One of the things Bernie Lau told me was “Anyone is capable of anything at anytime.” This was told to him by a sergeant in the Seattle Police Academy when he was a recruit. Given the behaviors we see in leaders in all walks of life, it’s a very true statement. I’ve kept that in mind over the years, it helps keep me from being surprised very often.
One of the things tied to the above idea that I consider important is who gets in the dojo. A lot of things about problem students are very clear in retrospect, but no one had taken the time to connect the dots and see more of the picture.
All too often this is due to the attitude of people in charge of a dojo. There is no thought as to who gets in and who doesn’t, and leads to problems in the dojo. I guess if you look at this from the point of view of “Another student! Yea!! It’s getting easier to make the rent!” it is understandable. Add in the misguided belief that martial arts is about helping people, and you get a messy situation happening all to often.
But my perspective was and is to create a place where the group reinforces the learning process and social aspects of who fits with the group. This doesn’t mean there are not arguments and bickering, it means those involved in an argument get over it quickly and get back to practice.
Towards this end, to filter out those who potentially could be problem students, I do a background check by making use of the wonderful tool called the internet. I check the social networking websites, newspaper article archives, and make use of searches with government public information records.
What’s the point of this? Well, the steps of this background check process tells me:
Social networking – What someone’s interests are outside martial arts. This is a strong tool to see if the potential student will match up with your dojo and class. I’m leaving out a whole lot of detail here. Think about how you are presented online in your own social networking pages. Wonder why you didn’t get me to respond to your inquiry about joining the dojo? Maybe your Myspace page with links to Bondage and Sadomasochism groups had something to do with that. Don’t laugh, I'm not kidding.
Newspaper Article Archives – If someone made the news for good deeds and community work, I want to know that. If they did something really stupid or criminal, I want to know that too.
Government public information records – Criminal and court records are public. This gives me a good idea of habitual behaviors and any actual convictions. While a conviction won’t necessarily cause me to turn someone away, it depends on the individual and the incident.
This last search method is also not free in many cases. So if you are a teacher, be prepared to spend some money when you vet your potential students. Usually, by the time I get to spending more than $20 on a search, it’s pretty apparent the student probably won’t be worth taking in anyway
Is it worth it? I believe so. I’ve seen one or two immature students destroy a whole dojo in more than one instance. Usually, the instructor either ignored the problems, or coddled the problem student thinking they were helping. By doing so, they drove away the majority of other students or caused the dojo to fragment into factions. By comparison, spending $10-$20 for this background check is cheap when contrasted to what one bad student can do to drive out other students or to avoid potential harm inflicted on another student.
Lastly, I use my gut feeling from talking to the person and their reactions to me. This is probably as important as all the rest of the information I gather combined.
Why take the time to do this? Do you teach kids in your dojo? Have you got co-ed classes? Isn’t it your responsibility to provide a safe learning environment for your students? Isn’t the instructor responsible for controlling what happens in the dojo, both in terms of social and teaching concerns? To me, it’s simple. You take the responsibility or you risk possible harm to students. Want to get sued for neglect?
I can think of one dojo in CA where they kept a student around who was known to have issues with women since they felt it would help him get better. Of course, the two women who caught him peeking at them in the dressing room may have felt differently about the matter. I’m sure the third student he groped had stronger feelings on the topic. Want to know the reaction of the dojo leaders? “Oh, he’s been spoken to about the incidents, and he’s promised to not do it anymore.”
In the above instance, I would not have allowed the student in the dojo at all. The dojo is not a place of therapy. Training can be a vehicle to personal growth if done correctly, but therapy is best conducted someplace outside the dojo and not by the instructor. Ellis Amdur has written about this topic, do some reading on his writings about the dojo and why it's not for therapy and why we should be working on ikkyo.
All this is done to help me get a better idea of whether a student may be a problem or not. I may have turned away potentially good students. I’ve let in a couple who just turned out to be a bad fit in personality for the class. So I’ve been wrong, I will be wrong again I’m sure. I simply do the best I can to make sure I’m not wrong often.
What I can tell you is by vetting who gets in the dojo as best as I can, we have no petty personality issues despite a very broad social dynamic. Students know the reason they are in class is to practice, and drink cold beers and Irish or Scotch whisky after class. I don’t know of very many other groups that can say the same without some sort of filtering system as to who is allowed in the dojo and having that reinforced by the entire group.
Oh, and you do realize this filtering of potential students will limit the size of your dojo don’t you? And it will cut down the rank and testing fees you collect and the mandatory seminar attendance income as well. Balance who you let into your dojo against your dojo needs and good luck.
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