About a year and a half ago I won a month of Tae Kwon Do. I was pretty excited and with as much as my son loved The Power Rangers, I figured he would love Tae Kwon Do. Which he does…as much as a 6 year old can love something. The teacher seemed really cool and I was upfront right from the beginning about my son having ADHD. I wanted to make sure this was something he could do when focusing on a task isn’t always his strong suit. The instructor assured me it was fine and we went ahead with it.
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I understand that Tae Kwon Do instructors are strict and demand respect from their students. I get that and I like that. However, when you know a child is ADHD in your class and you know that he may fidget or look away, do you sit there and repeatedly say his name over and over and over again like a broken record or do you just pick and choose when to say the child’s name? For me, I would totally pick and choose. You can still command respect without having to sound like a broken record. I try to avoid the classes where his medicine has completely worn off, but it’s not always possible.
Aside from all that, he picks on the kids who are “weaker” than others (my son included). One day he even said to a kid during stretch kicks (and basically stopped the whole class), “Really? That’s how high you’re going to kick? Really?”. What is the point of talking to a 6 year old like that, in front of the whole class? The only point I can see is to humiliate and essentially make fun.
Today was the last straw for me. My son was doing push-ups…which I will admit, they need some work…and the teacher stopped in front of him and said “come on Zack, bend your elbows. Your sister did better push-ups than you”. His sister who is 4 and in the class before him. So not cool. I was fuming. It took everything in me to not stand up and cause a scene. You don’t humiliate a child like that.
We are done with that place. We’ll stick it out until the 17th but after that, we’re out of there. Our son has been working hard on his form and graduation is on the 17th.
What do you think? Am I being too sensitive with this? My husband didn’t like the push-up comment, but he told me that coaches are tough and you should see how his football coach was in junior high and high school. But I’m sorry…I don’t care what sport it is or how old the child is…you don’t tear a child down.
I agree with you on this one! The teacher just seems to go over board. I would pull him out too if he were my son, he does not need to be made fun of at all! That just tells other kids its ok to make fun of others in my eyes.