Friday, June 19, 2009
Class Control
No - not the government controlling the middle class - and while that could be fun to talk about, it's not the point of the post. I mean control of the martial arts class. Is it too lax? Has the instructor let the students take over? Are the inmates running the institution? Thoughts? More importantly - how to reestablish control. How to reign in the crazyness. Thoughts?
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I have actually mentioned the following to managment at Menards, about their style of "control".
ReplyDeleteThere are three ways to do things as I see it.
The pushover - everyone likes you alright, but they don't respect you the way you'd like. They make inappropriate jokes at your expense, they aren't worried about inconveniencing you, and don't take your criticizms/instructions seriously.
The bully - Everyone hates you. You overcompensate and overreact to everything. You yell, threaten, and belittle. People avoid inconveniencing you and they obey your instruction, provided you're around. No respect, but fear in its place.
The mentor - People learn to love you, or leave. The mentor asks alot of his employees/students. In return, he gives them respect/compassion, and teaches them invaluable lessons. Those with unchecked egos will have a rough time at first. It is the mentor's job to make his students/employees aware of their egos, shortcomings, and greatness. The manner in which this is achieved can sometimes seem like bullying. The key is in the intention. If the instructor is "mean" to achieve greater power over his students, this is unacceptable. If he is "mean" to illustrate a teaching point, this is training.
Everything we do needs to be out of mutual respect. I keep saying that we need to train as if we mean it. Why? In this order...
You owe it to your training partners, whose life may depend on the training.
You owe it to your teacher.(see "Giri")(exchange)
You owe it to yourself.
If we maintain mutual respect, train hard, and never become bullys, we will all be better people and training partners for it.
/agree..., and hopefully I come off more as the "mentor" then the bully or pushover :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I think back to when I first began training, I remember that proper conduct for students in class was not something that really had to be explicitly taught, although we do discuss etiquette from time to time. I was able to simply observe higher ranking students, and learn by their actions. When we are attentive and considerate during class, and truly value the training, orderly conduct should follow naturally (in theory). Perhaps students that have been around longer (and I'm thinking mostly of myself here) need to be more attuned to this? And maybe, if we work at this, the problem will "take care of itself"? Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteAs Soke is often quoted as saying - it seems that the "problem has taken care of itself" (mostly).
ReplyDeleteproblem ? what problem ?
ReplyDelete