Do you prefer to listen to a video of this announcement? We’ve got you: https://youtu.be/AUj5yU-YVC8
This week, almost all students should be taking their final exam for the semester. Reminder, it is not up to the student (or parents) if a student takes an exam, just like in school. If you aren’t ready, then you take the exam to learn what you need to study more. Keep in mind…
1. We aren’t testing you for your Black Belt and instead, are building the foundations for that illustrious day.
2. This is not a pass or fail. Doing great on certain things can help you to pass things you are weak on.
3. Testing helps you see where you need to apply more effort and practice.
We do the final exam early in the week so we have the rest of the week to get people caught up who didn’t pass. In almost all cases, before the week is up, all students pass. We are rotating the curriculum next week whether they pass or not, so if they don’t pass, they aren’t going to see this material for a very long time anyway, so we may as well move on.
DON’T WORRY ABOUT MEMORIZING THE FORM. I once watched an instructor fail a student because they had not yet learned how to count to ten in Korean. A. What does counting in Korean have to do with defending yourself and B. We are supposed to be empowering the students, not tearing them down. Forms are the same. Practicing the same thing over and over can be boring but the purpose of forms is to give the student something to stay mentally engaged on, while they do more repetitions of the moves they need to practice. No one is going to do a form in a fight, but they will use the techniques that are in our forms. We only care about how well they can execute the moves within the forms. There will come a day, when they are Red Seniors when they will come back and do all these forms again. At that time, it is doubtful, even if they have it perfect now, that they will still have them memorized. Memorization of the form at colored rank is far less important than execution of technique.
Who SHOULD NOT take the final exam:
- Some white belts who just joined and don’t have enough classes.
- Some Yellow Belts who just recently earned their rank.
- Certain students who have not attended enough classes…according to the instructors, not the student or parent. Some may be ready, we will make that determination.
- Red Seniors who are taking ONE extra semester for this stripe. You cannot take two, but one extra is allowed.
Yes, things are different than “the old days,” where students failed and were belittled and humiliated. For some, that was motivation to do better. For others it was emotionally destructive and negatively affected them for the rest of their lives. We know more today about how people learn, how to teach and about child development than ever in human history. You wouldn’t want a doctor who practiced medicine with no new medical knowledge or procedures that were more recent than the 1970’s. It should be that way with everything, especially child development and the psychological impact of negative punishment.
Get with us to go over everything and help your child prepare. This is what is most important to us.
Register for Graduation here: https://sparkpages.io/?i=_2QR
Hanshi, Out
