Kendo as a High School subject (outside Japan)

[ben]

KWF is a pretty small sample group but I was wondering if anyone knew of situations where kendo had become part of the local high school curriculum in countries other than Japan.

I have had the great good fortune to be allowed to introduce kendo as an official school subject this semester at the high school where I teach, and was wondering whether there was much of a precendent for this in other countries outside Japan.

b

[Lucien]

Kendo is an official part of the curriculum at the Bejart Ballet School. The founder of the school, Maurice Bejart, is a Japanophile who believes kendo builds character for the hard road dancers must travel. They practice 3 times a week and cover all parts of the kendo curriculum.

The dancer's teacher uses this board and may well add more details.

[Alex]

That's really interesting! Anybody keen to do an article for the mag in regards to this club/class?

Alex

[KhawMengLee]

KWF is a pretty small sample group but I was wondering if anyone knew of situations where kendo had become part of the local high school curriculum in countries other than Japan.

I have had the great good fortune to be allowed to introduce kendo as an official school subject this semester at the high school where I teach, and was wondering whether there was much of a precendent for this in other countries outside Japan.

b

Ben, one of your Victoria boys John Anderson(sic) was telling me about it. I am sooooooooooooo envious! Hahah...we got to 'see' kendo when our brother school visited from Japan but never to practce it. Will you be around during early November? I'll be in Melbourne for a week or so for the races and would love to train with you guys(and maybe take a few bets down for the punters..hehehe).



Alex That's really interesting! Anybody keen to do an article for the mag in regards to this club/class?

Alex


If the article can wait I'd be delighted to do it when I visit Melbourne in November.

[ratdeau]

Kendo is an official part of the curriculum at the Bejart Ballet School. The founder of the school, Maurice Bejart, is a Japanophile who believes kendo builds character for the hard road dancers must travel. They practice 3 times a week and cover all parts of the kendo curriculum.
More info under
Rudra (http://www.bejart-rudra.ch/rudra/plan.html) Kendo at Rudra (http://http://www.bejart-rudra.ch/enseignement/kendo.html)

[Neil Gendzwill]

Not so much official, but a friend of mine started up a kendo club at the high school where he taught English in Calgary. It's now defunct as he no longer teaches. I think if you're on staff you can probably make something like that happen. When I went to high school, the last two years of Phys Ed were basically sports smorgasbord, try a little of this, that and the other thing. An enthusiastic kendoka staffer could probably sneak in a week or two of kendo into a program like that as well.

[JoonShik]

Korea has Kendo (or Kumdo in Korean) as a high school subject. The student chooses between various things to do and thats what they are stuck with. My father has told me stories and how over here in America, we are weak. He told me, that 1000 (One Thousand) Haya Suburi for warm-up is normal. 5000 (5 Thousand) would be a special trainning. Over there, its like, if one falls, everybody falls. If one fails, everybody does push ups in bogu.

[Andou]

Korea has Kendo (or Kumdo in Korean) as a high school subject. The student chooses between various things to do and thats what they are stuck with. My father has told me stories and how over here in America, we are weak. He told me, that 1000 (One Thousand) Haya Suburi for warm-up is normal. 5000 (5 Thousand) would be a special trainning. Over there, its like, if one falls, everybody falls. If one fails, everybody does push ups in bogu. Jesus...I don't even think my father did that when he was in Japan doing kendo in the 60's. But I have heard stories of them going up to their high school roof and doing their kiai to see if they could distract anyone outside the school...and if they didn't the sensei would just repeatedly yell, "KOE WA CHISAI!" (I think that was it which translates to: You're too quiet.) And would do this for quite a while.

As to Kendo in high school...Yeah. That would be so good. Not only would I be able to attend more practices, but I could actually have some "extracurriculars" on my transcript.

[ChaShu]

Seems like The Citadel (a military college in South Carolina) is offering kendo as a course in their athletic department. I ran accross the site this morning looking for a bogu stand. Course code RPED 150 if anyone is interested...

http://cee.citadel.edu/rped150/

[nodachi]

This is way cool! I can see schools having kendo clubs for after school, but to have it incorporated as part of the school day itself is just incredible. What kind of a school is it? In terms of public schools, I see the government putting so much pressure to cover all the other academic topics and then throw on top of that language requirements and things like that so I don't see most public schools being able to fit in kendo classes during the day. What is your school setting like? Sounds interesting.

[samurai999]

For us we have dojos located close to all these High Schools in California. Its sorta like reinventing the wheel IMHO. But, for enthusiasts who really want to start one at a HS, then why not? problem is here, renting the HS gym is pretty difficult as Volleyball, Basketball, and color guard (band) get first come first serve where I come from..

Tim

[ben]

More info under
Rudra (http://www.bejart-rudra.ch/rudra/plan.html) Kendo at Rudra (http://http://www.bejart-rudra.ch/enseignement/kendo.html)

Very interesting! Unfortunately bad link with nasty pop-ups.

b

[ben]

This is way cool! I can see schools having kendo clubs for after school, but to have it incorporated as part of the school day itself is just incredible. What kind of a school is it? In terms of public schools, I see the government putting so much pressure to cover all the other academic topics and then throw on top of that language requirements and things like that so I don't see most public schools being able to fit in kendo classes during the day. What is your school setting like? Sounds interesting.

Thanks Nodachi, I think it's pretty cool too and a lot of the credit must go to the Principals of the school for going with something so radical. My school is a Government high school, so that makes it a bit more unusual: provate schools have more freedom to introduce things to their curriculum as they don't have to follow the standard curriculum framework. We are more accountable to the Education Department as well. You're spot on about Gov't pressure to cover a wide range of subjects and programs. If could teachers could spend more time teaching and less time on bureacratic stuff...

