Curriculum

Perfecting the curriculum for a martial arts school is a difficult endeavor. I guess that is not an accurate statement. The curriculum is pretty easy. Typically, the curriculum you teach has been handed down to you from generation to generation and is defined by your lineage. So curriculum itself is not difficult to develop as it is already in place. The difficulty comes when you try to instill the values and knowledge of the curriculum into your students. This is accomplished through the syllabus you develop to transmit your curriculum. The syllabus is where the problems start to creep in.

In my experience, martial arts instructors tend to teach syllabus and not curriculum. Techniques and applications are taught without any reference to the curriculum. If the curriculum defines the values being taught and the syllabus is the tool used to teach the curriculum, it is important for instructors to not lose sight of that fact. Syllabus is the what to the curriculum’s why.

“It is what we already know that often prevents us from learning.” - Claude Bernard (1813 - 1878)

Postmortem

The election is now behind us and the unthinkable has happened. After two years of watching Trump’s exploits unfold and feeling grateful that I live north of the forty-ninth parallel, I find Canada going down the same crazy path as the US.

We just elected a guy who committed fraud in order to ensure he took the party leadership. We all knew he did it and the vast majority of us voted for him anyway. He is already vowing to go after any organization that opposed his election by using the resources of the government to shut them down. This is what now passes as acceptable behavior of our elected officials. Gone are the days when our government worked for the people. Now they only work for their own self-interests and ideology. We have normalized this behavior by knowingly voting for a crook and liar.

I am not sure what the future holds for my daughters but I sure hope we can figure out how to eat oil as we are sacrificing everything for it.

“The angry men know that this golden age (of fossil fuels) has gone; but they cannot find the words for the constraints they hate. Clutching their copies of Atlas Shrugged, they flail around, accusing those who would impede them of communism, fascism, religiosity, misanthropy, but knowing at heart that these restrictions are driven by something far more repulsive to the unrestrained man: the decencies we owe to other human beings.” - George Monibot (b. 1963)

Election

We’re two days out from the provincial election. Canadian politics have really changed since the Harper years introduced divisive and fear-based strategies to hold on to power. There is always something at stake in an election and it is important that people decide exactly what is important to them before they mindlessly cast their vote based upon sound bites or partisan habits.

Normalizing electoral fraud is a danger for the future of democracy. I am shocked at how much people are willing to ignore or justify as long as they get their guy voted in. These are the same people that are going to be shocked and outraged when the next guy uses the same tactics to form a government they do not want.

Protect democracy by voting for what is right.

“A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation.” — James Freeman Clarke (1810 - 1888)

Passing On

Last Saturday while I was visiting my dad on his birthday, another kung fu icon left this world. Grand Master David Chan passed away on March 30th.

I did not know GM Chan very well but I do owe him a lot of gratitude. He was one of the founding members of the Canadian Ging Wu and it was during his watch that I was invited into the organization. That invitation was a defining moment in my life.

Priceless knowledge and history are lost whenever we lose someone of Grand Master Chan’s calibre. May the rest of us live up to his legacy.

“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” - Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)