My fiance runs a martial arts school. He is getting frustrated by the lack of desire to learn and the lack of care he is getting from his students. Most of his adult students have a desire to learn and rise through the ranks; however, children and teenagers just want to float through. Many students come late and many not often at all.
I think a lot of this character has been installed by the previous instructor, but he is also having trouble with children. He is very passionate about what he teaches and it is frustrating for when so many of his students don%26#039;t care.
He teaches hard and keeps the classes exciting. He holds different events, special classes to peak their interests, and tries to get them participating in local tournaments.
However, he must continue to teach all the students because it is a business and the bills do need paid. What are some ways he can get the students to be more passionate about learning and more involved in the program?|||this is a common problem..
my husband teaches privately, mainly adults and he still deals with the same problems.
and yes bills do have to be paid.. at times it seems like they don%26#039;t care why should i .. right..
it%26#039;s like it was said in a previous answer.. the students that are going to care do and the ones that are in the class b/c their parent%26#039;s need a 2 hr babysitter are just passing thru..
here%26#039;s a little something that he can do when they%26#039;re late.. my husband does this..
if a student is late he will be required to do callistetics, for disrupting and disrespecting the class with his tardiness.. 20 min of running laps, crunches or wall squats is a way to let it be known that tardiness and disregard for his martial arts brothers and sisters won%26#039;t be tolerated.
and this type of thing must become policy.. it must be written down, and distributed to students and parents, so there aren%26#039;t any issues that may arise later..
one big problem i%26#039;ve noticed in dojos and kuans that i%26#039;ve visited lately is a lack of respect and dicipline for the class.. kids are cussing and visiting and paying no mind to the instructors.. when i was younger this was not allowed..
the big issue is dicipline.. there are rules and they must be followed.. respect for fellow students and teacher is a give in..
hey, it%26#039;s hard enough to get kids to listen or take interest in anything beside mtv or myspace nowadays..
the parents are paying some big bucks for this opportunity and i%26#039;m sure they wouldn%26#039;t appreciate their kids not squeezing every cent worth out of this class.. so i%26#039;m sure they wouldn%26#039;t be opposed to a little bit of dicipline to sweat the sense back into their children.. these days who wouldn%26#039;t want that..
well, i hope things get better for him..
~*good luck*~|||thank you for the 10pts. it is hard, and unfortuantely it will always be like this.. the turnover ratio for most schools in 3/5.. but i%26#039;ve learned that the 2 that do stay, become diligent, life long and passionate students.. so good luck and keep on kickin%26#039;
~*hugglez*~ Report Abuse
|||I don%26#039;t know what the class separation is or how the structure is. A choice is to divide classes according to age. we have classes separated by 4-6 year olds, 7-12, 13-16 and adults.
This way the 4-6 year olds work on basic hand eye coordination drills and still act goofy. The 7-12 class works on harder things and the maturity level is a little higher, but they still have wierd days. The 13- 16 class has a better work ethic. The adult class has some kids working with adults. This way the older kids are with the adults and see what is expected of them.
The adults help push the kids into learning more curriculum. This also lets some adults work out with their kids.
We have a contract that has electronic withdrawals from accounts. Generally they are a year at a time. The kids%26#039; contracts are 6 months at a time. Parents feel better about this length due to the intrest level of kids. They may like martial arts one day and not the next.
Kids will be kids. Just accept the fact and be creative with the class structure and it will work out. We are a very successful school here and this is how our classes and payment plans are set up.|||by beating them up|||Get the parents involved in the school. Instead of doing what he thinks is right, find out what the parents and the students want from the training.
Give a discount to get the parents to train as well.|||most of the kids probably dont want to learn, their parents probly made them do it.|||Sounds like he is doing the right thing already. The ones who care are the ones who are gonna keep coming back so maybe he should try giving them some extra attention so they can learn with out feeling like their not getting out of it what they want because the slackers are slowing them down, and the ones who slack off have to pay so they can either pay to goof off or they can pay to learn|||That is a very difficult task. Students with no interest for good work and are lazy are the dojo%26#039;s poison. I myself have seen he like.
This isn%26#039;t something that the master himself can do, the problem probably comes from not having a good work ethic or being lazy.
It might help to tell the parents to get their kids to spar and practice outside of class.
Other than that I can%26#039;t really say. He isn%26#039;t their parents and can only do so much for them. You could probably ask other instructors what they do for better advice.|||Involvement is key. Not necessarily by non-student parents, but by the students themselves. Remind the high ranking students that the skills they have learned are valuable, and very few people have learned them. Have the high ranking student that shows up run the warm-up drills, and encourage them to help the newest students on a one-on-one basis. At our dojang the students in the black belt cycle are required to be assistant instructors at least one class per week. For those that make it that far, that gives them extra incentive.
My former master was a brow-beater, pressing us into service for the school and for each other. That instilled a sense of ownership and responsibility in all of us (at least the adults, and the kids who grew up in the school).
The truth of the matter is, the majority of kids are there to try it out, and get some exercise while learning something new. Very few will have the interest and determination to keep at it.|||Make the instruction age appropriate. If you teach 8 year olds the exact way you teach adults of course it won%26#039;t work. 8 year olds process information differently than adults do.
I%26#039;ve seen kids martial arts classes where they use drills that are like games. They learn the core ideas but have fun. For example the kids jujitsu class they play a game where its like tag but when you are tagged you go on your back someone can only free you by setting up the arm bar. Of course you explain to the kids the rules and about being careful. Then watch them have fun and learn at the same time.
I actually feel bad for kids that are stuck in classes with instructors who can%26#039;t comprehend age appropriate teaching concepts.|||im with the guy who answered first. a good *** whoopin seems to get people motivated to learn self defense|||Have the children and their parents sign an agreement in terms of the expectations you have for your students. And let them know the consequenes should they not follow the agreed upon guidelines.|||this is a problem that all instructors and school owners face.
they need to balance the bills, with balancing a checkbook. Nothing wrong with that.
however so long as he keeps the school interesting but also provides quality teaching then he should be ok.
raising interest in the school also depends on the location and the general type of student you are trying to attract.
If your %26quot;kids%26quot; and teens are there because of thier moms, then don%26#039;t expect much interest.
People need to want to learn.
Maybe adding a hardcore full-contack class for those that want to learn (his serious students)might encourage more people, but this needs to be balanced to make sure that they don%26#039;t scare away the kids.
He needs to be sure he is qualified to teach what he does so just %26quot;bringing in a new style%26quot; that he isn%26#039;t qualified to teach, or pretending to teach typical MMA styles can have disasterous results when peopel catch on that he is full of it if he really doesn%26#039;t know how to teach and practice and could be run out of business (or at least given some real negative publicity).
He needs to gague his audience and the community.
Maybe a %26quot;cross-training%26quot; session with another school would be good.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment