I signed my son up for a twice a week, 9 week session through the Redondo Beach Rec Dept.. My 3.5yo is a quiet and shy kid who is slow to warm up to new people and places but was very excited to start the program.
After only one week into the program the instructor, Master Hildo, approached me after class and argued that my kid had a "language problem" and could not fully comprehend or follow his instructions (he wasn't as active as the other kids and was very quiet, just taking it all in). He also said that my son's participation in the Taeki class (designed for kids 3-6yo with him being the youngest student) takes away from the other kids and suggested to have him come for classes only once a week, preferable on the slow days. I argued that my son was simply being shy and needed a little bit more time to get used to the new place and the new instructor and coming only once a week would simply make the adjustment period longer. I agreed to switch our schedule to accommodate what the instructor thought would work better but keep it at twice a week. Still, the next time we came for class Monica, the girl working the front desk, was surprised to see us and as we walked in she got up from her seat, almost stopping us from coming in, and said "Aren't you supposed to come only once a week?". That did not make us feel very welcomed.
After another week, the instructor approached me after class again to have the same talk, explaining, again, that my kid had a "language issue". That again?. This time I just insisted that the session was paid in full and they can either try to understand that some kids take a bit longer to warm up to new things and be patient with my kid or refund the remainder of the session.
As the weeks passed, my son was now fully participating in class, knowing all of his kicks, punches and stances, running and jumping, following the Master's instructions and making new friends. No, he wasn't doing everything perfectly but hey, he's 3.5 :). I was saddened to notice that since the last talk I had with Master Hildo it seemed he had given up on my kid to some degree. He didn't always re-instruct my son when he did something incorrectly or there were times were he asked each kid to show him how to do a certain kick and he would just skip my son. He may be a little boy but that did not go unregistered with my son. At times, when this happened he would turn around, looking for me in the room and have a confused/hurt look on his face.
Finally, during the last session, just before leaving, I inquired with Monica regarding pricing for future sessions (I wasn't planning on signing him up again at the studio, just doing some comparative shopping). Less than 20 minutes later I received a voice mail from Monica saying that "... we will not accept you son into future sessions ... he is too young (at that point he wasn't even the youngest student in his class) and can't comprehend instructions...". I am not going to go into explaining why he does not have a language issue or how he fully understands and follows instruction, I'm just going to say that the studio accepts students as young as 3yo, taking their parent's money knowing they're this young and therefore should have a good enough understanding and acceptance of how mature/immature 3yo's are. Yes, some of the 4yo's I saw at the studio were well coordinated and focused which was great to see but not all kids that age are like that. Some kids just try their best and hopefully get there with some work and a lot of effort. Why eliminate those off the bat? What kind of message are you sending? Be great or be somewhere else? read more