In praise of the Mcdojo - what a free market in education could look like

[Makalakumu]

This started as a joke, but as I started writing it, I began to realize that there might be a few glimmers of truth in it. Anyway, I thought I'd post it for debate...and maybe a few laughs at my expense.

In Praise of the McDojo
What a Free Market for Education Could Look Like


A line of children are advancing down the floor while a man in angry white pajamas gives commands. The children are wearing different color belts which denote gradations in the level of difficulty for various techniques. A line of students stand on a polished floor with massive long bow in their left hand. They kneel down and remove the sleeve of their kimono and prepare to shoot with Zen slowness. A room full of young men and women pair up and spread out on a matted floor. They kneel down, shake hands, and exchange grips. Soon, they are rolling and sweating attempting to submit their opponents. One person taps and both people shake hands again. Thirty women of various ages enter a room with a chalk board, human shaped striking dummies, and a matted surface. They begin to learn how to be more aware of their surroundings and how to avoid being attacked.

The martial arts are numerous and varied. Some of them are more popular than others. Some of them have clarified principles that the curriculum is designed to teach. All of them are voluntary. The martial arts industry is more or less a free market depending on the country. In some countries there are governmental organizations that regulate the practice of martial arts through licensing and testing. In other countries, there are very few laws and regulations on martial arts schools. On the whole, most governments on this planet have very little interest in regulating martial arts and this has allowed an interesting experiment to take place. The martial arts industry, from the owner of a multimillion dollar business to the man who teaches a few students in his garage, is an example of what a free market education system could look like.

Libertarians often have a difficult time explaining how the various services the government currently provides could be provided if they were offered on the Free Market, without government money or regulation. Often, a number of objections are brought up in political discussions that seem to appear again and again. I will summarize some of these objections in the form of questions below.

1. How will the poor people pay for education?
2. How can we ensure that people are getting a quality education?
3. How do we know that students are learning what they need to know in order to be effective people?

These questions are some of the most pressing questions in education today. Governments constantly alter their approach to the answers and fail miserably. Amazingly, the martial arts industry has innovated answers to these questions and I believe that these answers could lead the way for the entire industry as a whole.

Let’s tackle these questions one at a time.

How will the poor pay for education?

Martial arts instruction is often offered for reduced price or offered for free. They do this by teaching out of their homes, in small community centers, or in parks. Many teachers of the martial arts teach in addition to working other jobs because they love the art and they want to pass it on to enthusiastic students. Other teachers offer free lessons online and are willing to correspond with students as time allows. Large schools of martial arts often give scholarships to low income students depending on their ability. Entire professional organizations of various martial arts demand that their teachers are of high quality and offer classes for as little as $15 dollars per month. This is essentially charity and the Free Market has innovated multitudinous forms of which most people wouldn’t recognize as charity. All of these and many more could be employed to offer instruction.

How can we ensure that people are getting a quality education?

There are thousands of martial arts federations in the United States alone that monitor instruction to varying degrees. In general, smaller federations do not grow if they do not continually produce a quality product and larger federations do not stay large if they sacrifice quality standards to pull in more and more people. On top of this, a number of martial arts organizations have sprung up to independently monitor various federations to make sure they are teaching what they actually say they are teaching. These independent organizations perform active investigations of schools, instructors, and federations themselves, writing reviews for consumers. These independent organizations will also verify credentials that instructors claim. While a number of frauds still exist in the martial arts industry, the free market policing organizations tends to expose them for customers willing to do the research on various options.

How do we know that students are learning what they need to learn in order to be effective people?

Students can learn exactly the type and amount of martial arts that they want to know. There are hundreds of different styles all taught in various setting and with different methods. Students have the ability to choose the material they want to learn and they can choose the teachers who will instruct them. This is the most efficient method of offering instruction because it changes in response to a student’s needs giving them what they need when they need it. A student can study a number of martial arts throughout their lives and alter their approach as their interests and abilities change.

