Martial Arts in School written by dave J lomas

 An Ongoing Debate 

Since the 1970’s many keep saying to me that children should be taught the martial arts in schools as a mandatory part of their school education.  When I ask them why, they will always say the same main thing that being, – it will instil discipline within the child and make them a better person – but have they thought all of this through with regard as to how it would all work is what I would truly like to know?

Not to be confused with children taking part in the martial arts by choice but those who maybe could be forced to study the martial arts as a compulsory part of their school education, of course, so let’s take a closer look at this subject in a more practical way.

To do this and to truly find out what is involved I think I need to take you back to the 1960’s first so that hopefully we can learn a few things from history before we force children, and their parents, into such a thing.

That, of course, is if it ever became law in the future?

 Is Martial Arts Education for All? 

Many would say that learning the martial arts is a form of education for not only the body, (physical education), but also for the mind with regard to learning skills and developing various disciplines, and more or less, that is very true in many ways – but should it be taught in schools under a mandatory, enforced, ruling is the real big question that we must ask ourselves?

In the 1960’s to be found fighting on the school playground was not just a taboo thing to do but near enough a hanging offence but all of that started to change when the martial arts became the latest fighting fashion trend by the late 1960’s and the start of the 1970’s.

 The Rise of Martial Arts in the UK 

The 1970’s and part of the early 1980’s were really the starting point for a countless number of martial art schools springing up all over the place with even ‘bogus instructors who had no formal training, or recognised qualifications at all, cashing in on the popularity of the martial arts at that time, which of course was all down in the main to martial art movies back then highlighting the very glamorous side of the fighting arts, and offering the illusion that anyone practising such a thing would be near enough unbeatable even against 20 assailants.

With such schools of combat in great demand in those days the subject of safety and having any noticeable guidelines in place in the event of an accident during training sessions were never the main thing of attention with many people until students started to receive regular injuries, and in some cases very serious injuries, and then slow but sure it became more than noticeable and concerns were raised in various ways.

Due to this situation the UK government intervened and informed those involved in the martial arts to ‘get their act together’ and put in place much better safety measures to prevent such things from happening again, and although a good idea, it did however create problems when it came to who would be in charge of regulating such measures throughout the UK martial art community.

With some having their own hidden agenda in various ways and others more interested in self promoting themselves it was more than inevitable that arguments would bring it all to a grinding halt. With various associations, and even non martial art business groups, all believing that they were better qualified to run and control such a setup it was not that surprising that rival individuals raised concerns over money making business men, for example, trying to cash in on such a venture.

 Power, Politics, and Profit 

Those who wanted to take charge over enforcing safety standards over others also wanted the government to give them legal powers to enforce such rules and conditions of safety so they could not only control such a situation but also dictate who can be recognised or rejected as a bona fide teacher. This additional ability to filter out those that they regarded as bogus, or unqualified, was part of their plan to make martial arts classes more safer but of course others saw that as a way of getting rid of rival instructors or rival martial arts clubs.

A lot of people in the martial arts were understandably concerned that whoever had control would also be in the situation to control the purse strings and to a degree possibly make a lot of money out of it as a result.

It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that making money out of it all would be the main agenda for many people even if they were not even involved in the martial arts at all, such as businessmen investing in such a setup and so on, but it all went wrong however when those trying to control all the various martial art clubs in the UK under such a scheme failed to get legal status by the UK government and instead they were told that such a legal status would never be given to anyone. This of course resulted in many breaking away from such a proposed setup and as a result they continuing to do their own thing as before.

 Implications for Schools 

So keeping all of those things in mind as to what happened back then would that not also be the case if children were forced to attend martial arts classes as part of the educational system and all sorts of official organisations, health and safety inspectors, social workers, child protection experts and martial art associations all got in on the act with a view to making money and/or even legal control out of it for their own benefit and not for the benefit of the children that were being made to take part in such enforced martial arts classes regardless if they or their parents wanted it or not?

It should be noted at this point that not everyone is just out to make money when it comes to things of this nature but sadly there will always be those who will have a hidden agenda – and financial gain is often one of them.

