I have thought a lot about how a tae kwon do school is run. I think there are some things the Chinese can teach us here. In the kung fu schools (kwoons) there is a mentality about the school that I think is worthy of of imitating.
In many kung fu clubs or schools the sifu (teacher) is looked on as the father (or mother if the sifu is a woman) of a family. The students then, are the children within the family. The senior student is the oldest brother (or sister) and the rest of the family knows it's place by seniority within the school.
This family mentality has a lot of advantages to how the school is operated. Let me name just a few.
First, we are all friends. I know that growing up I fought sometimes with my brothers and sisters. But at the end of the day we were all still family, kin as my dad would say. There was a way of treating kinfolk that was different than how we treated outsiders. Even during our worst fights we were still kin. We are all friends.
Second, kin watches out for kin. We go to class to learn how to fight better. All of us are there to teach and learn. We help each other grow in the art of tae kwon do. Even though we want to do well for ourselves, we want to help everyone else succeed too. So we help each other. We watch out for each other. We protect each other.
Third, there is respect for our older siblings. Our father takes care of us and teaches us and we give him the honor and respect that is due to him. The same goes for our older siblings in the art. When they speak, we listen. When they give commands, we obey.
Oftentimes in class, when we see a younger student or a lower ranking student struggling with something, we are so caught up in our own "thing" that we pass them by without a second thought. Or when we free fight, we see our opponent as an enemy to be conquered. We pride ourselves on how many people we can defeat and how we get a reputation in the school for being dangerous to spar against. But all these kinds of attitudes work against what the school is trying to accomplish.
I think the agenda of a school can be greatly advanced if we walk into class and see our classmates as our brothers and sisters ... people we care about deeply. We need instructors who see their students as their own children. In such an atmosphere we can practice tae kwon do in safety and enjoyment knowing that each of us is watching out for all the rest of us. Together we can be friends and family. It is an idea worth thinking hard about.
