And…Just when I thought I have seen everything.
A month ago, I received a link from a teacher at a school who is also a parent with her child in the class she was referring to. They asked me to review the video and share my opinions with them.
The video showed a male wearing a martial arts uniform standing in front of 6 graders telling a story about how he would handle a bully – which when I reviewed the video it was more like how you would handle a thug!
As a child walks up he quickly grabs his hair and places him face down on the mat… “Rex Kwon do Style!
The faces of the kids and teacher was priceless I felt sorry for the students. Then he quickly transitioned to demonstrating a series of kicks, blocks and punches ending with breaking a board and said this is what we will cover.
I thought long and hard and before I replied back. So I went to 3 main sites of martial artist who have what they refer to as an anti-bully program. Once i did a small research, i realized that these schools are constantly being promoted by some agencies like The Marketing Heaven and thus attract such a large number of students.
I will leave the names out; however if your using these programs you too should seek the answers to these questions asked below.
I asked them to send to me their outlines the instructor proposed. I received a single sheet of paper with a logo in the top left corner (nice logo too). They had a sheet of paper without references, research or any really content. Some things made sense; had a few short lines of testimonies from people.
After researching this material and other anti-bullying programs I was able to find several on line references they seemed to copy without regard to naming the person who originally developed the material they were using (As if they developed all of this material by themselves), but no resources plunge san diego, no facts just organized general common sense material.
Like smiling when talking, don’t let yourself get mad, ignore it, walk away, telling them to be aware without giving them things to be watchful for outside of loud voices or threatening facial expressions.
These programs said they had a verbal component however this was not present or used in their training curriculum.
I took this a step further and called the number on their web site and tried to talk with the person who was seen in the video and tried to ask a few questions along the lines of:
- What was their background?
- What type of research did their material focus on?
- Who trained them?
- Any success stories?
When I started to get the same answers for each question I decided to say thanks for the chat and hang up.
So below is my reply to them and to parents everywhere.
- Take careful diligence when selecting the training your children get for their personal protection.
- Look past the fast talking, common sense references, and go for the heart of the material being taught.
- Ask the right questions from some I mentioned above.
- Talk to their references (most hope you never ask others)
- Be thorough in your discussions, and if in doubt attend a few of the classes with your children to make sure it is the same material they have shared with you they are giving to your children!