Episode 513 - Growing Opportunity for Martial Arts in Homeschooling
Growing Opportunity for Martial Arts in Homeschooling
In this episode, Jeremy talks about the growing opportunity for Martial Arts in Homeschooling
Coming Opportunity for Martial Arts in Homeschooling - Episode 513
Homeschooling has been around for decades and we see that the trend might be climbing towards it. As an observation, homeschooled children have a lot more flexible school day activities and that's where the opportunity for martial arts to come in. In this episode, Jeremy talks about the growing opportunity for Martial Arts in Homeschooling and how martial arts school owners and instructors can benefit from it. Listen to learn more!
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below or download it here.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hello this is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio episode 513. Today, we’re going to talk about the growing opportunity for martial art schools and homeschool students. My name is Jeremy Lesniak, show host and whistlekick founder, and everything we do here at whistlekick is in support of the traditional martial arts. If you want to know more about what that means, pop on over to whistlekick.com check at everything we’ve got going on there there’s a ton of stuff lots of projects, products, yes there’s a store and if you make a purchase, use the code PODCAST15 they save yourself 50% off every single thing that we make. If you are more interested in behind the scenes or added value to these shows, go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. The separate site that we put up where you can access everything single episode we have ever done as well as transcripts, and photos, and videos, and links and a whole bunch more. You can even subscribe to the newsletter from either side. 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So right off the bat you’re getting your money back.Now today’s subject is something I have spoken about before but with what I see going on in the world, I think it’s time to really talk about it. Talk about it loudly and to let those of you with schools know, this is something to prepare for because it is an opportunity, it’s a chance for you two improve your school, improve your cash flow, reach new people etc. Etc. So let’s talk about homeschooled students. The first thing I want to get out of the way is that I understand that there are a variety of different nontraditional educational methods that students might be experiencing. I am not judging, I am not prioritizing, I am not even pretending to fully understand all the differences. However, I think it’s important that rather than dissect those differences, we hone in on this general group of people who are nontraditional, academic students that are roughly under 18 years of age. While what I’m talking about comes from a very US centric perspective because this is where I live, I do see this opportunity growing elsewhere in the world and to be honest, I suspect that there are places in the world that are already ahead of the United States in this migration away from public schools. I’m also not saying that this is what should be or what shouldn’t be, I’m simply calling it how I see it which is that it is. This is something that is going on and is going to continue to go on so let’s dig into it.Why do I think that this is an opportunity? First, we have to take a look at the numbers. Homeschooling has been around in the United States for a long time. Longer than I was in school, I remember when I was very young, I had friends that were homeschooled, so I know it’s been around for at least 40 years, but really, I know it’s been around longer than that. When we think about homeschooling, we think about some portion of the school day not being spent in a standard institution. Not in public school or private school, it could be at home, it could be somewhere else, and it really doesn’t matter. The key is that these kids, students’ children have some flexibility with their school day activities. That’s where the opportunity comes in. When we take a look at standard educational models, they provide a lot of things; some of them they do better than others, but that’s a whole different discussion. What do they provide? They provide academics, they provide socialization, they provide in some cases, physical education and when we look at the homeschooled models, they are very much focused on the academics. Now over the years, parents have recognized the need in instituting socialization and we see a lot more efforts to that. When I was a kid, most of the homeschool kids I knew were, let’s be frank they were weird, and this was coming from a kid who is really really weird. And it wasn’t that they were bad for they couldn’t engage, they just they lacked some social aspects that I don’t see from homeschooled kids these days. There is seems to be a stronger priority placed on that now. Regardless, because whether it is or is not true does not change my point but the point is academics and socialization are handled, those are the priorities.Weirdest physical education tends to pop in. Homeschool kids will sometimes engage in public school afterschool sports and I don’t know the full landscape of what this looks like in the country, but I know that in at least some areas, there is legislation that mandates that be an option. But if you’ve