NextDoor

  While this class shares valuable information on self-defense, sometimes the teacher communicated in a way towards students that came across as dismissive, aggressive or even bullying, and was not helpful for student learning.

Some examples:

-A student asked a question to clarify information they had heard on a topic being discussed, and the teacher responded in a way that seemed hostile, shutting down the question instead of using it as an opportunity for further learning. The student seemed reluctant to ask more after this.

-The instructor got angry towards a student who had forgotten something, getting close into their personal space and making a strangling motion to show their anger. Class had not even started yet, and this student had barely just met the instructor, the student seemed really scared by this.

-During a lecture portion of the class, the instructor suddenly pivoted to a student and acted aggressively, to see how they would react. While this may have been to show the point that you won't have time to react in a dangerous situation, it was not made clear to the students beforehand that this type of thing would occur during the lecture portion of the class.

-This type of behavior as shown in the above two examples is especially concerning, as it would make sense that some students might be attending the class because they have already had bad things happen to them. Instead of getting help they may have gotten triggered if they had trauma.

-When a woman was asking about how to improve her specific safety scenario the instructor made a joke out of what she was doing, which wasn't helpful to her learning or necessary. The joke also seemed to generalize about women, which isn't cool.

To potential students - the information is good, but please be aware that the instructor is not always sensitive to students, and it could be triggering to someone with trauma.

Hopefully the above feedback can help the course improve so even more can benefit.