The principles of the Martial Arts that include respect and courtesy have been around for thousands of years and have been virtually unchanged. These principles that have lasted lifetimes are still being taught freely at Martial Arts schools across the world. In most Martial Arts schools, you will witness many types of acts of respect and courtesy. Students can be heard saying “Yes sir” and “Yes ma’am” as a regular occurrence; you will see bowing, hand shaking, and raising of hands before a question is asked; you may also hear students’ grammar being corrected when they say “yeah,” to say “Yes.” Yet outside of the Martial Arts schools, why is it a common discussion topic among friends that there is a lack of respect in society today?
The answer, I believe, is that with the advancement of society we are simply getting out of practice.
If we want to raise patient, caring, empathetic, respectful children in our society, we can’t expect for it to happen automatically. We all need to behave in that way, then teach it and expect it. It’s easy to want to point the finger at computer games, Hollywood movies and other people as being bad influences on children and on parents. Yet many children become a perfect representation of what parents and other influential people in their lives have modeled for them.
By teaching our children to stop and look someone in the eyes when they’re speaking to them or being spoken to, or even by holding the door open for the next person behind us, we’re showing our children how to be respectful.
At our Bully Buster seminar yesterday, we discussed the idea that there is only one reason for someone to bully another person – a lack of confidence (on both parties). This can start to change by also instilling respect in our children.
