Except for special occasions I've taken to wearing a plain black belt with nothing whatsoever showing, even though I've got several belts from several systems.
I teach because my students asked me to, and my school is very small, but growing via word of mouth.
Now, to answer the question asked. Is rank important?
It depends.
It depends on your skill level and your self-confidence. I don't consider myself particularly good, but my students have all been encouraged to visit other schools and have chosen me to teach them. I'm confident in what I do - yes, I have three black belts, and a 1st gup in tkd to boot. I normally only wear the stripes or the fancy uniform for promotions when the parents and friends and relatives and whatnot show up, it's a big pomp & circumstance day, so we wear the pomp & circumstance. My rank is deemed such by the people who have assigned said rank to me. It's important because it has allowed me the extended knowledge to be a better teacher.
It depends on the value the system in which you train places on rank. The base for my system is IKCA Kenpo. One blue belt is expected to be on the same skill level as another IKCA blue belt. Does it happen consistantly EVERY time? Hell no. I've never seen a school where every student of x rank is the same. Because every human being is different. Do all of our blue belts know the same basic material? Yes. Are they all equally adept at the execution of that material? No. For reasons above. I judge my own students on a separate bar than the rest of the blue belts. (I'm using blue belt as an example cause blue is my fav color
.) I have EXTREMELY high standards - and this leads me to my next point.
It depends on the value of the material required for that rank. My own students are required to OWN their material and be able to demonstrate it physically, discuss it intelligently orally, and prepare an assigned topic paper on a subject relevant to their current training. Now, the material required of them is presented and refined until they are highly competent with the material before they are allowed to be even considered for testing. And their tests have a three tiered scoring system. Under 80% and they fail. Under 88% and they Pass on Condition - which means they get the diploma and new belt, but they must retest for that same belt (no charge, just have to refine & tighten up the loose ends for at least 30 days) with 95%+ before they get to move on to new material. So then - rank in my school is important only in the fact that if you see a student wearing rank X, you know he/she EARNED that rank and is therefore a good person to ask for assistance if you want help learning something. Since they are required to be able to discuss it orally and have written and performed it themselves, they own the material, and can help others learn their material.
Is rank an important thing - it depends.
