All of our lives we have been attending schools, and from grade school to college we have been learning and rarely taking thought of the process to get us to graduation or a degree. However, teachers go to great lengths to develop curriculum for students and to also figure out how to get each unique student to the desired goal.
As a martial arts business, Capoeira Academy Okinawa believes that the curriculum is the core navigational tool of any martial arts academy, or at least it should be. A person that is looking for a school should question any school that does not have a professional curriculum, and here is why...
No Plan? Then how do you know when you have Arrived?
The most obvious reason that martial arts curriculum is needed is that it plans out the process for teachers, students and parents from start to several goal points. Of course knowing what the material is, is only half of the journey to such goals, the other half is being able to apply them as needed. The curriculum should serve as a road map to success.
Students know where they are in the Journey.
Everyone wants to know how far they are along, whether they ask or not. So, we do our best to make it as transparent as possible. Again students need to know and be able to apply their material. More importantly students who miss classes for one reason or another, know exactly what they missed on certain dates. When they know they missed it, they know that they are still accountable to learn the material.
Students have a Standard to Follow.
At Capoeira Academy Okinawa adults and youth have the same testing requirements... Know your stuff! When it comes to testing time, or it comes to parents wondering why their child has not moved up, it is very easy to show them, per the curriculum what a certain student is lacking or exceeding in. This cuts out the subjectivity of giving belts before they are deserved or to keep students enrolled as some schools do. As instructors we must WANT to produce quality students, and sometimes that means letting people quit, who want someone to hand them rank just because they showed up to class. That is the wrong approach, because students should be promoted because they progressed.
So, as you go forth and conquer as a martial arts teacher and school, remember that your curriculum is one of the most vital tools you can have to reach greater and greater success. Make it, use it, implement it, follow it, hold yourself and others to it.
v/r
Benjamin "Sensei" Moriniere
Capoeira Academy Okinawa
Capoeira - Ladies Only Kickboxing - Yudansha MMA
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