I was Right - Now What?
I was right about the approach: last night, the first thing I did was lay out the expectations. Testing is six weeks away, there are only five classes left after this one, this is what you need to know, we need to buckle down and work hard and be quiet while instructors are teaching and if we do, we'll have time for games at the end of class. I haven't seen a class do so well this semester. We even did line drills, which are the hardest thing for kids to do and not talk, and they were quiet. V showed up to teach last night (she's only really scheduled for Mondays), and I thought it was a great opportunity to point out the difference in results. But when I talked to her about it, she said "Oh? I wasn't paying attention." and pretty much dismissed me.
Now I've had "issues" with V. in the past - she wears her sleeves rolled up, which is not the proper way to wear a uniform, and she was dismissive of me when I mentioned it. While that rankled me, I mentioned it to the head instructor and let it go, because I didn't feel it was worth pursuing. But yesterday I ran into a parent of a couple of the kids - long time participants and really good kids - and she expressed her concern to me as well, because the boys want to quit because they don't like her. That reinforced my impression that V. relies too much on punishment and not enough on discipline, and that the kids aren't reacting well. These are my kids and I'm not going to let it go.
I think I'm going to try one more time to talk to her, and be a little less diplomatic in my approach. I don't have high hopes given my experience with her, but on the other hand, I didn't mention that a parent had talked to me, either. I want to fully make sure she understands the depth of my concern before I talk to either Norpel or Ashton. Wish me luck.
Edit: I realized I wanted to talk a bit more about my teaching philosophy in this post...I rely more than most on positive reinforcement. I try to offer compliments on a job well done as much as I do correction. I don't do a good job of remembering whom I've complimented and whom I've corrected, and I've been working on trying to make sure that each student gets a good balance of each, and not just the class as a whole. I try to notice when a student has improved - like last night I mentioned to Matt how much his front stances have improved, and he just glowed. I try to compliment when a student realizes he or she made a mistake and corrects it without prompting. I also say "I can tell you've been practicing that" - and the kid is proud because his or her hard work paid off, both in the form of improved techinque and recoginition of the time and effort. I know this works, because I see improvement, and I see other kids work harder and correct themselves when I offer a compliment to one of their classmates.
So when someone else comes in with the complete opposite teaching style - yelling and excessive pushups as punishment for not obeying her expectations that I don't think she's established appropriately for that particular age group - to the extent that kids want to quit after two of her classes...it just makes me sick to my stomach.
Labels: martial arts