bored kids

[aefibird]

I have a bit of a problem with 4 kids that I teach in my childrens lower grade lesson on a Monday. They train with me once a week and in my sensei's lessons once a week. The children are nice enough and polite and pleasant, but the trouble is they are bored with karate.

 

 

 

I try and make my childrens lessons as interesting as possible, as does my sensei, but these 4 children just don't seem to like it whatever we do.

 

Their parents have forced them to take karate lessons until either they are 16 or until they reach blackbelt, whichever comes first.

 

The 4 children (a brother aged 10 & sister aged 12 and their cousins, also a brother aged 10 & sister aged 12) have tried talking to their parents about the situation and the fact that they don't want to do karate (which is fair enough - it's not everyone's cup of tea) but their parents flatly refuse to stop sending them.

 

The kids had a word with me & Sensei about it and asked us if we'd talk to their parents, so we arranged a meeting with them and tried to explain as tactfully as possible that their children hate coming to karate lessons and that, really, the parents were wasting their money. The parents didn't want to listen to us either and just insisted that they wanted them to get self defence training until they were either blackbelts or aged 16.

 

I don't really know what to do next. As far as my class goes, I have other children that I teach so I can't just let these 4 run around for an hour and a half as this wouldn't be fair on the others who actually want to learn karate. Nor can I justify taking their parents money and just letting the 4 kids sit out most of the lesson (which is what the kids have asked me to do, but I've refused!).

 

They come to my karate class, so I teach them karate, but is there anything I can do to help make it a bit more bearable for them until they are allowed by their parents to stop? I try to incorporate different activities into each lesson, such as games, basic sparring, fitness work, kata, group work, etc, but it is all karate based, not just there to fill time up or to just be for fun.

 

Hope you can give some suggestions!

 

Thanks.

[Goku]

Just advance them really fast. That's a possibility. Just advance them faster than you'd advance others and just keep it between you and the kids you are doing this to. LOL! That should show the parents lol.

[Ironberg]

Perhaps you simply have to accept the possibility that they are too young to be there, too young to focus properly, and too young to reap the benifits of dilligence.

[Icetuete]

Their parents have forced them to take karate lessons until either they are 16 or until they reach blackbelt, whichever comes first.

 

oh yeah, as soon they r black belts they are allowed forget about karate. is this meant to make sense?

The 4 children (a brother aged 10 & sister aged 12 and their cousins, also a brother aged 10 & sister aged 12) have tried talking to their parents about the situation and the fact that they don't want to do karate (which is fair enough - it's not everyone's cup of tea) but their parents flatly refuse to stop sending them.

 

yeah, great - could have guessed so.

Nor can I justify taking their parents money and just letting the 4 kids sit out most of the lesson (which is what the kids have asked me to do, but I've refused!).

 

yes, perfectly understandable.

 

maybe it'd be better to talk to the childrens, why they dont like it. what you said at the very end of the post would have been my advice to. try to figure out why playing games and learning interesting stuff bores them so much. they are together with other kids and after all, its a chance to get away from their ignorant parents

[GrrrArg]

Do you really want to teach someone who is being to be there against there will?

 

If not, then tell their parents you are no longer willing to do so, assuming the kids agree with this plan of action.

[SaiFightsMS]

Then they can get bored while doing pushups and other nice things given to those who disrupt class.

[AndrewGreen]

Give them black belts.

 

Or reccomend another less boring school.

 

or go to onedragon.com buy the "Play as the Way tapes" and quit being such a dull instructor

[White Warlock]

With only the information you presented, I would tend to go along with the 'kneejerk' idea that if the students don't want to be there, and you don't want to put up with it... or the attitude of those 4 are hurting the class as a whole, discontinue instructing them. Nobody is forcing you to teach, and if they are... do like Spartacus.

 

However, i would like to know more information. Is it karate they don't like, other students, the fact they would 'prefer' to be doing something else... or what? Finding out what the kids don't like is not nearly as important as finding out what they do like, and no amount of guessing is going to gain satisfactory answers within a reasonable amount of time.

 

You may also want to consider what it is the parents are trying to keep the kids 'away' from. It may be that they're wasting too much time with video games at home, watching too much tv, socializing with the wrong sorts (yes, even at age 10 that can happen), etc. It may be that the parents aren't showing you the whole picture and that you're assuming the parents are stupid, when in fact they're merely desperate.

 

A personal thought aelfbird. Running on the little information provided and on my few years of study in child psychology, it seems to me those kids are attempting to play one parent against the other, you being one of the parents. Happens quite frequently in elementary schools actually, where the student manipulates the teacher into siding with the student. Without first attempting to gain insight into the entire picture, the teacher then ends up almost dictating to the parents. You may have projected to the parents the 'agenda' of the kids, and the parents may have subconsciously recognized this, and closed it down. This would give the impression that they are being stubborn.

 

I suspect a little bit of histrionics is in the mix here.

[aefibird]

Well, the reason that their parents have given for the kids coming to karate is that they want them to learn self defence. They simply want them to get to black belt, because they feel that blackbelt level is equal to being good at karate (which isn't necessarily so but they don't think agree).

 

If it was up to me then I'd show the kids & their parents the door and tell them to take them to something they do like doing and stop wasting the childrens time and their own money.

 

However... it's not my club. It's my sensei's I take the beginners lesson on his behalf and he's happy for them to keep coming for several reasons.

 

Firstly because they're well behaved (even though they don't like it) and they don't disrupt the class; secondly because the 4 kids haven't complained outright to him;

 

thirdly because they're all actually quite good at karate and

 

fourthly because he feels that 'boredom' isn't really a reason to not let the kids train if that's what the parents want.

 

It might be a bit of a misguided view, but he's only human - we all make judgemental errors. Plus, it's his club. What he says, goes.

 

As for why they don't like karate - I think it's mainly kata and basics that they don't like. They don't mind the fighting, but my dojo places equal emphasis upon basics & kata as well as sparring - I can't just do sparring with them as it would go against the ethos of the dojo and secondly it wouldn't be fair to the other kids just to do what one group of children want to do all the time. Plus, you should never let kids always have their own way. It's not good for them to always get what they want.

 

As for handing out push ups - firstly, I don't believe in push ups as a punishment and secondly the kids don't misbehave to warrant me punishing them anyway.

 

I think they're just gonna have to stick it out until they're older and 'lump it' as my mother says.

[GrrrArg]

I supose its not such a bad thing to have forced upon you, I would prefer being forced to be able to defend myself if neccasary to eating carrots for example. Besides when they are a bit older, they may learn to like it, especially if it becomes "cool".