In the martial arts community, martial arts practitioners rail against the McDojo. A McDojo, they say, is any school that lets students test for lots of belts, waters down the curriculum to make it easier for students to advance, and charges lots of money for everything, ie…uniforms, belts, tests, monthly fees, contracts, etc. People need to realize that there is an upside to the existence of the McDojo. First of all, it shows that martial arts schools change depending on what students need in order to stay in business. Secondly, the schools can’t get too bad because other martial artists will identify them for their poor quality and they will cease to exist. It’s an example of the kind of self regulation that the market would produce within the education industry as a whole and it required no laws whatsoever to accomplish. The martial arts industry is peacefully and voluntarily regulated through this simple lampooning name.

 

[kitkatninja]

A McDojo, they say, is any school that lets students test for lots of belts, waters down the curriculum to make it easier for students to advance, and charges lots of money for everything, ie…uniforms, belts, tests, monthly fees, contracts, etc. People need to realize that there is an upside to the existence of the McDojo. First of all, it shows that martial arts schools change depending on what students need in order to stay in business. Secondly, the schools can’t get too bad because other martial artists will identify them for their poor quality and they will cease to exist. It’s an example of the kind of self regulation that the market would produce within the education industry as a whole and it required no laws whatsoever to accomplish. The martial arts industry is peacefully and voluntarily regulated through this simple lampooning name.

I don't know about this one. I know of one large "martial art" association/organisation (the style of karate is the same as the organisation name) that meets the three criteria that is mentioned, yet is growing due to their marketing strategy.

Not everyone joins the martial arts to learn to fight, some join for "fun", fitness, etc... And some people are just interested in earning the belts, regardless of what they learn.

Added to that regardless of what the reason is that one learns an art (from a McDojo or not), that person his/herself regards his/herself a MA practitioner so there will always be McDojos around.

<hopefully that made sense>

 

[Makalakumu]

Yeah, there are all kinds of reasons that people take lessons, but on the whole, if the business sucks, it goes under. Maybe that's quality control?

 

[Makalakumu]

Also, I've often thought that the bar we use to measure martial arts schools is too skewed by our own expectations. If we looked at how well the school was meeting the customers needs, that might be a better representation.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Even, if this was meant as a joke, I think it has way more than a few gems of truths. May be biased because I'm a libertarian, who completely agrees with free-market education (along with free-market everything else), but i think it does a great job explaining martial arts, and can extremely easily be applied to education as well. Should be the direction we take education, rather than standardizing everything, and not being able to tailor education to the needs of the individual.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Yeah, there are all kinds of reasons that people take lessons, but on the whole, if the business sucks, it goes under. Maybe that's quality control?

That's where you are wrong.

Businesses go under when they do not make a profit. That's all.

Common sense tells us that when businesses do things badly, they go under; but in reality, that's a cause, but it may not be the entire cause.

We all know of auto shops that do lousy work; yet they remain in business. Restaurants which have terrible service; but they remain in business.

And at the same time, we know of good restaurants that go under, great car mechanics that can't make it, etc.

Who knows when a McDojo produces poor product? Not the students. Half of them don't know good from bad, and the other half don't care as long as they get their promotions.

The fact is, I know of a bunch of dojos in my area that teach what I would consider crap martial arts. And they are VERY successful. I know a few that teach authentic, 'real' martial arts, and they're small, semi-profitable, basically run as hobbies. While I'm sure that this is not always the case, I certainly have noticed it.

I have said before on MT that in my opinion, there are two basic issues in running a martial arts training business. One is teaching martial arts. The other is running a successful business. And one does not have very much to do with the other. This is what most business owners fail to grasp, and why they fail. They think if they are really GOOD at what they do, they will succeed. That is ********. They can be crap at what they do, but if they know how to run a good business, they will succeed. They can be good and fail, they can be bad and succeed. Doesn't that just suck? Yes, it does, but that's the way things go.

I learned a long time ago that most professional photographers are, at best, semi-skilled and seldom talented. It doesn't matter. As long as they can do the minimum required, what they REALLY need are business skills. Talent means nothing when running a business.

I have no problem with McDojos as businesses. I would not want to train at one, but that's an entirely different thing.

By the way, I posted something awhile ago on MT; can't find it now. There is a new dojo just up the road from me. They're doing fine; they have articles written about them in the newspaper, they're teaching seminars after school, etc. The husband-and-wife team Senseis are 'qualified' instructors because they paid $50,000 for the franchise and got a six week training course, where they were awarded their black belts and began teaching. Totally legal. They absolutely do not know anything about martial arts. It does not matter. They are popular and know how to run a business; this has nothing to do with teaching martial arts.

