Kendo as a High School subject outside Japan

[ichibyoshi]

This is one for Dr Svinth, or anyone else with a long memory...

I have recently been given the go-ahead to run a kendo elective as part of the school curriculum at the high school where I teach in Melbourne. I was wondering whether there was much of a precendent for this in other countries outside Japan.

How many non-Japanese high schools have offered kendo as a subject?

My guess is not many but I'm interested to know the history of this.

Also, how many high schools have offered other JMA as official subjects? Not only as clubs, but actually part of the daytime curriculum? I'd imagine that judo and karate would be slightly more common but perhaps not. I'd also imagine there would be "waves" where such things go in and out of favour with educational authorities.

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[EldritchKnight]

I remember that one of the high schools in my area when I was living in Seattle, WA offered karate as part of the gym curriculum. We even studied Japan in social studies (I was in 7th grade at the time). I was living in a predominantly Japanese neighborhood, so it wasn't all that out of the ordinary.

[Joseph Svinth]

The Kent school district, south of Seattle, has offered judo as a high school program (both varsity and intramural) since November 1955.

I'm not aware of anybody in North America who offers kendo, though.

[nicojo]

What about language schools? Not exactly public high schools, but there might be an interesting bit of info in some out-of-country Japanese language schools that may have offered MA and other types of "cultural awareness" things in their curriculum.

Might turn up some good names and stories in various communities that way. I suppose it's all what you are looking for.

[Joseph Svinth]

Pre-WWII, Japanese language schools were one of the primary places you found judo and kendo instruction, and the instructors were often language-school teachers. After WWII, this dried up in the USA and Canada, but I'd guess that it remained standard enough in Brazil.

[powerof0ne]

The Kent school district, south of Seattle, has offered judo as a high school program (both varsity and intramural) since November 1955.

I'm not aware of anybody in North America who offers kendo, though.

I've been told for whatever reasons(s) that the Judo club at Kentwood HS has gone downhill by HS students there. A Muay Thai student of mine who only had a little bit of experience in jr. high wrestling experience at the time tapped out a couple of brown belts there. Many of the Judo students in the club get teased by the "jocks"...more so than the JROTC students which is shocking. When I was a student at Kentridge in '97 the Judo club was awesome so I don't know why exactly it's gone downhill?

[ichibyoshi]

Thanks to all for your input.

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[ichibyoshi]

FWIW I thought a progress report might interest some people.

So far the class is going well. We have had two 1.5 hour trainings and three 45 minute periods in class looking at things like language, culture and philosophy (last class we did calligraphy where all the students painted their own joseki, which we will use in rotation in the dojo each fortnight). All have tried on hakama and kendogi. The class is already learning the basics of kirikaeshi, as that will be the major part of the demo they will put on before the whole school later in the year. And last week they got to do men uchi on the four visiting sempai who were in full bogu. This was a highlight for most.

Some are really keen and are interested in finding out more. Most are still in wait-and-see mode (I always have the line "here we are now, entertain us" come into my head when I think about this class!). With only 1 "prac" class every fortnight though, they're not being swamped with new stimuli. I'm hoping that the less engaged will find something to latch onto over the coming weeks.

Still working on building 'critical mass'. I believe that as kendo becomes more and more a part of the school culture, kids will start to select themselves into the class and bring the motivation with them on day one. The journey continues...

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[ichibyoshi]

Kendo will be continuing next year at my school. The even better news is that it will be continuing into year 9 as well, with double the time allotment: year 8's have 3 periods/fortnight, year 9's 3 periods/week! That means keiko in the dojo every week! I'm sourcing new dogi for the class at the moment, but we have enough dogi and bogu to be going on with. The school also put its money where its mouth is by funding the purchase of 25 new shinai!

I've been conscious of the need to promote the subject within the school, and so with the end of the school year upon us, I've been running introductory workshops, demos and video presentations with the current cohort of year 7 and 8 students. Finally there is a "buzz" starting to develop in the school, and all the students now know me as "that kendo man".

The best of the first group of students have now worn full bogu on a couple of occasions. I hope they will chose kendo next year and take it further.

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[John Seavitt]

Kendo will be continuing next year at my school ...

You know, I didn't notice this thread in the past, but there is Keio Academy of New York, a high school program run by the folks at Keio University in Japan. They have Japanese kids who live on campus, complete their schooling, and get exposed to American culture. They have a serious kendo program; there are plenty of Keio University kendo club alumni in the nearby Manhattan area. Anyway, I'm pretty sure they have a web site, and I imagine they'd be in a position to be helpful (if you are still looking).

