all the time. Especially with students that are somewhat talented physically. Things come easily at first, but then they reach a point when they are like the rest of us mortals, and they have to work.

At the same time, with just the little bit of information that you’ve given me, I think that there may have been another issue at work. I don’t know for certain, but it sounds like there may have been some reason besides the work load and frustration that was keeping him away. Either he was afraid of something or someone, someone was making fun of him, or something along those lines.

I’ve had a problem where students stopped coming to a particular class because one student was doing things too hard and hurting them. He thought that it was good to do things hard, that it was better training. But no one likes to be hurt or intimidated, and that’s how they felt.

Other times, students feel inadequate because they aren’t getting something that everyone else finds easy. They need to be reassured and motivated positively. Sometimes they need a kick in the pants too.

Every kid is different. I would not allow the behavior of skipping class. That’s completely the opposite of what we teach. It’s dishonest and weak. I’d make my student understand that (in as positive a way as I could) and try to keep them engaged and motivated. But, as you know, the bottom line is that motivation has to come from within the student (after a certain age).

With elementary age children, you don’t give them a choice about going to Elementary School. I look at my school as a private institution and I want my parents to take the same stance with my school as they do with their child’s other school. We are teaching students to be the best possible person that they can be by balancing the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of their being. I’m not trying to be a church or a cult or something, but a lot of what we teach is about being in balance. If I neglect the spiritual aspect, or pretend that it doesn’t exist, then I’m out of balance.

That’s one of the things that is wrong, both in churches and in public schools. We try to compartmentalize our lives like a body builder isolating certain muscle groups. We end up with people that are weak, undernourished, overfed, and morally bankrupt.

Well, now I’ll just climb down off my soapbox and leave you to your thoughts. :-)

I wish you luck with your sons! Feel free to email me if you want long-winded answers to straight forward questions. Ken at warriors heart m a followed by dot com.