Can money buy you honor, pride, respect and experience without putting
in the time, sweat, work and dedication? It can be an honor to receive
acknowledgement from your peers or superiors, but this honor can not
substitute or replace knowledge, skill and experience. In today's quick
fix fast food Society some people use a collection of certificates to
hide behind. They use these certificates to hide their inadequacies so
people will assume they have attained that level of knowledge,
experience and skill. They will emphasize to everyone how much these
certificates mean to them and how important it is to have them. The
emphasis should be on the content of training, the mental development
and physical skill of the instructors and students, not the paper.
Once upon a time a student would train and learn from an instructor for
weeks, months, years and decades. The instructor would have spent the
same amount of time teaching these personal students. The Instructor
would be as proud of the student as the student was of the Instructor.
When the student received a grading, the instructor and the student both
knew the exact curriculum for the required rank. Now a day's, there
appears to be a certificate exchange program, which would not be so bad
if the people actually trained with each other for more than a weekend.
Quite often people are doing this without even training with the
instructors. These people often just meet at an event, seminar or
gathering and present their black belt certificates like they are a
greeting card. I met a few people who call it a reciprocity certificate.
I give you one of mine and you give me one of yours.
I used to think, I don't know how people can put these certificates up
on their walls. How do people justify presenting themselves as a black
belt or master in a martial art that they may have very little
experience in, or sometimes no experience at all? Some people who have
had years training alone or with many casual instructors may feel they
need something to legitimize their training. They don't realize they put
themselves in the same category as the posers and online certificate
collectors. If you have been training for a long time, your true
credentials are in what you have done, and what you can do. Over the
years you should have attended or promoted events, you could have made
instructional videos or taught many students. As you continue to learn
and train and experience many new things you could have taken pictures,
videos, collected trophies or any other thing of true value which
demonstrates your time and dedication to the arts.
This problem did not begin with the unscrupulous students and
instructors looking for credibility. It began with the snake oil
salesman selling the credentials. I was once told by a well respected
martial arts master that he just sells people what they want. If they
want to pay for lessons he will teach them. If they want to pay for a
certificate he will sell them. The Master actually laughed because some
people have been known to travel all the way to Japan to only receive a
certificate. The Master said; "He would have loved to share his art and
knowledge, but when the student came to visit he said that he came to
get his black belt, rather than learn an art." Isn't it strange how the
certificates have become more important than the knowledge, lessons and
experience?
I have seen people market themselves with these authentic traditional
certificates that can be purchased by anyone with money. I really have
to wonder about the mind set or intent of not only the people buying
these certificates, but also the Instructors selling them. Never judge a
person by a certificate; everyone should have a history, training
partners, long time students and instructors.
Guess it's sort of like buying a personally autographed baseball card,
has to be worth something to the right collector. With all the
organizations, groups and associations' one can sure collect a lot of
these certificates and replace the wall paper in their office or home.
One of my favorite paper mill tricks is the person who is trying to gain
credibility through the power of the people. They just surf the net
looking for any martial artist or school, then contact them with praise
and offer membership in their exclusive group of the best of the best.
After receiving a free membership they get offered a title like State
Representative and in no time at all they are receiving a 9th degree
black belt. Has to make you wonder how the person governing this group
can now give you a rank in your own martial arts style. Sort of a double
edge sword though, now the person who gave the rank can make it appear
as though they also gave the skill. This is another way of buying skill,
just give rank to those with more skill and hide behind them to prove
your credibility.
When you see a certificate on a wall of an instructor, it is a good
question to ask; How long did you train with that Master who signed it?
I met a fellow who told me he had been training for years with his
Master. I had to laugh because I knew the Instructor lives in Japan and
this person has never even left the Country. It does not say much for a
person who uses the credentials of someone they only trained with a
couple classes per year. One thing for sure is; the Master knows the
difference between his personal students and his casual or seminar
student's, will you?
Once upon a time a certificate was meant to represent knowledge, skill
and experience. Martial Arts taught honor, respect, loyalty, dedication,
humility, and wisdom. Things are very different now. Before training
with anyone, you should thoroughly check their credentials, as even very
well known Masters have been known to sign a paper mill certificate.
There are many causes and reasons why we have this paper mill epidemic.
I have listed only a few. Obviously there must be a great supply and
demand, which causes some to sell their credentials as certificates. The
person selling the certificates knows what he is selling. The person
buying knows what he is buying. Both people think they are fooling
someone somewhere. The question is; "Who really is the Fool?"
By
Daniel Verkerke
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