Neither this squirrel nor the groundhog saw his shadow today. I guess that means we won't have six more weeks of winter, but hey, we haven't really had a winter this year anyway. I've got flowers blooming in my front yard! See yesterday's post for a lovely photograph of some yellow daffodils.
I'm a bit aggravated at sensei today. I guess he just doesn't realize how much his playing favorites hurts his classes. See, James got his san-kyu in November 2003. That is third grade brown belt, for those that don't know. I got my san-kyu in August of 2004. Barrett got his san-kyu tonight, and Josh just got his purple belt. Purple is the rank right before san-kyu. Yet sensei is saying that Josh and Barrett will probably test for shodan before the end of the summer! By the end of the summer, I will have been a brown belt for two years, and he is going to let them go through all three grades of brown--and purple for Josh--in 8 months. James has been a brown belt for more than two years already. Even Mr Tedder spent a year and a half at brown belt. Barrett has only been training for two years total, and Josh for just over a year. And sensei is going to let Josh get his shodan after only 18 months of training? Hardly seems fair to me.
Another thing...I've been teaching since I was a blue belt, even leading entire classes, yet neither Barrett nor Josh has taught at all. When I made brown belt, sensei told me that a big part of my promotions from then on would be based on how well I can teach proper technique, not just perform it. So will them two start teaching? Somehow I doubt it.
If this weren't the only dojo in town, I'd have quit a long time ago.
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