When Bias Stares You in the Face...From the Mirror

I am recently returned from an international martial arts symposium and world championships where I had the great pleasure, fear and stress of introducing several of my students to the world stage. For the most part, my fears where completely unfounded. My students demonstrated the hard work, determination and adherence to etiquette that I have always known them to possess. In tournament they did fabulously. Six junior (age, not rank) students chose to compete and 3 of those won medals, including a gold! For several days I enjoyed the high of having produced such an accomplished team of young martial artists. I am finished celebrating now, the accolades have stopped coming and it's time to answer some hard questions.

Question 1. Why were all the medalist girls?

As you can imagine, karate is still a fairly male dominated activity and though I am a female Sensei, the majority of my students are female. In kata competition there is no gender bias, males and females compete against the each other as equals. Do I teach my male and female students differently? Am I more encouraging to the girls? Or is it simply a matter of the girls being more able to identify with me and my teaching style because of a couple of common chromosomes?

Question 2. Have I become like the Grown Ups?

One of my favourite books of all time is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It contains some harsh criticisms of the absurd priorities and closed mindedness of "grown ups". I pride myself on not being a grown up, yet a spent weeks trying, as indirectly as possible to dissuade one of my students from competing. I thought the pressure would be too great for her, that fear would crack her and that she would perform poorly and then be miserable about it. She won a bronze medal (her classmate won the gold in the same category). Now I am back to wondering what it is I know. Another thing I pride myself on is believing in the potential of my students when others tell me I should lower my expectations because they are "just kids". But I let my student down because I did not believe in her and she deserved to be believed in, they all do.

Summer is upon us, I grade my last group of students tomorrow and then we go on hiatus until September. I will spend the next few months rethinking my position as a Sensei, the role I play in the lives of my students and how I may be affecting their outcomes through my bias.