Turner,
I think that the reason you are getting such negative responses is because you are trying to straddle a fence that wasn't meant to be straddled.
If, on the one hand, you are into home training, that's fine. It is ok to learn through lots of practice, coupled with a good regimen of training with partners to develop timing, distancing, and expose bad habits in your movement.
On the other hand, if you are into being ranked, running a "legitimate" school, or ranking others, then you need to forget what you've been doing, go to school, work your way up through the ranks the hard way (not by taking equivalency exams or jumping ranks), and earn whatever rank you are seeking.
I think the reason you have stirred such a reaction out of people is that it sounds like you want both. You want your time spent studying without an instructor to count as time spent with an instructor. It won't work like that. Let me see if I can give you a good analogy.
Imagine that you are into building things. You start when you are 14, by reading a lot and then getting supplies and building as many things as you can. You show other kids how to build things. You gain some experience. Someone sees your projects and suggests some classes in design or architecture. You take a few, but never really ride any of them out.
Years go by, and now you decide you want to be an architect. You have tons of experience in building things, but you don't have the degree. You go to college for architecture, but you want to place out of certain classes because you feel your experience has already given you that knowledge. In some ways, you are far more knowledgable than your classmates. In other ways, they are far more knowledgable than you, because they have been studying architecture at this college and you haven't. You decide that instead of getting a degree there, you will open your own architectural school, based on your experiences and observations building things. Now you will give people degrees in architecture.
Experience is awesome. It's the best teacher. There are a lot of martial artists out there who study at good schools but lack real experiences when it comes to the application of martial arts.
Coming from your background, you have experience. You can draw conclusions from the things you have experienced. You have probably learned some valuable things that students of regular schools will not learn. This is all OK, but confusing it with a teaching position in the martial arts is like deciding to open your own architectural college--you didn't go through that program, so why try to look like it? If you didn't go earn a black belt from X school, then it is not appropriate for you to be awarding ranks in that school's style.
If you are going to teach, you need to be very cautious about what you say you are teaching. You also need to be honest with yourself in terms of what you know, and how well you know it.
My personal recommendation to you would be that if you are interested in teaching, and you have a sincere desire to improve your own skills, then find a school, ANY school, that teaches something you would want to teach. At this point, it doesn't especially matter what. Once you do that, talk with the instructor and tell them that you have some mixed experience, but you just want to go through the ranks like everyone else. Once they award you a teaching rank, then go out and stick the appropriate name on whatever you are teaching. It doesn't matter if it's boxing or kenpo or JKD or wrestling or WHATEVER.
And best of luck to you.
~TT
