JR 137
Grandmaster
Jobo is neither a troll nor dumb. He is an evil clown!
I agree with him about half the time. And sometimes find his comments really funny. And almost always he's goading somebody. Gotta love it.
The comment on this thread that caught my eye was his remark in response to Rough Rider's statement about belts: They provide a quick and easy way for the instructor to know what a student has already been taught, and what he or she needs to learn next.
Jobo replied: ...so they are just for the benefit of instructors with poor memories?
To be honest, that's good enough for me. I teach Ving Tsun and Escrima, and don't use belts, but we do have testing and ranks. And, even with my small group, that's exactly why I like testing. Otherwise I'd never remember exactly what each student had learned. If you want to cover a curriculum without gaps, a system in which you test for grade can be really helpful. And if you taught a big group, I can see how rank insignias would help too.
Now as to whether your mum would have time to sew them on is another issue.
Regarding teaching big groups and @jobo
There's a great reason for belts in the organization I'm in...
Seido Juku has dojos on every continent except Antarctica, and over 40,000 students total. If a student goes to another dojo for a visit (and taking a class), there's no question what that student's rank is, what they know (or at least are supposed to know), etc. The student lines up at their appropriate place and is treated as everyone else of that rank. If I decide to go to our founder's dojo in NYC, he knows exactly where I am in the syllabus and doesn't have to stop and ask me if I've been taught a specific kata, technique, etc.; in this regard it's like I've been his student since day one. People from other dojos within our organization come to our dojo frequently to take a class. Everyone knows what that person knows and doesn't know (syllabus-wise). That doesn't mean "I'm a black belt and he's a green belt, so I'll have no problem beating him down" but it does give you a very superficial sense of what to expect.
Then there's mass workouts, clinics, gatherings, etc. where people from different dojos can quite easily be separated into groups. Some tweaking may be necessary, but very little.
Our honbu (headquarters dojo) has a couple hundred students, with many instructors teaching different classes. If you always go to the same classes with the same teachers, no big deal. But if you decide to go on a different night/time than usual, the teacher who's perhaps never met you can easily tell what your responsible for knowing and can easily make sure he/she's teaching you appropriate stuff.
In a small dojo such as the one I train at with 40 students total and 1 person teaching 90% of the classes, it would be relatively easy to forgo belts. Once we stepped out of the dojo and into an affiliated one, what I said above makes a ton of sense and makes life easier for the teachers and students.
