I was able to answer without laughing, "No, there are a few other colours in between." I found her innocence funny. Still, it's fair to say that these 25 new yellow belts got their new ranks in record time—just six weeks. It was a special summer programme for kids who had just gotten out of juvenile hall or who had been kicked out of their regular schools. An experiment.
So, I can see why they might think the whole thing will fall apart. On the other hand, I worked with them for two solid hours a day, four days a week. Hour for hour, that was at least the same as going to three one-hour classes a week for three to six months in a traditional programme. It wasn't a piece of cake. This kid seemed to have forgotten how hard they had worked, even though some of the kids around him, who were still sore, stiff, and had blisters, laughed when he asked that question.
As we stood in the glow of our hard-won success, I felt that this happy moment had a dark side. Yes, at first glance, this student's comment seemed to come from a lack of knowledge. But working with street-smart kids for 16 years kept me from ignoring the cloud that had fallen. What happened?
It took me a day or two to figure out what was making me feel uneasy. And it was this: the kid's whole way of looking at life was based on a dangerous assumption. Too often, teenagers who have been cut off from traditional paths to success for a long time start to look for short cuts. They may feel like failures in school, with friends, in sports, in relationships, or because of how their family or home life is. As I thought about it, I became more and more sure that this boy might have really thought there was a way around it. And that made me worry. Because I've found that the more kids feel like they're not going to make it, the more these shortcuts will seem normal and acceptable.
So, what can I learn from this episode that will help me work with and help kids better? I think this street-smart teenager learned that he would have to work hard to get good at martial arts and maybe other things as well, but that he could be successful if he did. He didn't need a quick way out. He could do it. Even though this sounds easy, there are a lot of teens who don't think they can do it. Adults or even their peers may think they are fine, but many teens feel like they have failed in one or more parts of their lives. What a great challenge and chance for those of us who work with them, whether in a martial arts studio, a classroom, a church or civic group, or at the dinner table.
