Thursday, February 2, 2012

Why Martial Arts Instructors Should Give Some Thought To Class Room Management

Well the good news is is that my Tae Kyon School seems to finally be taking off. I am no longer the only student. I got my black belt back in October or November, I don't know it was some month. Anyway I was in class today. 4 students me some middle aged man who I have never seen before. This kid who is like 6, and a college student. Mind you I am the highest ranking student in the school everyone else is pretty much a beginner.

So the master starts the class. We do a few warm up exercises, and then he tells the new old guy to go practice the few warm up exercises by himself for about 5 minutes. A few warm ups later he tells the 6 year old the same. 5 minutes later me and the university student end the warm up routine. I ask myself this, was it really necessary that he spend all that time with the two guys who already know what is going on?

Back in the day my taekwondo school was kind of like that. It still is, or was the last time I visited. Part of the problem was, was that classes were always taught without much distinction to ability. So someone who had studied for 5 years might be in the same class as the person who had studied for 2 weeks. So the instructor of the class has to try to appease everyone and give everyone a different assignment. Sometimes higher ranking students had to help lower ranking students. That's okay, but it kind of sucks when you pay someone money to learn something, and you spend the whole time teaching someone else. Luckily the Taekyon guy was finally able to give everyone personal attention, but I didn't think that he needed too. The college kid and I could have finished the warm ups our selves while the instructor, the old guy, and the kindergartener could have worked together.

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