Don't confuse the two; they are not the same.

 

[Makalakumu]

That's where you are wrong.

Businesses go under when they do not make a profit. That's all.

Common sense tells us that when businesses do things badly, they go under; but in reality, that's a cause, but it may not be the entire cause.

We all know of auto shops that do lousy work; yet they remain in business. Restaurants which have terrible service; but they remain in business.

And at the same time, we know of good restaurants that go under, great car mechanics that can't make it, etc.

Who knows when a McDojo produces poor product? Not the students. Half of them don't know good from bad, and the other half don't care as long as they get their promotions.

The fact is, I know of a bunch of dojos in my area that teach what I would consider crap martial arts. And they are VERY successful. I know a few that teach authentic, 'real' martial arts, and they're small, semi-profitable, basically run as hobbies. While I'm sure that this is not always the case, I certainly have noticed it.

I have said before on MT that in my opinion, there are two basic issues in running a martial arts training business. One is teaching martial arts. The other is running a successful business. And one does not have very much to do with the other. This is what most business owners fail to grasp, and why they fail. They think if they are really GOOD at what they do, they will succeed. That is ********. They can be crap at what they do, but if they know how to run a good business, they will succeed. They can be good and fail, they can be bad and succeed. Doesn't that just suck? Yes, it does, but that's the way things go.

I learned a long time ago that most professional photographers are, at best, semi-skilled and seldom talented. It doesn't matter. As long as they can do the minimum required, what they REALLY need are business skills. Talent means nothing when running a business.

I have no problem with McDojos as businesses. I would not want to train at one, but that's an entirely different thing.

By the way, I posted something awhile ago on MT; can't find it now. There is a new dojo just up the road from me. They're doing fine; they have articles written about them in the newspaper, they're teaching seminars after school, etc. The husband-and-wife team Senseis are 'qualified' instructors because they paid $50,000 for the franchise and got a six week training course, where they were awarded their black belts and began teaching. Totally legal. They absolutely do not know anything about martial arts. It does not matter. They are popular and know how to run a business; this has nothing to do with teaching martial arts.

Don't confuse the two; they are not the same.

And yet, what if people want it? What if people want stupid dumbed downed martial arts? The same goes for any education. What if people want to be ignorant? What if they barely want to read and write, to the point where they can work for someone else, drink beer and watch football?

A business is successful when they can give people what they want and I think that people need to start letting others make decisions without judgement...natural consequences will determine wisdom from folly in the end.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

And yet, what if people want it? What if people want stupid dumbed downed martial arts? The same goes for any education. What if people want to be ignorant? What if they barely want to read and write, to the point where they can work for someone else, drink beer and watch football?

A business is successful when they can give people what they want and I think that people need to start letting others make decisions without judgement...natural consequences will determine wisdom from folly in the end.

Yes, I agree with you. Martial arts training is not a meritocracy; the best do not necessarily survive.

My point is that there are two completely separate requirements. One is teaching martial arts. One is running a business. You have to be able to run a business to teach - at least good enough to pay the rent and keep the lights on if you intend to do that. You do not have to be a good martial artist or a good teacher in order to run a good business; those skills are very different.

You are right that different people want different things from martial arts training. And there are training centers that cater to all of those needs.

If I wanted to teach good martial arts, I would do that. If I merely wanted to run a successful business, martial arts skills are not necessarily required.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

And yet, what if people want it? What if people want stupid dumbed downed martial arts? The same goes for any education. What if people want to be ignorant? What if they barely want to read and write, to the point where they can work for someone else, drink beer and watch football?

A business is successful when they can give people what they want and I think that people need to start letting others make decisions without judgement...natural consequences will determine wisdom from folly in the end.

to be perfectly honest, the people in normal education the people who want to stay ignorant, do stay ignorant, so I don't think it would be much of a change in that aspect. Just easier for them to remain ignorant, instead of having to be forced an uphill battle they don't want to go.

 

[Tez3]

However in education when you say 'people who want to stay ignorant' it doesn't mean people ie adults it means their children. For most part the 'people' being taught in the McDojos are also children.

