Once a student passes brown belt, they will be addressed by everyone at the dojo with the honorific "Mr." or "Ms."
What a lovely way of giving ongoing recognition of maturity and responsibility at a stage when it might be all too easy for them to focus on the black belt that they don't have yet.
Our children spent several teenage summers working through the ranks on a tall ship training crew. It was wonderful to see them refer to their 17yo senior officers as Mr. and Ms. completely seriously, whether or not they were on duty. There were several of these young men and women whose first names I could never remember, since our kids always talked of them as Mr. X.
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Date: 2006-10-26 03:04 am (UTC)What a lovely way of giving ongoing recognition of maturity and responsibility at a stage when it might be all too easy for them to focus on the black belt that they don't have yet.
Our children spent several teenage summers working through the ranks on a tall ship training crew. It was wonderful to see them refer to their 17yo senior officers as Mr. and Ms. completely seriously, whether or not they were on duty. There were several of these young men and women whose first names I could never remember, since our kids always talked of them as Mr. X.