Question 137: Accreditation

 

The following is my response to a master's email. In the response, I broke the original email into sections and responded to each section. The master's comments are in bold text, my response is in normal text. I never heard from the master again.

I was really tempted to be offended about your notes on accreditation, until I realized that it is no insult to me or anyone else, but only a display of your own ego and narrow mindedness. The fact that someone holds another job in no way implies that they are not a "true" Master - in fact, it quite often means exactly the opposite - they aren't willing to sell out and give out black belts like the McDojos in order to make a professional living. Quite often the people who do it only part time are the people who would not sell their integrity out for money. I am one of those people.

Remember the name of the article, it’s “Accreditation.” Other articles in TKDTutor cover other bogus claims made by self-made “pseudo-masters”; this one covers their bogus education claims. I consider it a service to the public to inform them about fraud in the martial arts. 

You seem to imply that people who operate large, successful martial art schools have sold out their integrity, and the integrity of their arts, for money. While this may be true in in some cases, there are also many large, highly successful schools that have high standards. While some may seek the easy way to get a black belt, such as by just declaring themselves one or by buying rank online, there are others who prefer to earn it the traditional way so that it means more to them. There are several “old school” martial art businesses in my area that have been successful for decades.