Female instructors and respect

Good teachers do what good parents do.

They are warm and friendly, fair and firm, and respect the autonomy of adults, the need to foster autonomy in adolescents, and the need for structure with children.

I am a woman who regularly teaches adults and children. I do not question myself while I am teaching as to if I should or should not be up in front of the folks I am teaching - no matter what their size or age. I certainly sometimes have these insecurities when I'm on my own - but they do nobody any good during a training session.

The most important thing is to respect each and every person who comes to train. This includes respecting visitors who come to watch your training to decide if they'd like to join. Model how you want to be treated by treating others the same way.

As a teacher you teach explicitly and implicitly. Explicitly you teach forms, training drills, techniques, fighting, etc. Implicitly you teach respect, how to treat others, how to work as a partner, how to be focused, centered, and thoughtful.

A good teacher pays attention to how they're teaching both. Gender doesn't matter.

Why worry if you think someone doesn't respect you? You can't know their thoughts - you're not psychic. You can only find out by watching their actions or asking them what they think. So try not to project any insecurities you may have onto your students.

As my teacher often told me "You're perfect for today and will be better tomorrow if you keep training - that's all that matters."

Scare them and they don't always come back.

There is a difference between being strict and being frightening.

Hello:

Gender is irrelevent. Age may play a factor. Are the older children in this school having the same problems?

Younger instructors or new teachers will get eaten alive by young kids, and older children to some extent determined by group size. Experience and the type of support you have backing you up will determine how things go. Even the experienced folks run into a rogue class from time to time.

If you wish to teach, start as a volunteer, and work VERY hard with the beginners. Stay there for a long, long time. If you like it... you will have some experience at least and not have ~romantic ideas~ anymore. Once you've run your own classes for a long time SOLO or supported to some extent... you are a teacher.

It is not an easy task ever! School, dojo, daycare, much the same. Hard, hard work. There is a reason many of us are grey But gender is not a factor with a larger group. They are like baby ~pirrannah~ <sp.?> if you permit them even a taste. Time, experience is required to control a classroom.

Jeff

I agree with Ronin - gender is irrelevent.

I am sure everyone here know men and women they respect as well as men and women they don't. Why should martial arts instructors be any different?
Sharon

A good instructor is a good instructor, and students recognize that. If you go into a class confidant, and with enthusiasm, the students recognize it and respect you for it. I am fortunate in that I have a slight advantage now that I earned my red belt, in that I am a professional teacher (not in the martial arts), which has given me the ability and experience to feel comfortable with public speaking.

One of the requirements for being able to get your black belt at my school is that you clock at least 10 hours assisting and or teaching a class. Once you reach red belt it is expected that you may be told to "start class" at any time, especially if you're an adult. This primarily consists of running through the standard set of warmups and stretches, but for many students this is the hardest part of being a red belt. Not only do you have to think about what you are doing, but you have to demonstrate it, and explain it to the other students. Its a great eye opener, and a great learning experience. Many students are terrified the first time they have to "start class"

That aside, the only gender differences I have observed is that many of the female students tend to be more timid the first few times they teach, and because of a larger number of male instructors at our school, the kids are more prone to answer "Yes Sir" to a command or question, regardless of gender, and while I find it amusing to be called "Sir" rather than "Ma'am", its still a "drop for pushups" offense.

Laura

teenagers 'teaching' a class of 4-6 year olds in a gym is structured sitting. It's good for the teens to learn from the experience and the kids have fun... but it's not really MA related.

There is a gym in this area called 'Kidsports'....it's great, kids do all kinds of structured activities, learn coordination, learn social dealings and interaction, etc. It's hosted,supervised and taught by teens and college students (usually majoring in child psychology). so it's great for the teachers too.

The big difference between a kidojo and kidsports is that at kidsports, the kids don't wear a uniform or pretend to be doing anything other than having fun. why BS the kids into thinking they are doing anything other than having fun and playing coordination games? The only possible reason I can think of is maybe the dojo expanded it's customer base by offering this type of activity/sitting service. Again, it's a great service, but if a place didn't put kids in costumes, would we even bother to have this conversation in an MA forum?

When my kids were younger, I decided for them to be doing something structured with qualified child care attendents and child development specialists for a couple hours each day. These kind of qualifications are not usually part of teaching in a dojo environment....so why would I choose to have my kids there?

Martial Arts are for people old enough to choose it themselves. under 7 years old, they could care less what the heck they are doing and are just having fun. May as well let them have fun with people who are studying and specializing in child development. probably at the same overall price too, since there are no uniforms or test fees.

I disagree completely. Martial arts are more than just fun for young children, they're excellent for a developing mind.

Memory, self control, coordination, strength, social skills, flexability - Martial arts improves all these things.

Plus, when they're old enough to begin learning how to actually fight they'll already have the basics down solidly. Not to mention being extremely confortable with the environment.

I think it is more of age thing than a sex thing at that age. When I started teaching as a assistant instructor I was around 17 or 18(cant remember was long ago I had some trouble with kids but eventually I got it worked out and I am a full time instructor today.

In my experience the women have more of a problem with new male adult students. That being said once the student learns that the ladies are just as good as men they get with the program:)

Subedei

While MA are all you say they are they are not the only things which give these benefits. Dancing can do this too.

What I find interesting about MA with kids is how even the ones who you wouldn't expect to often want to compete and spar. This is where I see a big difference between MA and other activities is the competitive and combatitive element and how many kids actually gain confidence to face these kind of challeneges.

Agreed. Dancing provides almost all health benefits of a martial art.

With the greatest respect I totally agree with some of the other posts that it really isn't so much 'male' or 'female' - but the same as the general schooling system in any country - you are either a teacher - or not a teacher (irrespective of sex. age, colour or whatever really).

A competition fighter is either going to be a winner, or not? Same thing.

Can you become a good (or great) teacher? Yes, but you had to have the ability or potential ability there in the first place...

There are many black belts in the world today - but they are not all teachers...

Respectfully,

.

Ed, we all know you've run away to your own little castle, but that last comment was uncalled for.

Ed,
Last warning.

ok we have only 2 instructors in my dojo the black belt is a female and i'm a assistant instructor certified by the ajka but the student in our dojo pay attention very well to the instructor as well as i i think its more as how you disaplin them when they dont do as instructed rather then age or gender i have have a storm team that even helps teach when they are needed if an instructor is unable to attend the other and the storm team works togather