the others had to do. She was given nothing, she earned her belt. My point is that just because the student is younger, does not mean that they cannot learn.
