Monday, June 20, 2005

Hard Lessons

Well it was bound to happen sometime. The older fille failed a tae kwon do test.

She was sailing through the early parts of the test. On forms, she rocked! Self-defense she was invincible! Then she got to board breaking. She started chatting with two of the other girls, not the girls that concentrate on their martial arts. The girls that I refer to (granted, unkindly) as the roly poly girls. They are very sweet but not particularly gifted physically AND they were pretty sure that they weren't passing that test. After all, they have failed twice before. They had a great time as they waited for their moment before the boards. Except now, ma fille had no more concentration left. And her board went unbroken as did the board belonging to the roly poly girls. Except in a twist of fate one of the boards that belonged to the youngest roly poly girl. For some magical reason she broke one of her boards with a kick that shouldn't have bent cardboard. Not this matters for any of the girls. They will all have to retest at the end of the next session and complete all of the tasks.

Now I don't want this to sound like I am blaming the roly poly girls. I am not. The fault lay clearly with my fille. She had the power to stay focused but didn't. This is a skill that all children need to learn. I understand that it is often difficult for a girl entering puberty to control their urges, particular social urges. However, they need to be overcome. I had hoped to avoid some of these hard lessons by providing lessons in martial art. But it appears sometimes these lessons have to be learned the hard way.

Until next time then....

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