If a person is performing their best, I can tell in a minute, most likely seconds if they are skilled or not. I don't need to see them swim the Great Lakes, kill a goat, swallow a flaming sword, eat broken glass, walk on hot coals, pierce their forearms with crochet needles, stay awake for a week, eat a bean a day for a month, etc to know that.
One of my TKD sabeoms told me that could tell how good you were just by looking at your back stance. In kendo, the quality of the shomen uchi (frontal head strike) will tell the skill of the practitioner. There are other elements that instructors with to test, frequently non-physical elements, but much more than an hour or too is overkill.
At the same time, a test where the opening and closing ceremonies are longer than the test itself would be off putting to most, particularly if there is a fee attached. None of my kendo tests were longer than two hours.
Regarding the OP, I have no problem with a school putting black belts on eight year olds, provided it is consistent with organizational policy (if any), but if a school owner
is putting black belts on eight year old children, then he or she should drop the hard core/ordeal facade.
As for not letting the folks watch, I am with Twin Fist and Steve all the way: it is foolish and shows a serious lack of common sense on the part of those setting the policy. Too many sex/abuse scandals involving trusted organizations and kids, not to mention the potential for injuries or medical issues for me to give a school owner a free pass on that.
Anyone remember those well toned and conditioned kids that were on the news for dying on the football or soccor field due to some unexplainable medical phenomenon? Do you
really want mom and dad to be able to say, in court, that you barred them, not only from entry, but from even watching through a one way glass? And now their baby is dead. And your school is being carved up and served to the grieved parents and their lawyers.
Sorry, but as far as the public is concerned, MA class falls under the heading of sports, and parents watching their kids' games and practices is the norm. Imagine a high school telling mom and dad to stay home from a play off game; the school would be in court faster than a ZR1 runs the quarter mile and the person who issued the statement would be thrown under the bus for damage control.
We talk about being aware of the the laws that govern self defense and about situational awareness. Any school owner who would set such a policy shows a lack of situational awareness and a serious lack of understanding of how the law could ruin them if alegations were ever made, say by a disgruntled student or parent. I was an assistant teacher at a Catholic church school of religion. One of the policies that the school of religion had in place was that no adult could be alone with a child if at all avoidable, and the door was to be left open at all times. I'm pretty sure that public schools have similar policies in place.
Pretty much every organization that works with children has similar policies in place to
protect themselves from legal problems and from any appearance of impropriety. If the school staff is willing to open themselves up to potential problems in an age where sex abuse scandals are common and organizations involved are forced to pay out in the millions, then they obviously have no concept of self defense and are seriously lacking in common sense, and are, in my opinion, unqualified to be running an MA school, particularly one that has childrens classes.