Junior Ranks

What position should junior belts hold in the belt hierarchy of a school or organization? Most martial art schools seek to attract children, for that is where the money is at. If it were not for the children, most commercial schools would not make enough money to stay in business. Most schools accept 5 or 6 year old students, and some accept 4 year olds or even younger. Therefore, a child that trains regularly and gets promoted on schedule could easily be awarded a black belt by 8 or 9 years old. In junior classes, belt hierarchy is not a problem since all the other students are juniors. However, at some age, schools transfer junior students into the adult classes, usually at age 13. This is when a problem arises. Is a child color or black belt senior to an adult belt of any color? Some schools consider all belts equal in seniority regardless the age of the belt holder.

People are legally classified as children until 18 years of age. People cannot vote, join the military, or enter into a contract until 18 years of age. Fourteen year olds may have the skills to be professional race car drivers but experience has shown that they do not have the maturity required to drive on the street until at least 16 years of age. All these limitations are due to the immaturity of children. Just because a child has the physical ability to perform all that is required for a belt rank does not mean they have the maturity required of that position. There are some gifted children who have graduated from college and even have a PhD before age 16. However, they still cannot vote or enter into a contract. Who would want to hire a 16 year old account to handle their business or have a 17 year old teach their children in an academic school?

In martial art schools where all ranks are considered equal regardless of age, many children have the false impression that they are equal to or better than adults. The traditional martial arts have always stressed respect of elders, since this is a major belief of the oriental cultures from which the arts developed, and yet many school will have a child black belt hold seniority over an adult black belt. Children are children and they should always be subordinate to adults. The law considers anyone under the age of 18 a child, unless a court declares otherwise: so should martial arts schools.

Up until recently the Army had two enlisted rank structures, the Non Commissioned Officer(NCO) and Specialist ranks. The NCO is the traditional combat Army enlisted rank and has leadership authority and responsibility within the chain of command. The Specialist was a solider who had a specific job field that was in demand. The Specialist got the pay and benefits of the NCO to help retain people in a special job field, but they had no military leadership authority or responsibility. Nowadays, the Specialist rank exists only at the E-4 level.

Martial art ranks should operate similar to the specialist rank structure. Until they reach the age of 18, all children should be subordinate in rank to adults. In a formal lineup, adults should line up by seniority, and then children should line up by seniority. When a child reaches the age of 18, he or she should then test for their present rank under adult requirements and their date of rank should start again at the date of their successful retesting.