The room was completely silent. As a belt test requirement, each Taekwondo student performed a series of forms and/or kick sequences in front of not only their instructor, but other students and parents. Today Cam had his green belt test. During the test he could not execute a certain form correctly. The instructor stopped him and let him start over, three times to be exact, but Cam just couldn’t get it. Everyone in the room passed their belt tests and moved on, except for Cam.
The instructor said he had been a little too “nice” in the past passing students when they really shouldn’t have passed their belt tests. I want Cam to pass his tests because he learned Taekwondo correctly and I admire his instructor for upholding such high standards. Yes, I wanted him to succeed so badly that day. It was hard to watch my 11 year old “fail”. Cam was upset and tried to blame the instructor for teaching him wrong. I had to set him straight. He needed to learn to take responsibility for his actions, be humble and admit that he was wrong and ask his instructor to teach him the correct way to do the form again, and learn patience in the meantime. He learned that he needed to practice harder and do better next time. I can’t think of a better way for him to learn the life lesson that it’s ok to fail, and you can turn those failures into great successes.
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