ever played on a team where you are an outsider and you are not accepted; you might be able to empathize that there is a chance that some homeschooled students may not do well in that environment. But their parents are still going to want them to have some kind of physical activity and this is where martial arts comes in. Martial arts provides physical activity and discipline and some elements of socialization and history and it can do a lot of different things for a lot of different people and depending on how it’s presented and how it’s taught, it leads to a different type of education. While I will not pretend that every single homeschool family will think this is the greatest choice for their child, if I was a betting man. And I’m not, but if I was, I would bet that a higher percentage of homeschool students will participate in these sorts of classes in the general population. What’s more, for any full-time martial arts school, we know the prime times; during the evening they’re after school, they’re after work. Mid-day, that’s when a lot of schools are closed. There isn’t a lot going on there because most of the people that would come in for classes are at work or they’re at school. And now is identified our demographic that is only going to grow, and I’ll talk about that in a moment that may have interest in a properly formatted class in the middle the day. What do I mean by properly formatted? Imagine a class that is physical and encompasses history, all of the things that a lot of martial arts instructors want to talk about and teach, but the general population is not engaged with. Homeschool students tend to value education more so than public school students. They are more frequently encourage to pursue their own interests and if you are familiar with the term unschooling, that is generally speaking allowing students, kids, to pursue their own interests with the belief that they will learn basic fundamentals, reading, math, writing etc. As they pursue the subjects. However, you choose to format a class like this there are a ton of options.So, let’s talk about why this opportunity is growing. Over the last few months we’ve seen the public-school educational model turned on its head. Parents were staying home, they all of a sudden without wanting to became their children’s teacher. And even for schools that did remote instruction zoom and all that, it was still the parents, sometimes grandparents, family whatever responsible for making sure that the kids do the work and understood it and they were tutoring them in all that. And what came out of that, and I’ve seen different studies with different numbers, but close to 50% somewhere between 30 and 50% depending on the studies that I saw of the parents said they were more likely to consider homeschooling for their children after experiencing more or less what it was like. Now, that doesn’t mean that 50% of kids are suddenly going to pull out of public school, that’s not what he means. But it means that if more people are considering it, some percentage of people are going to do it and that does mean an increase. I believe this is the beginning of a movement public school has been underfunded and looked down on in various ways for decades. Again, I’m not saying what should be or shouldn’t be. Please don’t send me hate mail, there’s no point. This is a prediction. This is happening. And if you, as a full-time martial arts school owner or instructor or someone who wants to start doing that, or maybe you have a nontraditional job and you can only teach during the day because you work evenings or something, this is an opportunity. This is a chance for more people to experience traditional martial arts, for us to reach them, to show them the benefits.Now I would love to do a part two on this. I would love to have a handful of instructors that I could speak with there are already doing something like this. Midday classes targeted at under 18 children obviously it’s going to be home school students primarily. If you know of a school like that or maybe you are a school like that reach out to me Jeremy@whistlekick.com, I want to further this conversation because this is the greatest opportunity, I see for martial art schools. It’s the biggest one I’ve seen in a very long time and I hope some of you will consider capitalizing on it. So, there we go. Let’s wrap it up there because the purpose of this episode was to get you to think. What do you think? You think I’m right? You think I’m wrong? If I’m wrong, I want to know why you think I’m wrong, let me know email me. Let’s get a dialogue going because I feel that there’s nothing but benefit to come from this conversation. Go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com check out the show notes, check out the other episodes, sign up for the newsletter, and consider supporting us in some way. Social media, sharing an episode, making a purchase or the Patreon patreon.com/whistlekick and we’re going to give you access to even more content. I recorded a video episode earlier today, it’s only going Patreon. If you do make a purchase use the code PODCAST15 to save 15% and if you see someone out there in the world wearing something of whistlekick on it make sure you say hello. They might be your new best friend. If you have guest suggestions, I want to hear them. So once again, my email address jeremy@whistlekick.com. Until next time train hard smile have a great day!