Having been in classes with autistic students, I can understand the frustration an instructor feels. Often, people get the idea that martial arts is a cure-all for depression, lack of discipline, lack of confidence, etc and wind up doing a dump on an unsuspecting school, expecting them to handle the autistic student. that does a disservice to the instructor, who has to pull resources away from existing students; the other students who are interrupted and get less attention; and the autistic student, who is not receiving proper care.
There are ways instructors can handle these students properly, and legally, they have to accommodate them until it is unreasonable for them to do so - this is a guarantee afforded anyone with a disability defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ada.gov). One of the rules is that you can't make it difficult for such people to be accomodated: it's like charging wheelchaired people more to access a theater - that's strictly forbidden by law.
So what's an instructor to do, who has little or no experience dealing with mentally challenged individuals? He can hire aids or become educated. But he cannot pass off that cost onto the student directly. He can pass it on to all of his students. And, the ADA allows for a business to get a 50% tax credit for accomodating these kinds of people. Ah, but where to draw the line?
A student with Aspberger's is different than one who has Down's, autism, sensory disorders, retardation, or a host of disorders. