Conordia University offers 4 year TKD degree

[YoungMan]

Much as I love TKD, I couldn't imagine doing it for eight hours a day at least or more while I am earning a TKD degree. That's too much. There is such a thing as burnout. All things in moderation.

Having a TKD degree in this country means nothing. Our culture isn't the same as Korea. I think most people could care less that you graduated with a degree in Tae Kwon Do. They just don't take it that seriously. You are better off majoring in something else and learning how to teach from your Instructor.

[IcemanSK]

Much as I love TKD, I couldn't imagine doing it for eight hours a day at least or more while I am earning a TKD degree. That's too much. There is such a thing as burnout. All things in moderation.

Having a TKD degree in this country means nothing. Our culture isn't the same as Korea. I think most people could care less that you graduated with a degree in Tae Kwon Do. They just don't take it that seriously. You are better off majoring in something else and learning how to teach from your Instructor.

Sad, but true. Heck, if I went up to 99% of folks in the USA & told them that I teach MA for a living, they'd wonder when I was planning on getting a real job. But if I were a golf pro at a local course, I'd have more respect.

[YoungMan]

Very true, or a football, baseball, or hockey coach. Even then, you really have to reach the elite level to be able to teach that for a living. Otherwise, you coach on the side and do something else professionally. Whenever someone wants to know about getting a martial arts degree or teaching for a living, my attitude is "Don't waste your time."

And it's not that I don't love Tae Kwon Do, I'm just being realistic.

[IcemanSK]

Getting a degree in either education or business would better prepare someone for running a dojang, IMO. The experience of a TKD degree, while it's a really cool thing, wouldn't give one a well-rounded enough education.

[YoungMan]

You would most likely major in education, which includes the various psychologies needed to understand how to teach people, and then minor in whatever you were going to teach. Conceivably you could do a double minor to include business.

But it all goes back to the fact that American culture could care less about a degree in Tae Kwon Do. It's just not part of our national culture, and the economics just don't favor it. You can earn a degree in exercise science, coaching, sports business. But martial arts education is just not ingrained inour culture deeply enough for something like that to matter.

[IcemanSK]

How would a degree in Football go over here in the US?

[DWx]

I was searching for something else when I found this:

Its Grandmaster Chang Jin Kang (the man who will be running the course) and his students. I'm not overally impressed. I see a lot of child blackbelts in the video and I don't think many of them could do much. I didn't like the form work either, other than the Grandmaster himself and some of the instructors I saw poor technique, no speed and little focus. At about 4:54-ish the 1st gups perform Choong-Moo tul and I didn't see a single technique I thought that might hurt me. IMO I saw white or yellow belts wearing the red belts. I wonder how the college degree compares to this.

Here's his personal website:

http://www.ildotkd.com/index.html

From seeing the video and looking through the website, whole thing seems a little McDojo-esque to me. Here's the students creed taken from the class schedule page:

1. I will obey my parents

2. I will clean my room

3. I will wear my seat belt

4. I will brush my teeth

5. I will use good manners

At first I thought the idea of a TKD college degree seemed quite a nice idea. After seeing the standard portrayed in that video, I'm not too sure. Granted there are a lot of kids in it but I was very disappointed with what I saw. What does everyone else think?

[Montana]

I agree. The video looked like a belt factory class. Do the minimum and get a belt.

[KarateEd]

Reading over the program it looks as though one would really be receiving an "Exercise & Sport Science" degree with an "empahsis" in TKD. The degree itself would be as useful as any other exercise and sports science degree in terms of obtaining employment after graduation (I don't know what the demand is for people with this type of degree). I don't think that students would be doing TKD for 8 hours a day. Only in a few, specific cases, while in college, did I devote that much time, daily, to one subject.

All this being said, I think it would be just as useful to get a business or physical education degree and pursue TKD on the side.

Ed

[bushido_man96]

Yes, but seeing as how one can teach TKD without a degree, it seems rather wasteful to spend money getting a degree that has no real value, when you can teach it after acquiring the same achievements outside of the program.

Yeah, it seems smarter to major in something like business and do TKD on the side.

The program acutally has classes that are supposed to be related to teaching TKD in one's own school, like the management part, etc.