Just curious but for you instructors what is your stance on your students smoking? Regular cigs, I mean.
Do you let your students smoke? Do you encourage them to stop? Do you feel differently if it's an adult versus a teenager or borderline adult teen (as in college?) If you encourage them to stop and they don't, are they punished since they're hindering their performance and not listening?
There are two ways I can look at this:
1) It's not illegal, nor immoral (IMO), so I could stay out of it, entirely.
2) It's bad for them, so I could take an active role in trying to help them change the habit.
I can't see any circumstance in which the smoking, itself, would be reasonable cause to eject any student, regardless of age. Now, if I were teaching kids (which I don't), then part of my requirements for them to participate and progress would be for them to follow their family rules. If their parents said no smoking, but they kept doing it, there would be some repercussions in the dojo. This would also be true of those not keeping up on their schoolwork, skipping classes, and anything else that bears on their future and the correcting of which will build discipline.
Now, to the comment by
@Kickboxer101 . If all I was doing was teaching a physical skill, I could take the stance you put forth. However, when working with kids I believe there's an inherent responsibility to help contribute to their overall development. This was true when I taught kids' MA classes, as well as when I coached kids' soccer teams. It's part of the role, IMO. Not all agree.
As for adults, I'd encourage them to drop the habit. I'd even be willing to do what I can to help them, including serving as an accountability partner. But there would be no repercussions, since they are of age to make their own decisions, and they make the family rules.
