Karate is an aid to justice

A wise man said, Karate is an aid to justice!  How so?

We’ll does he mean that we are going to go out as a vigilante force and right the ills and wrongs of an unjust society.  Hmmmm?  Not so fast Batman!  Yaaah, I’m Karate Man, stop what you are doing or I’ll karate chop you, Yaaaahh!  Is that what you mean sensei!  No. 

Karate can and does aid justice because it makes the weak, stronger.  Karate will help the child deal with the bully in the school yard, Lord knows that the schools don’t.  Yeah, I know, we have a no tolerance policy.  Isn’t that sweet!  Yep, you know what that means.  It simply means that we are not going to identify the wrong doer, we are going to cop out and throw out both parties even though the good kid cowered in fear and got beat to a pulp.  Oh, no that’s not what we mean.  We’ll that’s the result.  I’ve had young people tell me they saw kids curl up in a ball an take a beat down and they still got thrown out of school because we don’t tolerate any fighting.  Aren’t we wonderful. 

Parents, do you pay for braces and trips to the dentist just to have some bully knock your kid to the floor and kick his teeth out?  On top of that, the hospital bills that the knuckleheads family probably won’t pay unless you spend thousands in court fees, your child’s going to get thrown out of school, you are going to get a fine and the incident will go on your child’s record.  Then after the punishment the beaten kid endures he comes back to school to snickers and name calling and that’s just from his friends.  The bully will continue to bully and what do the professionals do.  Yep, nothing!!!  Now, your child starts having mental or social problems, so the school psychologist suggests that your child be put on medication or additional counseling (can we say $100 and hr.).  Sounds like karate’s cheap at twice the price!  At the end of all this we have a formerly good kid who is now a basket case.  He once was a good student but now his grades hit the bottom.  He thinks he’s nuts.  Why wouldn’t he, he goes to a psychologist twice a week.  Nice policy! 

What ever happened to punishing the kid that started it.  When I was a kid, there probably was a paddling in store for the attacker.  I’ll tell you the school professionals that wielded the paddles were very good at it.  Some of them took great pride in their skills.  It’s amazing how well it worked.  Anyone who went to school years ago know what I mean.  I only messed up one time!  Modern day professionals think we must have a no tolerance policy!!

I have a student that was a brown belt and a veteran of quite a few karate tournaments who was being bullied in school.  He was afraid to fight back because he wasn’t allowed to fight in school.  The bullying continued despite his parents visiting the principle.  The principle said that there was nothing he could do.  The bully made the mistake of having 2 friends help him one day.  The 3 kids surrounded my student and starting finger poking him and taunting him.  Well, he took all he could, he punched one kid, side kicked another and the third is probably still running.  Problem resolved?  Not as far as the principle was concern.  Now he wanted to do something about it.  He yelled at my student and explained that he knows his sensei wouldn’t approve of him fighting.  Let me see, you couldn’t do anything before it happened?  You weren’t there to help him when it happened but you know how I would counsel him?  Give me a break.  I think he should’ve run after the 3rd kid and thumped him too!  If you can’t and won’t do anything don’t yell at the good kid for protecting himself.  I had to counsel him because he was upset at getting in trouble at school.  I told him that I would be more than happy to come in and explain exactly what his sensei would expect him to do.  Funny, it never came to that.  I made him feel better that he wasn’t in trouble with me for protecting himself.  Situation resolved he didn’t get bullied by this kid again.

I’m going to continue to teach karate to good kids.  I tell them not to fight and then explain that they will know when to break that rule.  I teach my students how to be prepared for situations and make innocent looking responses that will be hard for the school professional to label as a strike or fighting.  I’m hardly going to give any secrets away here.  Sometimes you have to protect yourself.  Most people are bullied at some point.  We all know that bullies don’t grow up and go away, they just become adult bullies. 

Most of my students are good kids, good students, active in many school and social activities and many are A students.  I had 2 students leave me this year one is hoping to get into the Navy Seals and the other is in the Air Force Military Police and takes all sorts of advanced training.  Many times in training, he is the test subject.  The other students try to beat him in any fight based training.  One of my Black Belts from a few years ago went to college and now is in NYPD and is assigned to what they refer to as the most dangerous mile in NY.  My student also takes pride in the fact they in the Police Academy they had one cadet try to cuff my student.  He couldn’t do it.  They sent in a second to help and they still couldn’t cuff my student.  They sent in a third cadet to help and they finally got my student to the ground and cuffed.  Oh, did I mention the my student was a 115 lb. female.  She is tough!

I also have a no tolerance policy.  NO bullying!  Thank you very much!!

Can, Karate be an aid to justice?  Well what do you think? 

Written by:

Perry Culver 6th dan, Chief Instructor of Culver Karate Club in Connellsville, PA