 

[seasoned]

And these dojo learned long ago that the money is in teaching those kids. There are many good programs out there, but, a customer has to
seek out the quality ones. The free market is good because good or bad can make a living, but it is up to the consumer to educate themselves.

 

[Makalakumu]

However in education when you say 'people who want to stay ignorant' it doesn't mean people ie adults it means their children. For most part the 'people' being taught in the McDojos are also children.

What if parents had more choices in education? Look at all the choice that exists in the martial arts industry. I think this could be a model for education as a whole.

 

[Tez3]

What if parents had more choices in education? Look at all the choice that exists in the martial arts industry. I think this could be a model for education as a whole.

I don't know enough to comment on your education system. I know as parents here we have a choice between private and state schools, church/faith schools plus the new free schools. Secondary education parents have a choice between private and state with the state schools being various academis specialising in various things ie science, sport, arts etc. Hard to know what other choices parents want.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

What if parents had more choices in education? Look at all the choice that exists in the martial arts industry. I think this could be a model for education as a whole.

Parents abdicate in general, and demand that society do what they will not. You imagine a participative market where none exists.

 

[Makalakumu]

Parents abdicate in general, and demand that society do what they will not. You imagine a participative market where none exists.

Absolutely. This is pie in the sky idealism on my part. Parents and children think society owes them an education and the meaning behind getting an education is lost.

That said, if we did have a participatory market, I think education would differentiate to fit peoples needs. We'd see more innovation and we'd see people get better education than we see now.

Imagine if the government controlled martial arts and mandated standards that everyone had to meet without regard to individual difference. The institution would be a total charlie foxtrot.

Well, that's what we have now and it's terrible at meeting people's actual needs.

 

[Tez3]

Absolutely. This is pie in the sky idealism on my part. Parents and children think society owes them an education and the meaning behind getting an education is lost.

That said, if we did have a participatory market, I think education would differentiate to fit peoples needs. We'd see more innovation and we'd see people get better education than we see now.

Imagine if the government controlled martial arts and mandated standards that everyone had to meet without regard to individual difference. The institution would be a total charlie foxtrot.

Well, that's what we have now and it's terrible at meeting people's actual needs.

So, the how many millions of people in America all think alike? I'm sure a lot of people have a lot of different ideas on education!

A lot of martial arts organisations do mandate their standards and everyone who participates in that organisations activies has to fit in or leave. they make a lot of money. However in education money isn't everything.

 

[CanuckMA]

Absolutely. This is pie in the sky idealism on my part. Parents and children think society owes them an education and the meaning behind getting an education is lost.

That said, if we did have a participatory market, I think education would differentiate to fit peoples needs. We'd see more innovation and we'd see people get better education than we see now.

Imagine if the government controlled martial arts and mandated standards that everyone had to meet without regard to individual difference. The institution would be a total charlie foxtrot.

Well, that's what we have now and it's terrible at meeting people's actual needs.

The difference is that martial arts 'education' has no sociatal impact. Genereal education does. There needs to be a standard to adhere to. For mostly financial reasons, my kids went to public school. Had we sent them to religious school, those schools would have had to follow the provincial curriculum, religion and Hebrew being added on. I have a co-worker who home schools his kids. They still have to pass the provincial tests.

There is already a wide range of private schools available. However, society in general benefits from an educated public, hence a 'free' system must be available, and the private sector must follow a standard curriculum.

 

[Makalakumu]

The difference is that martial arts 'education' has no sociatal impact. Genereal education does. There needs to be a standard to adhere to. For mostly financial reasons, my kids went to public school. Had we sent them to religious school, those schools would have had to follow the provincial curriculum, religion and Hebrew being added on. I have a co-worker who home schools his kids. They still have to pass the provincial tests.

There is already a wide range of private schools available. However, society in general benefits from an educated public, hence a 'free' system must be available, and the private sector must follow a standard curriculum.

How well does a standard curriculum, enforced by the government, meet the needs of all learners?

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Well, that's what we have now and it's terrible at meeting people's actual needs.

The only thing worse than what we have is everything else.

 

[Makalakumu]

The only thing worse than what we have is everything else.

How do you know that?