Oh my God, my first blog entree. Where have my martial art traditions gone? But that is a blog topic for another day. The future entrees of this blog will cover martial art thoughts, protocols, history, Wado Kai and Wado Ryu issues, martial art politics, misconceptions, teaching techniques that I use, and other ideas that are peculiar to the martial arts. I will also answer questions from students, parents, and friends of the center. This blog will not be about little Timmy getting his blue belt. Though that is a very important situation, those items and topics will be placed in another section of the web site. So please don’t hesitate to send questions or inquires that you would like to get my input on to rhughes@smacus.com.
I am excited about doing this blog. A day does not go by without something strange and unique happening. So there will be many martial art “things” to write about. I have been asked on numerous occasions to put these situations, thoughts, and concepts into a book. Having tried it, I found it difficult thinking of these unique situations and topics off the top of my head. So writing about them as they occur may allow me to accomplish that task someday.
This blog originally started off as the PRIVATE LESSON PAYMENT PROTOCOL. But before I could talk about that topic, I had to lay out ground work on how money is supposed to be handled in the traditional martial art school. While doing that, it became obvious I needed to change the topic. Handling money in the traditional martial arts has its own unique protocol. It is quite different from other activities such as dance, gymnastics, and nontraditional martial art schools. A traditional martial arts school is not only a school whose unbroken lineage goes back to its original creation, but also in the way it conducts itself. I will discuss what a traditional school is in another blog. In the traditional martial arts field, money is considered evil, though the necessity is understood. Money is viewed, like many religions, somethingthat has a tendency to corrupt or cause one to lose one’s way. This creates a conflict in the martial art teacher. A legitimate traditional martial art teacher does not teach for money, but understands its importance. To hand money directly to an instructor causes that instructor embarrassment. This conflict is created because first, the instructor is embarrassed, and secondly, the instructor is put into a situation where if he objects to directly receiving the funds, he may create embarrassment or awkwardness in the person giving the money. In the martial arts, it is considered bad manners to cause any embarrassment or awkwardness in anyone at anytime. So the internal conflict starts. If the instructor takes the money, he goes against a principle he believes in. If he objects, the other person is embarrassed and that’s considered bad manners. What I have done in the past to eliminate or minimize this conflict was to have other people handle the money while trying to inform my students and parents of this protocol. That was easy when my school was small. When situations occurred where someone that did not know this protocol tried to hand me money directly, I would say simply, in a matter of fact way, to put it on the desk. Many of you may have seen me handle situations this way when someone wanted to hand me money for a soft drink, belt promotion fee, or something else. Some have asked why I don’t put this in our tuition pamphlet. I have always replied that I felt this was too much information too soon. One needs to be involved in the martial arts for a period of time to understand this philosophy.
An example of this philosophy is when I have a guest instructor come to my school to teach a seminar. Monetary issues are never discussed. It is my responsibility to find out what I should be paying. There are ways of finding this out without discussing it with the instructor. When I make the payment, I either send the money to the appropriate place or I put it in an envelope and discretely place it in his jacket or briefcase. Again, it is never discussed.
So how should monetary issues be handled in the traditional martial art school? Rarely should money directly pass from student or parent to instructor. First, procedures should be put in place so students or parents do not have to pay the instructor directly. In my school I have hired a staff to handle the money issues of the school. There are times I have to get involved in money matters with students or parents, but I keep it to a minimum because it makes me feel uncomfortable. Secondly, students and parents should be educated about this protocol so they know what to do. This is where I have not done a very good job. As stated before, I feel students and parents need to be in the program a while before this philosophy is brought up. With so many classes, students and parents with different lengths of exposure to the arts, and not a lot of time to discuss such issues, it never gets done. So far I have not come up with a system to accomplish this. There are also monetary situations that do not involve the school or me. One example is funds that are paid to an instructor from a student or parent for private lessons. The way this should be handled is for the student or parent to put the funds in an envelope with the instructors name on it and placed on the front desk or creatively giving it in a discrete way. The money situation should never really be discussed. Are there exceptions, sure, the world is not black and white. Making something more complicated than it needs to be is not a martial art way of handling things either. A martial art student, parent, and instructor should always try to do the right thing at the right time within a rational and reasonable way. This is always the dilemma in the martial arts.
In closing, I have done a good job in some areas with dealing with this protocol and a poor job in others. Please don’t get mad at my instructors for not advising you of this protocol. It is my responsibility, not theirs. It would actually be bad manners on their part to bring it up (another blog topic to be discussed). Maybe this blog will help with solving this problem. Anyway, the blog saga will continue.
Signing off,
Ray Hughes
