Culture Shift

Kru's, Instructors, Coaches, students and parents alike,

When I was a kid growing up I trained at the very school that I own today. My Grandmaster came over from South Korea by way of Vietnam where he was hired to train U.S. Army and Marine Corps Infantry the art of combat hand-to-hand. Needless to say the culture in the gym was VERY traditional.

As students we would all come in at least thirty minutes early to clean the gym and do any other things around the place that needed to be taken care of. Everyone knew that when passing through the lobby area it was "library rules" (no loud talking) and when Grandmaster would go away for an extended period of time we would tackle a big project such as scraping and painting the building (10,000 sq/ft stand alone building, no small feat) just to surprise him when he came back. 

Today, as the owner of the gym, I am faced with students and parents that are unwilling to accept this old school culture. Some have actually made comments suggesting that their tuition dollars should be enough to maintain the building and pay for a cleaning crew and that class time is a good time for parents to "catch up" with one another while in the observation and lobby areas.

I have been banging my head against the wall trying to understand where the road of tradition ended! Was it due to a total shift in our societal culture or was it something else?

Has anyone experienced this on any level? I would love to hear your thoughts and philosophies. Hopefully we can get back to the days where students had pride in association and willingness to do anything for their school and Master and restore what may become lost in martial arts....loyalty, pride, ownership, selflessness and honor.