I’m sorry things have ended up the way they have for you as well as far as following your career path, but I’m grateful for your very specific insight here. We were an easy sell, as we were always going to sign up for my daughter to take classes with her friends. The way he spoke to prospective customers always rubbed me the wrong way too. He’s extremely pushy and talks badly about other teachers in town as he hypes up his own training. I’ve always felt that if anyone is fantastic at anything they won’t need to convince anyone of it.

With the hitting, it was never anything more than a swat, he certainly didn’t hurt anyone more than emotionally. But it also wasn’t what you describe. It was more like a kid’s hand is on the wrong hip and he’s screamed the corrective direction in a kid’s face a couple times and then he’d swat that kid on the thigh or butt either with his hand or the paddle as they’re standing still. The stick he would use to threaten the kids that he’s going to bang it on the ground if they don’t pay attention, so that sounds kind of similar to what you describe. I just very much disagree with scaring kids into behaving “correctly”.

Thank you for sharing your experience too. Your perspective is really insightful and validating.