Good afternoon.
Now the school has a two week break, I have a little more time to catch up on recent events. That being said, the Christmas period is always a relatively busy one for the schools; it is a time when we prepare for the next years tuition, events and other such activities. This always involves quite a degree of planning (indeed, among others, the teachers and I have a meeting on Christmas Eve). It is also a time when I like to reflect over the past year. It is quite hard to know where you are going if you don’t know where you are. And as I mentioned at recent speeches (particularly the Bromley School opening and the Graduation) I have a feeling the new few years are going to be exciting ones...
Today I would like to write further, as promised, about the recent examination. It is fair to say that each time the exams are getting progressively harder and the standards more exacting. This is not unexpected; in any profession you aim to learn from past experiences and the underlying theme of Chinese Wing Tsun over the centuries has always been one of development. (On a separate note it should be pointed out there is a fine line between development and corruption of ideals – a Wing Tsun master must be very strong and clear on this point).
The effect of improved standards is that it necessitates that not everyone will pass. While theoretically everyone can, the fallibility of human nature says that they do not. Despite apparent observations to the contrary, this is not a negative point. In fact, it is very much the opposite – it means that the standards are upheld. You should be extremely suspicious of any school where there is always a 100% success rate. Just check any reputable academic institute and you will see this is never the case (and I have also seen my Sifu fail students quite a number of times).
Of course I do not pass according to a set ‘quota’ – something which I have always held to be an unfair and inappropriate method almost universally. In fact, I am most happy if all the students pass (this time just under 85% were successful). But the key distinction is that I do not let personal wishes get in the way of professional levels. A master has to be very careful as the people he grades can sometimes be his own personal students. As there is no ‘separation of powers’ in a martial art school a Master must always be above the suspicion of bias. A Master must be able to pass people he does not like and fail students he does like where appropriate. Indeed, this time one of the students failed an advanced grade simply because this student was not able to show the required skills under pressure. As it happens this student has a good attitude, trains hard and has the requisite skills but if they cannot be shown when necessary then it is not enough to progress. Earlier this year I also failed a couple of my private students not once, but twice, because their skills were simply not up to the required standard (due, it has to be said, to laziness on their part).
The only downside of having high standards is that it generally takes rather longer. As I mentioned in an earlier post the last grading lasted over 9 hours, starting at 4pm and finishing in the early hours of the morning. This was not by choice (one of the senior students who was not grading asked me when it was going to finish and I said I wanted to be home in time for dinner!) but I only ever finish an exam when I am satisfied that everything that needs to be examined has been examined. It should also be said that the students were on their feet for at least 6 hours of this, with the seniors standing for the whole time.
To put this in perspective, I have heard quite a few times of ‘idle boasts’ by schools stating their exams took place over 2 days and 8 hours of training (and when I trained Western Wing Tsun this was, alas, the norm). However, the reality is that the students attended a seminar and were given their grades with little or no examinations. If there was an exam, it is certainly rare that an exam lasts longer than 20 minutes. By contrast our exam took place at the end of a 5 day seminar where over 18 hours of training had already taken break – to say that it was intense is an understatement. Please know I don’t say this to glorify the school or the students but as an illustration of an important point. People should be aware that a level easily obtained is not worth the paper it is written on. It is what you do to achieve it that counts – not the fact that you have it...
Sifu