With financial gain, and other benefits, high on the list of motivations – things could easily move focus away from the children and how they are benefiting from it – if at all – while such business motivated individuals follow their own interests instead. 

 Who Should Govern Martial Arts in Schools? 

So with that situation in mind who would you like to see governing the martial arts in schools?  Who would be the ideal person or organisation to do such a job?

With all the various martial arts schools operating their own set exam tests, conditions of membership and all the diversity within the various far ranging combat styles, to be able to regulate and make everyone do the same thing and to follow a universal set way as standard within a national school education set up could never be a viable or practical thing anyway.

Since that time, way back in the 1980’s, when attempts were made to regulate the martial arts in various ways the fighting arts have evolved and become even more diverse so any true attempt to regulate it within the martial arts community or within the national education system would be even more of a complex situation now compared to back in those days.

 The Push for Martial Arts in Schools 

As far back as the 1980’s people in the martial arts wanted to see children being taught the traditional fighting arts in schools as a set mandatory thing, based on the belief that it would benefit children with regard to their physical education and the added belief that it would also instil a form of discipline into them, but they never took into account all the factors involved in doing such a thing, more so, they never stopped to ask parents, who have nothing to do with the martial arts, what they thought on such a subject, or those that are very much against combat sports or any form of fighting how they felt about having their child exposed to such a thing even if it was watered down to a school playground activity and not true combat training.

 Economic and Practical Influences 

Many in the martial arts believe that learning any form of combat is a valid form of physical education and as such should be taught in schools as part of the national curriculum but the true starting point to that way of thinking was not a wide held shared idea by everyone at the time until a combination of two things came about.

In those early days the only viable option when it came to holding martial arts classes was to hire a community hall or some other type of venue.  Those who owned buildings with floor space, such as a community centre, would be able to rent out the room or hall and help raise money from doing so and the instructors only needed to hire such floor space as and when needed without any additional costs as it was very much a ‘hire when needed’ situation so both parties gained mutual benefit from such an arrangement.

However as the years went by and hire fees went up it was more cost effective to rent a full time place of their own and put things more on a permanent business level basis, which in turn meant instructors could hold additional classes throughout the week and of course install training equipment as a more permanent feature in addition to their classes.

One other way of finding a venue for such classes was to also hire floor space in a school hall for example and in doing so attract children from that school to attend. It was also at that point in time that the martial arts had become noticeably less popular compared to its heyday and attracting children to take part in classes to replace the adults that were leaving became a necessity to a degree.

 Given the choice or not?

Combining both recruiting children and hiring school halls together resulted, at least in part, in many martial arts instructors wanting to see the martial arts being part of mainstream school activities on a permanent basis for various reasons – not least of which was having children forced to attend and the parents forced to pay for such tuition regardless if they wanted to or not.  Was it any surprise therefore that the term ‘money making scam’ came about at that time? I say forced to pay and forced to attend because even if instructors truly believed in the benefits of children learning the martial arts in schools it still came down to an enforced situation.

Anyway from that point on many instructors believed that making children learn the martial arts as part of a school education system would help to instil both discipline and a form of education alongside all the other things children were being taught in schools at the time.

Those in favour of having the study and practice of the martial arts in schools would say that to enforce such a thing would be of great value and character building for young children and it would be no different to making children take part in such sports as Football, Cricket, Rugby and various other sport based activities and that the sport side of the fighting arts would be no different in that way.

However although there are those who think forcing young children to take part in the martial arts regardless as to if they want to or not failed to realise that just in the same way that trying to unify all the various martial arts would never work so it is the same thing when it comes to having a governing body to cover the teaching of the martial arts as part of any mainstream school system.

Again I ask the question – Who would be best to take control of such a thing in schools?

 Who should should be governing?

Should it be controlled by Taekwondo organisations, or maybe controlled by Kung Fu associations for example?  Maybe the entire project should be up for grabs and only a select few instructors should be given the job and make money out of it?  Or maybe the school governing officials should take on that job even though they have no understanding of the martial arts or training in such things?  But it does not end there.

