Comment to 'The Quandary of Advanced Adolescent Students' Post

The following is a comment from 'MB' to The Quandary of Advanced Adolescent Students Post:

How do you retain advanced adolescents?

By meeting their developmental needs.

I was one of the students in your teenager class. It was a wonderful experience and one that is still treasured and grieved. I am now a qualified teacher of adolescents and have studied adolescent development.

Adolescents (12-18) are in what Maria Montessori called the ‘third phase of development’. It’s a period of intense transformation and one that needs to be handled sensitively, with consideration paid to its particular needs. Some of the key focus areas for adolescent development: peers, justice, their place in society. On the last point, belonging is a core need for all of us, at all stages, but it’s particularly important to adolescents, who are taking their first steps in adult society and working out how they can fit into this new setting. As a result, the adolescent’s relationship with adults is very important (both for a sense of belonging and value and for a model of how to be an adult).

The teenager class met these needs:
• It was a space for us – belonging and a sense that we were valued enough to be given a place.
• It was a space where we were with peers – social interaction.
• It set us up to succeed, not to fail – justice in action.
• Our instructor built a strong and appropriate rapport with us (not a quasi-parental relationship nor a friendship) – relationship with adult.

For myself, I adored the school. I attended many other classes to develop my skills further, including adult classes. None of the other classes ever felt like my class in the way the teenager class did. I learned from them and enjoyed them, but always saw them as extras. In the adult classes, I didn’t see the other students as peers to build social relationships with, nor did they see me in that way (nor should they have!). I didn’t have a personal rapport with the instructor. I didn’t feel a sense of belonging in those classes; I only ever felt like a guest.

To retain adolescents, give them a place they can belong and succeed, one with peers and a supportive adult.

Thank you, MB, for your kind words and for your informative, informed, and authoritative analysis.

I too treasure and grieve the teenage class. I remember it fondly to this day.

The teenage class was conducted on Saturday mornings at 11am at the Jan de Jong Self Defence School (JDJSDS) hombu.

The teenage class was the only class in the JDJSDS dedicated to teenagers. 

It had the longest average retention rate of any class at the JDJSDS. I know that for a fact because as part of the successful recovery strategy that I developed and implemented at the JDJSDS so that it didn't close (which was Jan de Jong's (JDJ) stated intention), I analysed the retention rates of the many classes conducted at the JDJSDS. 

The teenage class had siblings as members. It also had children of former JDJ instructors and highly graded former members. Those former instructors and highly graded members' children were following in their parent's footsteps, and the parents were engaged and proud to share their kids journey with them. 

I treasure the teenage class because of the culture that we developed together. 

I treasure the teenage class because they were a good bunch of kids. Respectful without respect being demanded. Hard working without being forced to work hard. Enjoying the class and having fun at the same time as working on their craft. Not above giving a bit of cheek (testing their limits) but never crossing the line. 

They were not automons. They did not adopt an unquestioning attitude to their studies/training, which is unfortunately a dominant attitude in the JDJ tradition, as it is in most martial arts. I encouraged them to think about what they were doing and what they were being taught, and to challenge it if it did not make sense or went against principles that were being ingrained. I welcomed their questioning my teaching as it made me a better teacher and jujutsuka.

This is, unfortunately, a common problem in the martial arts. Discipline and respect are often touted as being benefits of martial arts training and as part of martial arts culture. What that most often means is, do not question what is being taught. Adopt an unquestioning attitude to what is being taught. Adopt an unquestioning attitude to what is being taught as the instructor adopted an unquestioning attitude when they were being taught.

It should be noted that not only were all of the members of the teenage class proficient jujutsuka, some were also quite extraordinary, and many went on to tertiary education and successful careers, as MB exemplifies. 

I am proud of them all, as jujutsuka and as people. Intelligent, thinking people who were proficient jujutsuka. 

It should be noted that the class was probably evenly split between males and females, with the females being the equal, if not the better, of the jujutsuka in terms of performance and attitude. When I say attitude, I mean an attitude to stand firm against physical and societal challenges.

It was a privilege to be engaged with those teenagers in that class for that period of time.

I too grieve the teenage class.

I grieve the teenage class because it was immediately disbanded by 'administration' (so as not to name names) when I underwent surgery on one shoulder and then the next along with lengthy recovery and rehabilitation. Within six months, all of the long-standing members of the teenage class were no longer members of the JDJSDS.

Why did the 'administration' terminate the teenage class? Two reasons. First, shortsightedness and ignorance. Second, enmity.

The members of the teenage class were becoming advanced students in terms of their qualifications. Many were green belts and were about to work on their orange belts. An influential member of the administration decided that as they were relatively higher graded, they should be attending adult classes, even though they did not have adult bodies.

It is a quandary. What do you do with advanced adolescent students? Here's an answer. Why not let them continue in the class dedicated to teenagers. They will soon enough be older and physically more mature that they could train in adult classes, or their training partners are adults themselves. The higher grades from ikkyu to shodan will slow them down, as it slows down adults, so that there would not be black belts who had never trained with adults (as there are in some martial arts).

A generation of dedicated JDJ jujutsuka were lost because of a shortsighted, ignorant action that was also driven by enmity. A generation of future instructors. A generation who would then go on to have children of their own who they would introduce to the JDJSDS or whatever ryuha that sprung up from the demise of the JDJSDS after JDJ passed away. Lost, because of a shortsighted, ignorant action that was also driven by enmity.

As mentioned above, JDJ was intending to close the JDJSDS because it was losing money for years. This action caused a cohort of long-term students who had paid thousands of dollars in fees and purchases over the years and would have continued to do so to abandon the school/business. What harm would it have been to allow the class to continue as is, and thereby reap the financial benefits at a time when the business was losing money hand-over-fist?

The enmity? That's a story for another time. 

In sharing this story, I hope that the JDJ ryuha take heed and support adolescents. To paraphrase Morgan Feeman's character is Shawshank Redemption: 'I hope the principals and teachers of JDJ ryuha think about their students rather than themselves. I hope the principals and teachers of JDJ ryuha apply the principal of ju to their teaching of adolescents. I hope the principals and teachers of JDJ ryuha think. I hope.'