By Bridget Sautel, 3rd dan
There are many aspects of CTI Taekwondo that relate to a child’s success throughout their schooling. CTI Taekwondo teaches respect, social skills, self-directed learning, confidence, and most importantly a huge part of martial arts is the educational aspect. All of these characteristics that CTI Taekwondo teaches to children contribute to their success and help motivate them to want to do better in school and become more educated.
Respect is one of the main components that martial arts teaches to all students. From the very first class, students learn to respect adults, fellow students, and themselves. This respect that they learn leads into the respect they will have when interacting with teachers at school, classmates, parents, and just in life in general. The respect they learn goes all the way from answering their instructors respectfully, and knowing how to control themselves, to being able to respect their bodies and abilities. Being able to learn how to respect your own self, has to be done before a person can respect others. Knowing and learning respect in life will take a child a lot farther in school and one day in a career.
Another main aspect that CTI Taekwondo instills in students is social skills. Children will learn how to communicate with people, including adults, which a lot of kids are not able to do. In the world today, electronics have become such a big part of daily life and communication that a lot of kids don’t know how to effectively interact with kids their age, and most importantly adults. They will also learn how to be more confident in talking with fellow classmates and making friends in a new grade, or at a new school. In daily classes at the CTI, students have to work with one another physically and mentally, so social skills are put into practice every class. Training will also teach them social skills to be used out in the everyday world, from going to school, to one day finding a good job. If kids are able to talk to adults and make friends, there school life will be much easier and they will get much more out of it. These skills will help throughout daily life and reinforce children with a positive outlook on how to communicate and interact with people they need to.
Self-directed learning is one of aspects that can’t be learned in many other places other than at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute. These skills are demonstrated daily by instructors and other students and are so beneficial to other parts of daily life. Once a child is able to become a self-directed learner, they begin to want to learn things on their own, and not just because they have to or someone tells them to. They are able to ask educated questions about what they are learning in school, and are then able to progress farther not only because of asking questions but because they are asking the right questions. Being able to practice what they learn, from the CTI or school, at home is another huge part of self-directed learning. Instead of just learning new things physically and mentally, and then forgetting them, if they actually want to learn it and remember it for themselves then they will take the time to practice and work on it. Once children learn how to do this on their own, they are set to be successful in whatever they want to do in life. At the CTI, there are many physical parts, along with mental, that children are able to take home, practice, memorize, and bring back to class that really enhance their self-directed learning. Once they are able to learn how to do this and have the hunger to learn on their own, they can bring the same thing over to school and learn even better.
Confidence is a trait that brings a lot of people to start classes and stick with it. It takes a lot of courage and confidence to start something new or even try something out. Through tournaments and daily classes, children are taught to be confident in whatever they do and bring this confidence to every day events in life. This goes from trying out new sports, talking to new people, to making new friends, and one day being confident enough in an important job interview. This confidence also leads to having good self-esteem and being able to respect yourself and other people in daily life and events that come up. Confidence in martial arts techniques is built through interacting with others, competing in tournaments, and to be confident in being able to get to black belt and progress with courage. This confidence will eventually lead to building a great leader that can be a good role model and example to younger kids, or even adults, believe it or not.
Lastly, education is a very important aspect that sets our Colorado Taekwondo Institute apart from others. Not only do students learn physical parts of martial arts, but there are so many educational and mental parts they are required to learn. This includes monthly “homework’s” that each have a different subject each month, such as modesty or good deeds. This helps incorporate learning to write, critical thinking, and also acting upon these behaviors in daily life. This will lead into their schooling and help with school work, learning, and writing on that end of things. A lot of our higher instructors and black belt also have teaching degrees and are school teachers, who know the importance of education tied in with the physical Taekwondo part. For each belt test there is a physical part, along with a written test. This helps them learn the history of Taekwondo, the rules, how to write better, and more about the physical aspects. A huge part of this includes memorization skills, not only with memorizing the material for the written tests, but mostly the physical moves. There are many physical moves, and groups of movements that need to be memorized. All of this expands their potential for learning and memorizing school subjects, and will later lead into success in their careers as leaders.
Respect, social skills, self-directed learning, confidence, and education are all an immense part of what we teach at the CTI that will be a huge part in a child’s success in school all the way from pre-school through college. It will make them a better person all around, and build the self-esteem and leadership that every person needs to be successful.
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