Friend or Teacher
Just reading around the forum and I started thinking.
There are basically three schools of thought regarding
how to address your instructor:
1 Sensei
2 The highest title they have (Renshi, Kyoshi, Dai-Ni-Soke)
3 Just casually by their first name.
My question is as a society are we becoming more socially lax
or just don't care about showing respect.
For example I was taught to always address someone older than
me as Mr., Mrs. or whatever until they told me otherwise.
This is something I do till this day, Also I am reminded every time
I go down south that some people still use Sir and Ma'am (sp) for
someone they don't know.
I believe that using these titles bring some sort of "order" to things
a kind of "knowing your place" feeling like the saying goes,
“Familiarity breeds contempt”
I am reminded of what one of my instructors said:
“I am not your friend, I am your teacher” kind of falls in line
with the idea of being a parent to your kids and not their “friend”.
Basically what I’m asking is are we so eager to be everybody’s friend
that we sacrifice our roles as teachers and students?
Just a thought.
(Mods if this is in the wrong forum please move it to a more appropriate
place.)
Joe Stitz
"Black belt and white belt are the same, white belt is the beginning of technique. Black belt is the beginning of understanding. Both are beginner belts."
- Doug Perry -Hanshi, KuDan -Shorin Ryu ShorinKan