There is a popular movie and television series dealing with the martial arts or more specifically karate. The name of the series is Cobra Kai. It is basically about two different schools of thought on how to teach karate to students. For the most part it deals with differing worldviews. One school taught a nonaggressive approach to dealing with situations while the other promoted an aggressive response to any given situation. Truthfully, the situation defines the response, but these two conflicting philosophies locked the student’s point of view into to only one avenue and stopped any free though on the part of the student.

Worldview is how one sees the world around them. Some people seek to change the world to fit their esoteric idea of how life should be, while others see life in a more realistic and pragmatic light. Still others see a world where everything in life as a conflict. Most people contain a little of all three of these possibilities. Why, you might ask, is this pertinent to karate training? These worldviews can and do create conflict. If you’re a fan of the Cobra Kai television program, you’ve seen that this differing philosophy can have severe repercussions. I know you’re thinking that this is simply a contrived fantasy for television, but unfortunately worldviews have crept into the real-world dojo. Parents need to know a sensei’s worldview before turning their child over to a person that will unintentionally or intentionally teach them a worldview contrary to the parents. Any parent of a five-year-old knows that more is caught than taught.  They will regurgitate something the came out of the parent’s mouth usually at the most inopportune times. No mater how benign the thought, because of the position of authority held by the adult, the idea is planted and with cultivation turns into a child’s worldview. Parents should not simply drop off their child, at class, but stay and watch the instruction until they know and are comfortable with sensei’s (teacher’s) worldview. A sensei’s influence can be greater than you think.

Recently, parents have learned about public school teachers introducing their sexual, political, and environmental preadjusts into the classroom of very young students. These philosophies, in many cases, conflicted with those held by the parents of these young students. I acknowledge that I am from an older generation, but when I went to school the only thing, I knew about my teacher’s sex life, was that they may or may not be married only because all teachers were addressed by Mrs., Miss, or Mr. Had I the boldness to inquire, I would have been told curtly that the matter was personal and none of my business. Teachers were respected and their life was private. They did not promote political parties or ideologies understanding that families may have differing opinions on political candidates and the hot topic issues of the day. Teachers were employed to teach skills that would make the student a valuable member of society and necessary to help them succeed in life. They were not paid to indoctrinate children into whatever belief they held. This is purely an abuse of authority. An authority entrusted to them by the parents of their students.

Well, lets bring this back into the dojo. In the eighties my main karate instructor was a psychologist by profession. The school was secular leaning by the standards of the time. We did not discuss political leanings or religious beliefs. During all those years, the only reference made to personal beliefs was made by a fifth-dan, during a training seminar, and he said, “I like training students with a religious background because I don’t have to worry about them abusing the training, they receive from me.”  He had a worldview but did not bring it into the class. Still, on numerous occasions I caught my main instructor, using his training as a psychologist, in his everyday karate instruction. You may ask is this a problem? Not for me because he was doing it in an effort to help the student it was directed towards. It was not done maliciously. It was done in the worldview of the instructor to benefit his student, but there are people that do not like being manipulated in this manner and find it intrusive. Some probably found it an intrusion into their privacy. My instructor never applied his trade on children during karate class even though his field of expertise was children and a few of the students were also patients. With all his training, he could not resist the temptation to help adult students in distress.

Parents need to know the worldview of their karate instructor. Most schools today are secular, but the teacher always has some ingrained ideology, and they may unintentionally bring it into the classroom. A karate instructor raised in a dysfunctional violent environment will bring his/her life experiences into the training. I am a Christian and will freely admit that my faith impacts the karate philosophy I teach. Those with no religious or ethical background have no objection, for the right price, to teach dangerous techniques to anyone that can pony up the monthly dues. Other instructors believe they have a responsibility to weed-out the students that enter the dojo with an intent on learning how to better harm others.  Some instructors believe they can, through the miracle of karate, change an undesirable student into a solid citizen. They fail more times than they succeed. There are Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Mormon, and Buddhist karate instructors. Parents know if the karate instructor’s faith differs with yours. There are karate programs that are more like cults than a karate organization. Beware of these charismatic teachers. Parents know your karate instructors worldview.

We need to make one thing abundantly clear. Karate has nothing to do with eastern religion. Too many Americans watched the television program Kung Fu and their assumptions about the martial arts is based upon that experience. Karate is more akin to automotive repair than religion. It is a skill. If Christians bring their worldview into the workplace does that make car repair part of western religion?  When karate was developed by Kanga “Tode” Sakugawa, he blended Okinawan indigenous fighting skills with those he studied in China to create “Te” later renamed karate in the 1930s for political reasons. Karate was created because Sakugawa’s father was killed by bandits. It was designed for life preservation or self-defense. It was taught to the Okinawan Imperial Guards so they could stop bad guys and not as some spiritual growth experiment.  Personal belief and self-help were introduced by karate instructors that believed that karate would become useless as man became more civilized. Wow… did they get that wrong. Mankind is and will always be mankind. We are unfortunately governed by emotion and not logic. We lash out to hurt others to ease our pain or inflict pain on others for personal gain. The need for personal self-defense seems to be growing as we arguably become more civilized. Karate instructors must remove their fortune cookie philosophies from their training. They need to focus on teaching life preservation skills and not their worldview, because their students can be injured if they cannot defend themselves. Your duty as a karate instructor is not to teach self-realization but to teach self-protection.

Parents research to see if the product being taught in your local karate class is reputable. Anyone can buy a black-belt at the local martial arts store along with an assortment of weapons, books, and uniforms. Parents do your research. Do not trust strangers with your children. Know the worldview of anyone associated with your child’s education.