Balrog
Master of Arts
<Balrog hauls out the soapbox>
Integrity. You do the right thing even when no one is watching. WeÂ’ve all heard this, right? When I teach this in my Taekwondo classes, I point out that it goes with honor like heads goes with tails. You canÂ’t have one without the other.
My other sport is bowling. I don’t get to bowl anywhere near as much as I would like to, but yesterday I had some spare time, so off to the lanes I go. I take a break after the second line and head over to the vending machine for a diet Coke and a bag of peanuts. Feed in my dollar bill, punch the peanut code and clunk, clunk – I get two bags of peanuts instead of one. So I grab the Coke and the peanuts, and on my way back to my lanes, I stop at the control desk and give them an extra dollar, explaining that the machine gave me two packs instead of one.
They looked at me as if I had suddenly sprouted a second head. I rolled another couple of frames and when I came back from the approach, the manager was there. He said (paraphrasing) that he wanted to thank me. In all the years he had run those lanes, he was sure that people had gotten freebies like that from the vending machine because it always came up short a couple of bucks. I was the ONLY person that had ever paid for the “freebie”.
His astonishment at my doing something that simple because it was the right thing to do made me realize why we have issues teaching about honor and integrity in our schools, especially to the junior students. The concepts are apparently not being reinforced at home. TheyÂ’re durn sure not reinforced in media, such as TV, movies, etc. And it also made me realize how critical it is that we, as instructors, not only teach these concepts but live them as well.
We have to be the leaders by example. And one way it starts is with our posting publicly what we expect from our students in order to promote. Attending class and having the check for the testing fee not bounce is not enough. We have to demand that our students know the material, both current and previous, AND that they perform it with increasing levels of skill. For example, we might tell our White Belts that they have to know the form and the one-steps, and that we will be looking for three specific attributes, such as focus, pivot and correct execution of technique. They donÂ’t promote if those attributes are not there. Orange Belt, we look for form, one-steps, the White Belt attributes, plus three more, such as balance, courtesy and timing. And it continues. Each rank we demand more and we make it harder to promote, because we are raising the bar.
We are doing a disservice to our students if we donÂ’t do this. In my not-so-humble opinion, if we as instructors donÂ’t do this, we are not acting with honor and integrity towards our students. How then can we claim to be teaching them those life skills?
IÂ’ll get off my soapbox now.
Integrity. You do the right thing even when no one is watching. WeÂ’ve all heard this, right? When I teach this in my Taekwondo classes, I point out that it goes with honor like heads goes with tails. You canÂ’t have one without the other.
My other sport is bowling. I don’t get to bowl anywhere near as much as I would like to, but yesterday I had some spare time, so off to the lanes I go. I take a break after the second line and head over to the vending machine for a diet Coke and a bag of peanuts. Feed in my dollar bill, punch the peanut code and clunk, clunk – I get two bags of peanuts instead of one. So I grab the Coke and the peanuts, and on my way back to my lanes, I stop at the control desk and give them an extra dollar, explaining that the machine gave me two packs instead of one.
They looked at me as if I had suddenly sprouted a second head. I rolled another couple of frames and when I came back from the approach, the manager was there. He said (paraphrasing) that he wanted to thank me. In all the years he had run those lanes, he was sure that people had gotten freebies like that from the vending machine because it always came up short a couple of bucks. I was the ONLY person that had ever paid for the “freebie”.
His astonishment at my doing something that simple because it was the right thing to do made me realize why we have issues teaching about honor and integrity in our schools, especially to the junior students. The concepts are apparently not being reinforced at home. TheyÂ’re durn sure not reinforced in media, such as TV, movies, etc. And it also made me realize how critical it is that we, as instructors, not only teach these concepts but live them as well.
We have to be the leaders by example. And one way it starts is with our posting publicly what we expect from our students in order to promote. Attending class and having the check for the testing fee not bounce is not enough. We have to demand that our students know the material, both current and previous, AND that they perform it with increasing levels of skill. For example, we might tell our White Belts that they have to know the form and the one-steps, and that we will be looking for three specific attributes, such as focus, pivot and correct execution of technique. They donÂ’t promote if those attributes are not there. Orange Belt, we look for form, one-steps, the White Belt attributes, plus three more, such as balance, courtesy and timing. And it continues. Each rank we demand more and we make it harder to promote, because we are raising the bar.
We are doing a disservice to our students if we donÂ’t do this. In my not-so-humble opinion, if we as instructors donÂ’t do this, we are not acting with honor and integrity towards our students. How then can we claim to be teaching them those life skills?
IÂ’ll get off my soapbox now.
. I think you grabbed the wrong end of the stick there my friend.
