情けに向かう刃なし
Nasake ni hamukau yaiba nashi
There is no sword which can oppose kindness
Recently, an Aikido teacher I know, wanted my opinion on the topic of corporal punishment or whether or not a teacher should hit their students. If we suspend judgement of the act, hitting a student should be looked at based upon ethics, morality, or effectiveness. In times past, there was an immediacy to training which was necessitated by the threat of war. At that time, it was thought that hitting a student was one of the fastest ways to create discipline and harden a student for battle. With the threat of death, morality and ethics took a back seat to speed and effectiveness. Nowadays, very few martial artists are going off to battle, so the speed that a slap or hit creates is not as important as the ethics or morality behind it. In contrast with the past, we have a better understanding of learning and have the opportunity to look at corporeal punishment longitudinally. Today, we understand that hitting a student to get them to adhere and to have discipline is very ineffective. For instance, there is a ton of research out there that says hitting children creates angry adults. Therefore, knowing what we know now, hitting isn’t good for a child’s long-term health nor does it follow the philosophy of Aikido. Look at it this way, O’Sensei said, “Aikido wa sono 99% ga atemi de aru” which means that “Aikido is 99% atemi.” However, today most atemi or “strikes to vital points,” have been evolved out the techniques. Atemi was evolved out because it is thought that stopping to atemi impedes one’s ki no nagare (氣の流れ) or “the flow of ki.” This topic lies at the juncture between old and new. If we look at it from the standpoint of tradition and the effectiveness at which it created some of the greatest martial artists of the past, then we might think about maintaining the practice of hitting students to awaken them or to create discipline in them. If we look at corporal punishment through the eyes of modern pedagogy, ethics, and morality, then hitting students is ineffective and immoral. In the past, I followed Furuya Sensei and would discipline my students corporally, but now because of age and experience, I refrain from doing so. I realized after 15 years of teaching that hitting students or punishing them physically is an ineffective way to teach and is not in keeping with O’Sensei’s philosophy of non-violence. It is my opinion that hitting students shows one’s weakness in not only teaching ability but in character. We, as teachers, should strive to be better than the teachers of the past and not just blindly do something just because someone else did it. The old ways have value, but are the old ways the only ways? That is up to each person to decide and don’t just do it or not because I said so.
Today’s goal: Onkochishin (温故知新) or “Discover new things by studying the past”
Watch or listen to this episode of the Aiki Dojo Podcast where we cover this topic more extensively.
