It is an awesome thing to be able to teach tae kwon do to folks. The best, to me, is to be the head instructor ... to be the chief teacher in my own studio. I am sure it is that way for other instructors too. But as a school grows it is natural for the head instructor to hire or appoint assistant instructors to help teach the growing group of students.
These new instructors soon find out that they are no longer simply individual students in the school, but now they have a much higher profile. As Peter Parker says in the Spiderman movies, "With great power comes great responsibility." The new instructor now represents the school he teaches at. That can mean a lot of things, but one thing it certainly means is that the new instructor is a public figure and as such, has to watch how they conduct themselves in the public eye.
Many schools have web pages to show who they are to the town they are located in. Oftentimes they will list the instructors in the school. In today's information rich world, you can find out almost anything about anybody very quickly. That means if I am researching a tae kwon do school and want to know about the instructors, I can find them on the school's homepage. Then I can do a Google search and see everything about them on the internet. Then I can look at their MySpace and Facebook pages to see how they behave with other people. In a day or two, I can see a good representation of everything they have written, seen or said in recent weeks or months. An instructor has to stay aware of the fact that all this material also represents the school they teach at.
Ultimately, this all reflects in their instructor. It is really him (or her) more than the school that they represent.
This post is aimed at no one in particular and everyone in general. It is food for thought. If you are a teacher, it is worth meditating on.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
I will respect my instructors and seniors ...
Tae Kwon Do is a pathway. We are all somewhere along the path. There are some who are behind us and there are some who have passed ahead of us. The pathway of Tae Kwon Do is hard and those who have gone before us help us progress when they become our teachers. Therefore, it is good and right that we honor them with the respect that is due to them.
Part of this is built into the belt ranking system and part into the way a class is run.
The colored belts tell us where we all stand in relation to one another. If you are a green belt you can walk into a class, even a foreign class, and tell immediately where you are in the line of students. It is the same way among the black belts. First through third degrees are experts. Fourth through sixth degrees are masters and seventh degrees and above are grandmasters. To achieve such ranks means that one has earned the respect of the underbelts by virtue of the work involved getting to such a position.
But respect is not only awarded, it is also earned. In the class itself we have people who teach, who give of themselves to pass the art of Tae Kwon Do on to those who are coming after us. It is also right to give respect to those who give themselves to us.
The second line of the student oath "I will respect my instructors and seniors." This tells us that respect is given to those to whom respect is due. White belts respect yellow belts, because the yellow belt is senior to the white belt. Yellow belts respect the orange belts and so on. Everyone honors their instructors. And the instructors honor those who taught them. It is the way of Tae Kwon Do to give such respect.
You show that respect in dozens of ways. How you bow, how you speak, for example, your tone of voice are two ways respect can be demonstrated. How well you pay attention and follow instructions is another way. Certainly, if you are reading this you can think of other ways to show respect to those who are your seniors and teachers.
The second line of the Tae Kwon Do student oath, it is part of the Tae Kwon Do way.
Part of this is built into the belt ranking system and part into the way a class is run.
The colored belts tell us where we all stand in relation to one another. If you are a green belt you can walk into a class, even a foreign class, and tell immediately where you are in the line of students. It is the same way among the black belts. First through third degrees are experts. Fourth through sixth degrees are masters and seventh degrees and above are grandmasters. To achieve such ranks means that one has earned the respect of the underbelts by virtue of the work involved getting to such a position.
But respect is not only awarded, it is also earned. In the class itself we have people who teach, who give of themselves to pass the art of Tae Kwon Do on to those who are coming after us. It is also right to give respect to those who give themselves to us.
The second line of the student oath "I will respect my instructors and seniors." This tells us that respect is given to those to whom respect is due. White belts respect yellow belts, because the yellow belt is senior to the white belt. Yellow belts respect the orange belts and so on. Everyone honors their instructors. And the instructors honor those who taught them. It is the way of Tae Kwon Do to give such respect.
You show that respect in dozens of ways. How you bow, how you speak, for example, your tone of voice are two ways respect can be demonstrated. How well you pay attention and follow instructions is another way. Certainly, if you are reading this you can think of other ways to show respect to those who are your seniors and teachers.
The second line of the Tae Kwon Do student oath, it is part of the Tae Kwon Do way.
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