There is not a right or wrong reason for studying Karate. Even if a person wants to learn in order to kill another person, the teacher has it in their own power to change that attitude and reason, to remold a personality and in general bring out the best in a person. Actually, Karate is a rather primitive weapon today in light of the sophisticated weapons at anyone's disposal. A person may outwardly want to kill another person, but certainly wouldn't choose Karate as the weapon. The person chooses this weapon because they sense that by studying Karate, they will actually gain enough confidence in themself so that revenge will not be necessary.

For the most part, students are an extension of their teachers. When you go to a school where the students are impolite, aggressive, very competitive or in general act like animals in a jungle, you cannot blame them. They are merely the mirror image of their instructor.

School interviewers try and instill within a prospective student a feeling for what they are getting into. They try to tell the student that there is a lot more to Karate than what meets the eye. This talk generally goes in one ear and out the other without making any impression. The student is preoccupied with their own problems that are the cause of them being there in the first place. They may have been attacked, perhaps they have just lost their job.

Often people come to the Karate school because they have been hurt in some way, more often mentally than physically in a state of 'flux'; teetering on the brink of trying again or throwing in the towel. Often, a person is ready to make a change within themself and is looking for guidance and confidence. That is why the teacher's job is so important.

During the interview the teacher tries to inform the prospective student about the higher reasons for study, but really all they can hope to accomplish is to show the person an overall attitude that prevails in the Dojo. We show the new student a typical class. There they can see people without their daily uniforms, i.e., the banker's suit, the plumber's coveralls. We try and point out that everyone in the class is the same as far as we are concerned and that when a student puts on the Karate uniform they will be just a Karate student, and as good as any other person in their class.