Academic Skills
Articles of InterestThis is going to sound harsh to some… I was surfing a Martial Arts organization site (to remain unnamed) and came across this survey:
Hopefully you see what is wrong here… Percentages should add up to 100%, not more or less! I’m pretty sure what this program is doing wrong is showing the count for each and adding a percentage sign. Fairly easy mistake if you are not checking the output of the programs you are using. I draw attention to this because A) it is amusing (to me) and B) this is a problem I run into routinely in day to day interactions…problems with percentages. Percentages are a form of very basic math with we should all have mastery over. Percentages are a basic part of our daily lives (tests, sales, etc). Yet many of people have trouble calculating what 10% of something is without a calculator. This is embarrassing for the person and anyone around who knows how to make the calculation. So where am I going with this?…
The emphasis we put on education especially math has deteriorated mostly due to fear of math and dislike of math. Fear of math is typically founded in lack of understanding. Dislike of math is usually a product of bad teachers OR laziness. Harsh? Yes, but true, I know from experience. Our schools are failing us and our children. We as martial artists are failing our students as part of that education equation. Math is very much a part of the Martial Arts but it is typically ignored. When was the last time you or your instructor spoke to you of vectors or the weight of a portion of the exam? If that doesn’t make sense then you demonstrated my point!
What to do?! Well we can first start to demand some accountability of our teachers and school systems. I’m not talking ‘No Child Left Behind’ I mean checking the work of our teachers and schools. As Martial Artists we have unique opportunities as role models for children, we can promote much more then the physical and “spiritual” aspects of the students development. Math is all around us, especially in the Martial Arts.
We are failing our children…Think of it this way, for all the effort and energy and emphasis the USA puts on sports shouldn’t we be the world leaders in every sport? How have we done in the last few Olympics? The World Cup? While sports are very important they must remain secondary to academic skills. A hard truth for a group who’s passion is a physical activity…the Martial Arts. But think of it this way, the ancient masters could not have developed the Martial Arts if they did not have a sound understanding of the principles of Math and Physics. So tell your students about math, get them interested maybe even give them an assignment!
2 comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
29 | 30 |
Awareness (52) Beliefs (22) Celebrity (38) Christmas (10) Confidence (13) critical thought (18) Diet (17) Entertainment (28) Exercise (16) Failure (13) Fitness (46) Freedom (21) Fun (50) Funny (41) Gun Control (16) Guns (20) Health (26) History (31) Holiday (49) Jokes (12) Karate (38) Kyokushin (28) Liberty (18) Mas Oyama (27) Meditation (21) News (66) Patriotic (17) Perspective (82) Politics (19) Questions (13) Quotes (39) Recruitment (13) Religion (24) Self-Control (11) Self-Defense (48) Site News (10) Sparring (19) State of Mind (29) Style (17) Success (18) Technique (28) Training (111) Video (49) Weapons (13) Zen (26)
Well I can’t argue with your point about the available education in the year 400! Though from many of the recent archeological finds from Asia (advanced kilns, batteries, etc) they may have been more advanced then we think! Either way your point is well taken. I sometimes make reaching statements to make a point and when I write I can get a little creative, usually to get a reaction ! π Thank you though for the intelligent and lucid reply.
Hello,
Well, personnaly, I love maths and physics .Chemistry… ha, no, I don’t like chemistry. π
This is such a bold statement, that they had understanding of Math and Physics. I don’t remember reading a lot on that. In fact, I haven’t. Sensei Funakoshi was said to be a lettered man. Maybe he did.
Anyway, what I mean to say is that in the year say… 400, shooling was not as good as it is now and yet, martial arts where existant then. Mostly with swords, but bare-handed too. Sure, it wasn’t called martial arts, but you get my point.
Today, if I punch, i understand where the power comes from. I mean I can explain it. P=MV – sorry for me not translating, I don’t know the terms in english. I can understand how it works, I can read a lot on it. I can understand the physics behind my movements.
Yet, until I practice them, nothing works.
Sadly, knowing is not enough. Sure, knowing maths and physics can greatly help in karate. But I find the less I think and simply let my body do the thinking, the more I become efficient, fast and powerful.
It’d be great to have a correct and full understanding of how the martial arts came to life. I still think it was a trial/error kind of thing.
I’d really like to know if it was based on physics and maths. In fact, I’d love to hear it was. Still, reading about how the samurai would open up limbs to see if their technique was good – to see where the bones broke keep telling me that it was more trial and error.
Don’t get the wrong impression here. I love maths. I love physics.
It’s just that the origins of the martial arts are so .. hazy, it’s hard to know what truly was done in the beginning.
Besides suppositions, I guess we’ll never know.
I believe you’re right though. Maths should be pushed. In fact, education should be pushed. People are getting lazy.