Who and how would you select a martial art teacher to teach such a thing to children under the initial or main control of the education authority?  With martial art politics being a problem at times between various associations and some individuals forever moaning about bogus teachers I am sure if some instructors over others got the permanent full time job of teaching the martial arts in schools there would bound to be protests at times to add to it all.  And I am also sure such protests would never go away.

The problems involved in trying to achieve such a thing would be a very big and complex issue and the problem of people trying to cash in on such a setup would also be something of an unavoidable big problem.

Before even going into the various technical problems involved in teaching children the martial arts, as a form of mandatory thing in schools, the first thing to look at is the children and parents themselves when it comes to enforcing such a thing.

 Personal experince

To explain that specific situation I would have to go way, way back to my school days when sporting activities such as playing football, rugby, cricket and other forms of physical education was a mandatory thing in schools regardless if a child wanted to take part or not.

Any form of physical education is of course very much needed in helping to keep a child fit and healthy but that did not mean that all children liked doing it.  In fact I myself was one of them.  I totally hated taking part in boring football and all those other events and would often do my best to get out of taking part.  Needless to say I was treated as a softy by the other children and even bullied into taking part by the physical education teachers.

Yes bullied – by teachers who thought it was in their right to bully me into taking part in what they regarded as the be all and end all of all things.  A situation that I often see with martial arts instructors to this very day who think if someone does not do the martial arts then they are missing out on some wonderful divine God like thing and must be forced to take part for their own good or be bullied or even punished if they dare to refuse.

That very same mentality is very much like religious extremists I find who think that if you do not follow their God you should be bullied into doing so or be punished and sent to hell for all of eternity.  Fine ok maybe that is a bit over the top – but such people do exist – yes?

The funny part of all of this was when some years later I met up with some of my old school teachers and fellow pupils from those school days and the look on their faces were priceless when they found out that not only was I a practitioner of the combat arts but I was also a teacher of it with black belts to my name.

​They really did have to take back all those comments and bullying ways against me for not wanting to take part in boring sports when they realised I was not the softy they thought I was now that they could see that I was more than able to kick their butt having trained in the demanding art of combat and also gained respectable teacher expert status also.

For those who believe that forcing children to take part in any form of martial art will instil discipline truly need to realise that those with a natural disruptive nature and those who hate the idea of taking part in such an activity will simply not cooperate and just like myself, when it came to playing boring old football, they will do their best to get out of it.

 Ethics and Consent 

In addition to all of those things not all parents will want to see their children trained in the martial arts and I am sure they would also voice their objections and be very reluctant to co-operate unless forced to do so legally.

For those who say that children would not be made to learn, or use, kicks and punches or take part in any physical contact training in such classes until they reached a more mature age then why get them to take part at all? – why call it a martial art in fact when that side of it is not covered?  Without that side of things then it would not be a martial art at all but just another form of physical education that is already available in schools anyway.

There are many physical and educational activities to choose from within schools already that do the job just as well without the martial art industry trying to cash in on such things so why make it a forced thing to do?

Why not just stick with parents and children having the free option of taking part in such an activity and having school halls being rented out to martial art teachers as we do today without all those complicated problems – as mentioned already?  Should we force our beliefs and values on others when it comes to teaching children?  That is also a valid question you need to ask yourself.

Again I say that if the martial arts would only be limited in schools to non combat items, and the striking side of things were not involved for safety reasons, then would that be a true martial art or just another school playground type of event?

Yet another item to think about and for sure should be added to the list is the subject of teaching all children – even those who are bullies by nature.  Or will those individuals be exempt from taking part because they would use such training as an excuse to hit others? Martial art teachers are not social workers or trained as school teachers and when it comes to discipline that should always be the job of the parents.

 Conclusion: Keep It Voluntary 

When it comes to extremist religious values being taught in some schools to vulnerable child minds we would call it a dictatorship or a form of child abuse of sorts and we of course would protest at such things – so is that not the same thing when we try to enforce our values and beliefs on children in the same way because we believe that the martial arts, just like any religion, is the only important thing in the world and everyone should do it whether they like it or not?

Yes learning the martial arts is a form of education but should it be forced on young children or should it be an option that they themselves can look into when they are old enough to decide for themselves?

Written by Dave J Lomas

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