I am so conflicted regarding pulling my child out of his current school and going somewhere else but I'm not sure if I'm just expecting too much so please set me straight. We have been there for a year, btw, my son is 8, and I feel like there is a lot of game playing and not much growth, focus, technique and respect being demonstrated. Some things that concern me - A lot of times I feel like the kids (8-10 years old) run the class and not the instructor. He does lots of games but then gets mad when they are loud and don't jump to attention immediately. Don't get me wrong, one of the reasons we started this is for attention/focus but when you create a game environment why are you getting mad for the kids playing along? He uses push-ups, jumping jacks for punishment and I've seen the same kid get 6 sessions of these in just the warm ups and he's been there as long as we have been. It's not working so why does the instructor persist? I don't feel like he corrects technique or really teaches it. He keeps telling them to get kicks higher but doesn't talk about the proper way to do them. One thing that really bothered me was at this last belt test. It was the class after the test when he usually gives the belts and he didn't mention anything. My child asked at the end of the class if he earned his belt. The instructor just said, "I don't know. Did you?" Next class, no belts or mention. My son asked again and he still gave the same casual/rude response. My son went home crying and just kept saying I am trying hard but I guess he doesn't see that. Well come to find out he didn't have the belts and they were back-ordered. So why not show respect to your students and tell them that. I felt like one of the things we are suppose to be focusing on here is showing respect for others and yourself and the instructor didn't extend that to the students. So set me straight. This is a tiny town and I can't go back if I stop. Is this normal, i.e., games, focus on repetition verses quality, etc. for a 8-10 year old class? Thanks