The class will be for a year 8 students. About 16 boys and 4 girls. My school caters to students from 45 different cultural backgrounds. We also have many students who were refugees and whose schooling was either interrupted or non existent before coming to Aus. We also have a select-entry accelerated learning program. So there are a whole range of abilities. I think kendo will offer a really interesting "level palying field" for these kids.

b

[Kingofmyrrh]

Kendo is an official part of the curriculum at the Bejart Ballet School. The founder of the school, Maurice Bejart, is a Japanophile who believes kendo builds character for the hard road dancers must travel. They practice 3 times a week and cover all parts of the kendo curriculum.

The dancer's teacher uses this board and may well add more details.
I think I've encountered this inadvertently. When I was at Keio a bunch of people who were speaking French (I assumed they were French, but I guess they were Swiss) came to our dojo and watched and filmed us. They seemed pretty surprised to see me there! Anyway, somebody explained to me that one of our shihan, Fukumoto Shuji sensei, had been instrumental in establishing a link between Keio kendo and a dance school in Europe. I don't remember perfectly, but I think he goes there every so often to teach people. I should be seeing him in a few weeks so I might try asking him. I can remember he was pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing.

[Kingofmyrrh]

Seems like it is the same place. On the webpage they have it has Fukumoto sensei's name, as well as his two younger brothers'.

[ben]

Not so much official, but a friend of mine started up a kendo club at the high school where he taught English in Calgary. It's now defunct as he no longer teaches. I think if you're on staff you can probably make something like that happen. When I went to high school, the last two years of Phys Ed were basically sports smorgasbord, try a little of this, that and the other thing. An enthusiastic kendoka staffer could probably sneak in a week or two of kendo into a program like that as well.

Certainly it is easier if you are on staff. I've also visited other schools who do that kind of PE smorgasbord as part of end of year wind-up. One school alternated kendo and fencing for two weeks for their students as a "taste-test". The great thing about this elective is it's not part of PE but is its own subject. So I'm not beholden to any faculty's curriculum or assessment criteria.

Better not talk it up too much, first class is next Monday...

b

[taganahan]

isn't it quite hard to organize a club for an after school and keep it running? in canada, maybe here in bc, you need teacher who will go out of hs voluntarily and attend the club stuff to that it can run properly. if there's no one who wants to do it, then there won't be any club.

~taganahan

[ben]

... you need (a) teacher who will go out of h(i)s (way) voluntarily and attend the club stuff to (so?) that it can run properly. if there's no one who wants to do it, then there won't be any club.

~taganahan

Congrats. You just worked out how every kendo club started! This is one of the reasons that you bow to sensei at the beginning and end of every class.

b

[ratdeau]

Anyway, somebody explained to me that one of our shihan, Fukumoto Shuji sensei, had been instrumental in establishing a link between Keio kendo and a dance school in Europe. I don't remember perfectly, but I think he goes there every so often to teach people. I should be seeing him in a few weeks so I might try asking him. I can remember he was pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing.
It has been a great pleasure and honnor to welcome him at Rudra. We all hope that he'll comeback to visit us.

[Kingofmyrrh]

Well he seems to enjoy it as well, so I'm sure he'll be back before too long!

[Hyaku]

KWF is a pretty small sample group but I was wondering if anyone knew of situations where kendo had become part of the local high school curriculum in countries other than Japan.

I have had the great good fortune to be allowed to introduce kendo as an official school subject this semester at the high school where I teach, and was wondering whether there was much of a precendent for this in other countries outside Japan.
b

Nice one Ben good luck to you. We managed to get Kenjutsu in the University curriculum thanks to Isagani Sensei, who is also doing a nice thesis on the subject.

[kendokamax]

good luck Ben!

[ben]

Nice one Ben good luck to you. We managed to get Kenjutsu in the University curriculum thanks to Isagani Sensei, who is also doing a nice thesis on the subject.

Thanks Hyaku sensei. Yes there are seem to be a few places where kendo has been introduced at a tertiary level (UW-Madison, Citadel-NC and above). I think the dance-school connection is fabulous! I'd love to hear more about how that came about. There'd be a lot of kendoka with great posture!

And thanks for your encouragement too, Kmax. I'll do my best!

b

[kendokamax]

one day you have to go to a japanese high school with your kids and do dojo yaburi!!

[Kmav]

Unfortunately, Kendo isnt that popular in the states yet.

[Lucien]

Better not talk it up too much, first class is next Monday...

b

Ben, how did this go?

[SkippyDaStudent]

Well, I'm pretty sure we won't get kendo at the high school I graduated from anytime soon. Most of the school's funding goes to football (*shudders*), so anything else is sort of screwed.

I would have definitely been more active in high school P.E. had kendo been an option.

[ben]

We've finished for the term (1 term = 1/2 semester) and the class is going well. Have had to boot some kids who didn't get it, and others were transferred out because they thought it was "boring" (in 13 y.o.-speak read:"It's too unusual/difficult/demanding for me to deal with."). Now we've got a good bunch who look like they can go the distance. This is the thing with a subject that is part of the school day. The students haven't all completely self-selected. Some have, but others did'nt really know what was in store. A few thought it would be a bludge. Over time hopefully it will become part of the school culture like elective chess has.

The school is still really happy with the program and have mentioned the possibility of it running next year for year 9s as well with more periods allocated in the timetable. So it's still going well.

If anyone has any unwanted dogi or bogu they would like to donate, then PM me and I can give you an address! ;) (only partly joking!)

b

[Seiza_Seizure]

That sounds awesome Ben.
I envy the young ones and the diverse subject choices they get these days. Imagine doing Kendo as a Yr 8/9 subject. That is exciting, & makes me wish I could turn back the clock. Care to share the school name or area it is located?
Sounds like it is going well for you and the students. Keep it up!