Okay, If I seemed a little confrontational, I wasn't trying to be. I'm sick.

I totally agree I think a black belt shouldn't be given to anyone under the age of 16. At a tournament I attended recently there was a 9 year old black belt. She had to spar me. I felt like I was a bully because I'm 6 foot. Her kata's were fine, but she was missing the strength that is needed to actually defend oneself properly.

After reading posts by various people on the boards here, I have decided to let my daughter receive her black belt at her current school, but to put her into another activity when she finishes, next year. The teachers, including the owners, are very nice and friendly people, but I really don't know enough about MA to ask them any tough questions.

I do know that my niece, now 11 and a half, received her black belt 6 months ago, and seems to have been challenged a lot more than my daughter. My daughter has to run 3 miles in 24 minutes, and do a lot of pushups and so on, but my niece had to break a board to advance from white belt to yellow! And mmy niece was surprised to see that my daughter's karate teacher (one of the owners) had a hard time breaking a board with her heel, even though she is supposedly a third-degree or fourth-degree blackbelt.

So, it seems that my daughter has not been trained as well as I may have hoped, but she enjoyed it and it does give her some self-confidence, so I guess I cannot really say that the last 3 and a half years have been a total waste. Still, I guess, on to vocal lessons or perhaps violin lessons, now, and MA perhaps again, when she is in high school or college. She loves to sing, play, and dance, so it would be a nice change for her, anyway, I think.