The Courage to Quit!

The article originally appeared on October 6th, 2007 on The Onion web site. One of my former students sent this to me and I had to post part of it here…enjoy, I did! Thanks Scott.

Karate Lessons Give Child Self Confidence to Quit Karate

ENGLEWOOD, CO—After months of being taught to develop courage, inner strength, and other values of the martial arts, Daniel Finkelstein finally achieved the self-confidence necessary to stand up to his parents and quit taking karate lessons, the area sixth-grader reported Monday.

Finkelstein, 11, who was bullied into beginner’s classes at Dragon Karate and Tae Kwon Do Academy by his father in July, reportedly drew on a number of recently acquired skills, including poise and self-assurance, when confronting his parents about how much he despised karate.

“Before karate, I used to let everyone—my mom, my dad, even my grandma—push me around,” Finkelstein said. “They would tell me what to do and I would just roll over and do it, because they were bigger than me and I was scared.”

“If it wasn’t for the focus and determination I learned in karate, I would still be in karate right now,” he added.

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Read the rest Here.

But my favorite quote from the article is this one from his Sensei:

“When Daniel first showed up to class, he was like many of the other kids we see—timid, unsure of himself, and very insecure,” Guardino said. “But look at him now: He’s gone.”

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