John

[ichibyoshi]

Thanks for the info John. I'll check it out.

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[hayakawa]

I was having a late-night chat with one of my kendo friends when I asked him what he thought might be a good way to get more people interested in Kendo in our area. He responded "The gold mine is in the schools".

I had to agree that yes, schools can be a great source of students, but with the politically-correct climate we seem to have in our schools, I don't think Kendo would go over well with the administration. The kids would probably love it though.

An example - at a local YMCA location where Karate and Jiu-jitsu is taught, I asked one of the administrators if they would consider allowing me to teach Kendo if there was interest. He wasn't familiar with Kendo, but as soon as he heard it was Japanese swordsmanship, he immediately replied it wouldn't be acceptable.

Why?

Because a sword is used for killing people. Karate and Jiu-Jitsu are just "self-defense" techniques. Hmm. Someone doesn't know much about those arts...

Another factor that comes into play at schools is the ban on real or replica weapons. Just try sneaking a dozen bokuto through the door...

Trying to explain to school administration that hitting a student on the head with proper form is symbolically killing them isn't likely to go over either.

I can't think of an easy way around this, so I'm very interested to know how you were able to get your school to agree to allow Kendo as part of the curriculum. Perhaps our school system is too paranoid to allow something beneficial like Kendo to be taught. Shame, really.

Looking forward to your next "blog" entry

Best Regards,

Mark Kawabe

[ichibyoshi]

Thanks for your response Mark. It makes me realise that I am very lucky to be teaching in a school that is as open-minded and adventurous as Brunswick Secondary College. I had no need to convince the principals of the school. In fact I think I was hired because I had the potential to offer their students something different.

All the scenarios you describe that might be hurdles to getting kendo in schools are sadly true. Interestingly, kendo had a hard time getting federal gov't recognition in Australia in the 1980s because gov't bureaucrats heard the words "Japanese sword" and immediately thought of Aussie POWs being beheaded in WWII. And this only 20 years ago. We've come a long way.

I find it's not so much "political correctness" but the cultures of "OHS" (occupational health and safety), personal injury litigation, and the intense public scrutiny of teachers in this country at least, that are possible threats to this program. Interestingly kendo is an easier thing to teach than karate, judo or aikido in this respect, since there is no close physical contact required between teacher and student.

Although it's still early days, I'd be wary of saying there is a potentially massive untapped source of students for kendo out there in schools. Sure you and I both know the benefits kendo could bring to kids in terms of self-respect, self-discipline, fitness, etc, etc. But after one year I'm not sure whether kendo's for everyone. It might not even be for 10% of everyone. Because I also run a private kendo dojo for children, I am in a good position to compare the motivation and performance of students who go out of their way to do kendo, as opposed to those who can chose it easily from their school curriculum. Needless to say the former group are streets ahead in both areas. Kids enjoy it for sure, but a lot (i.e. those who just picked it up one day for a laugh) are put off when they find how much structure and etiquette are required. They basically want to learn to fight like "in the movies" (and I don't mean Kurosawa movies!) and hit people for real. Few are willing to set aside their primitive urges and follow the sensei. Few have any respect for the idea of sensei.It's more often the bookish types that respond to kendo because it fits in with their personal, romantic universe or their literary-derived notions of chivalry. The overtly physical, aggressive ones don't have the patience to learn techniques, usually because they don't understand how fighting can HAVE any techniques. It's just sumfing y' do innit? (Interestingly, one of my kendo friends said a recent kendo mag in Japan had an article on teaching kendo to so-called 'delinquents' in that country and what a success it had been. If you are a Japanese speaker, you might be able to find out more.)

However it might well end up that after a few years of kendo at BSC, the culture and awareness of kendo might grow to the point where kids chose kendo as something they know, understand, and want to excel at. This is my dream! Time will tell.

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[ichibyoshi]

Quick update:

The year 9/10 class is going really well. Their level of interest and concentration is far above the year 8s. Having said that, this year's year 8s are much more ehgaged than last years. They are also suffering from a lack of dojo space, as the only available gym space in the area is being taken up by the bloody Commonwealth Games. So we'll be doing kendo outside on the oval for the rest of this term it seems.

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[ichibyoshi]

Just giving this a bump to mention that I have just published an article on my teaching experiences in the school in the latest edition (June 2008) of Kendo World magazine.

So far Brunswick Secondary College in Australia and Summerlin College in the US are the only high schools I know of that teach kendo as a classroom subject outside Asia.

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