Hey there everybody! I just got back from camp and I have a story. 
On the first day of camp, me and my friend were talking bout karate and this 8 yr old boy came up to me and said his name was Lucas. He was supposidly the meanest little boy there.. i heard he was mean to councilors and other kids. He was a cute little boy with red hair and lotsa freckles. My friend drifted away to talk to another girl and thats when this little boy, Lucas started talking to me.
He told me that he took a jujitsu and karate mix for 3 years. He told me about his sensei and his karate pals and how excited he was when he got promoted. His dad had let him sign up. He showed me some of the moves he remembered, one of them being a roundhouse kick. He did a great roundhouse kick and I ended up showing him a few kicks that I was good at. He had lots of questions about tournaments, his mother never let him go because she thought they were setting a bad example for her son. I told him how I had to compete with my best friend for first place and he got all excited when I told him I won.
Everytime I saw Lucas he would walk up to me and I'd walk him to his next course while we chatted. He asked about my school, my sensei, my friends from karate, and all about my belt tests. I'd show him moves and he'd show me moves. He was my new little friend.
On Thursday he explained how his mom made him quit karate even tho he loved it so much. His mom picked him up early from karate early one day and saw him sparring with his friend. His mom freaked out and he was forced to quit. He told me how he locked himself in his room and yelled at his mom for days. He got back from school one day and she told him that he was signed up for Yan Po karate. He had never heard of this type of karate before, but he told his mom that he'd try it out.
He got to this new "karate" class and they weren't doing kicks or punches or anything he's learned. They got a new belt every month and the belts never reached black but they got rainbow once they went to class for a year. He thought this was crazy and he knew it wasn't real karate. He told his parents and his mom told him it promised safe classes and there was no violence. He begged his parents to let him go back to his old school, they wouldn't, so he quit Yan Po.
He talks about karate so much and I can tell how much he loved it. With determination like that, he deserves to be a karate kid. He talked with me all week and he learned from me and I learned from him.
Karate tells kids to defend themselves, not hurt others! Good senseis stress that kids don't practice on others unless they are being hurt. Let me know what you guys think of my story..
Seisansister
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Hmm here's something I thought of when I re-read your comments and my entry. Why is it that kids can recognize when the karate class is real or fake but parents think its all the same? Do kids have a secret knowledge of these things and why? How do kids realize that a class is not real genuine karate, when parents view it as baby-sitting or that there's only one type of karate and that its all the same? Lucas knew that this nan po was not a real karate way.. but how? He'd only been to one other school before.. so how did he know that this wasn't just another way of karate? 
Just a thought I had..
