I have work in ITF (CHINA) Beijing branch for two months, and I am very happy to work in Phoenix Martial Arts Association (club) in Beijing. I obtained the greatest supports from Secretary-General, Mr. Han. My placement role has changed from an instructor to Manager, Chief Coach and decision maker for some activities because I presented many creative ideas in training and promotion. I have to say this is a significant opportunity for me to understand Taekwondo industry and development of ‘Interest education’. And I discovered an important problem under ‘Interest Education’ environment in China that children usually cannot select their interest independently. So, Mr. Han makes much account of my research project and provide me much introduction of current situations, policy and parents’ thinking.
I found most of ‘interest education’ institutes do not really respect children’s interest. They usually induce parents think their ‘interest’ is useful for children in the future so that parents may apply this one and pay money because education has been commercial for independent institutes. And ‘interest education’ in school (Free) has two main parts, one is elective course for student as an assessment relating to their pass exam. The other is interest activities that students select their favorite activities to enrich their lives. However, some parents still ‘HELP’ their children select interest because they think their selections are correct and good for their children. In China, the costs of children are the biggest price in a family. We also have some member clubs that only want to make money rather than educate children and young people seriously. I talked with Mr. Han, he pointed out most clubs did not follow the training objective and plan of ITF (CHINA) causing their students are easy to pass the grading because they can make more money. We cannot change this tendency because Taekwondo industry has changed to commodification in most social clubs of the world that likes a business, but we can practice our concepts and follow plan and training objective of ITF (CHINA) in our club. Therefore, we practice in Phoenix Martial Arts Association in Beijing to complete grading requirement, reinforce awareness education combining with our
training outline, reinforce eastern etiquette education and culture permeation etc. From reciting to understanding, from theory to practice. I wrote all detail in our private training outline, then we need to keep doing it and observe trainee and parents’ responses. If parents can understand our training, we will continue this training model.
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