Moving On

[revena]

I just taught my last Saturday class at the YMCA. I took over that class time back when I was a freshman in college, when it was actually on Wednesday evenings. It was my first unsupervised teaching experience, and I started out with just a handful of white belts. Over the years, I built it up into a class covering white through blue belts, used it to train other good teachers, and learned so much myself that I was given the responsibility of two or three classes of my very own every week.

I'm really gonna miss it, and I'm furious at the Y for canceling our program, particularly with so little notice.

I'm not the only one. One of my students, a little girl who started with us a couple years ago, when she was about the same age I was back when I started training, gave me a copy of a letter she wrote, today:

Dear Lohse "Family" YMCA,
I am unhappy with you because you canceled karate. Why did you cancel karate? Karate was a great thing for the whole family! I was learning self-discipline, getting stronger and I was having fun. I was planning on becoming a black belt one day. Now that dream may never come true. I am very sad about that! I want you to know that you have disappointed a lot of kids and their families.

I love my students, and I care about their training, and about what they're getting from martial arts beyond the ability to do a few forms and break some boards. The YMCA, apparently, doesn't.

Hopefully, that shocking and disappointing indifference won't damage our school too much as we try to regroup and find a way to continue serving our students.

Comments

[enteryouruserid.livejournal.com]

What betacandy said!