Question 115: Student volunteers

I was quite interested in your article about volunteers being used as teachers/service providers, etc. in martial arts schools. My two children attend a school that relies on "volunteer" teachers to run the school. The school claims that you are not "required" to teach, but it encourages it in order to "really learn" the martial art. They institute a teacher training program at the age of 13 for anyone above a certain belt rank. You have to put in approximately 400 hours if you start the training in your early belt ranks as you are not a full teacher until you reach the blue belt rank (which is a little more than half way through the belt system). For some that can be about 5 years. My sons were "encouraged" to be part of the trainee program and we have allowed them to do so. However, we now see how the school "uses" them for just about everything--from cleaning the school, participating in demonstrations to promote the school, assisting in teaching of classes, having "private" students (usually 4-6 year olds in lower belt ranks). All this amounts to less time for their own belt material as they spend so much of it "voluntarily assisting."

The "carrot dangling from the stick" that encourages the students to participate in this "volunteerism" is that if you assist for 6 hours a week you get 6 hours of special training from the Grandmaster and the Master. You can't attend these special 3 hour sessions (twice at week) unless you've put in your time to get to a full instructor (in essence, you give and we give back). The carrot for my oldest child is the chance to be trained for full contact fighting (which is not part of the normal training). As it turns out, they won't train him because he is not old enough. 

I was wondering if you could tell me if there has been any government intervention with regarding to this type of practice being a violation of the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards) or Child Labor Laws. The law specifically speaks to commercial businesses being prohibited from using volunteers as employees. If one reviews the "trainee" section of the Act, these schools are still violating the law. Do you know of anything that has established precedent with regard to the legality of this use of students?

Reply

I understand your problem. Becoming an instructor is always promoted as the next step for a worthy student, while in effect; it is just a way to get free labor. Most students never pursue a teaching career in the martial arts as adults, so, even though there are some life lessons to be learned from the experience, it is a usually waste of time for most students. Students stay with a martial art because they enjoy the training. However, once they start teaching, they rarely get to train in the art and the fun stops. It is best to train, have fun, and perfect your skills while young, and then, if still interested, pursue teaching once you are an adult.

Thanks for the information about the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act), I have not considered it before, but, due to your email, I will do some research and add my findings to the website. I am now busy trying to complete the TaskMaster martial art school management software application, but I will add this task to my to-do list.