I'm going to be rather blunt here. What I say may sound callous in some ways, but I will stand by what I say.
At various points in my training / teaching, I've seen my school hand out scholarships to the needy. The way it worked, was that the monthly fees were waived, and that the student could train all they wanted. We'd even give them a decent free student uniform (God forbid, I wouldn't wish the Century paper-thin uniforms on my worst enemy...). The only thing they would have to pay for are testing fees. That's it. The way we figured, 30 bucks every three months should be quite doable for even the neediest folks.
While the intent of the program was noble, not many of these scholarship students stuck with it. Sometimes, the students would simply end up not liking it, and quit.
Often times, though, it wasn't the students themselves, but rather, the parents who would balk, once they found out they had to pay testing fees. These are the same parents who refused to let their child test for their next rank because they didn't want to pay. Sometimes they would make excuses such as "Oh, I don't think my kid is ready" or "my kid behaves rotten at home" even though I saw nothing in their training that would indicate such things.
At one point, a boy on scholarship, who had been a white belt for 5 months, had learned everything he needed to know at that level, and I spoke to his parents, telling him that he really did need to test. Their response was the same canned "he ain't ready." I tried to explain, that there was nothing further to be gained by holding him back, and that he should test. I even offered to let them pay for the test in monthly installments of 10 dollars / month, if needed, but the parents said in a snotty manner "He ain't ready, and we don't want him testing until we think he's ready."
I tried to explain, that he was too advanced to be held back at white belt (9th kyu). I even brought in one of my blue belts (6th kyu) and compared them side by side, to show the parents that their son was already good enough, but they would just keep making up excuses. I was that tempted to simply tell the chief instructor to deduct the kid's testing fees from my paycheck, but I knew what he would have said, that it comes down to the parents.
I may sound a bit harsh here, but anyone can save 10 bucks each month, and these same parents who were trying to come up with excuses to not let their children test, were the same ones I'd see buying fast food at the local McDonald's or Burger King on an almost daily basis. I'd even see some of them buying liquor from the local liquor stores as well. I would think that someone who could go through a 30 dollar bottle of Jim Beam in a week, could ration his / her alcohol consumption to make it a 1 bottle / 8 days, instead of 1 bottle / 7 days.
No, it's not my business to tell someone how to spend his / her money. If someone wants to blow his money on cigarettes, hard liquor, or God forbid, controlled substances, that's his choice, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it.
I won't go any further than strongly urging the parents to pay the fee and let him test, even if I think that the parents are being rather uncooperative. I can only hope, though, that such stingy attitudes won't hold back a good kid.
In the end, the kid got tired of his parents' stinginess, and signed up for a paper route. He ended up paying for his own testing fees by hiding some of the tips that the locals would give him, since his parents kept taking his money. The parents never came to visit him in class once I had that conversation with them about the testing fees.
He took a few tests, and eventually got his green belt (5th kyu). Once his parents found out that he was "hiding" money from them, they yanked him out. I think we can all guess what was going through my brain at the time, other than my rocketing blood pressure.
Fast forward to years later.
That kid is now a young adult, moved out of his parents ramshackle trailer once he turned 18 (thank God), working as a machinist, and came back to the old dojo. It's because of him, that I still support (albeit pessimistically) giving dojo scholarships to the needy. Sometimes, people who really want it will rise to the occasion, and if it can bring one more dedicated martial artist into this world, then maybe it is really worth having to deal with the headaches of the majority of scholarship cases.
I won't sugar-coat it, though; if you're going to offer scholarships, don't be surprised if most cases end up in disappointments.
