pick your battles

When I was young, around the 2nd Grade, I have a vivid memory of one of my teachers giving me some feedback on a writing assignment. "Never start a sentence with "And" or "But"."

I was deeply confused when, the next school year, I read my favorite book (Frindle) for the first time, and saw several sentences starting with those forbidden words. I'm embarrassed to admit that I spent YEARS being confused about this. Had my teacher taught me a LIE? Why would she do that? Was she bad at her job? Could I trust any of my teachers about the finer points of grammar?

Most of us have moments like this. Moments where we believe that our teachers failed us, or taught us something wrong. And is that correct? Was my teacher ignorant? The answer is: maybe, but most likely not.

Here's what most likely happened in my teacher's head. "In academic writing, And and But aren't acceptable ways to start a sentence. And yes, there are exceptions to that rule in Creative Writing (especially fiction), but those come with a LOT of nuances that this 2nd Grader isn't ready to comprehend, and that I don't have time to explain. So I'm going to tell him the OVERALL rule, and just trust that he'll be taught the exceptions later on."
This happens in Karate. OFTEN, I will be teaching a group of students a kata, or defense, or other technique. And inevitably, I come upon the problem that there are just too many problems to fix. Too many nuances. I have to instantly figure out the top 2-3 priorities for what I want to fix that day (and often, even those minor things must be taught with imperfections). Then, I have to let everything else go and trust that either myself or another instructor will fix it later.

The students who recognize this phenomenon typically have a much easier time accepting criticism. Especially delayed criticism. So when you receive feedback from me OR from somebody else that seems to contradict what you've been told in the past: listen to the person giving you direction NOW. Show them respect by trusting them in the moment. Whether they're telling you to modify your teaching style, your kata, your kick, or anything else. Listen to the person in front of you. Instead of saying, "But I wasn't taught that way before!" try saying, "I didn't know that. Thank you!" This gives them a chance to either expound on their reasoning, move on, or question themselves and double check their work.

Remember: let corrections come from the top down. If you notice something being taught wrong, or inconsistently, come talk to me privately after class. Let me be the bad guy who fixes a teacher's mistake.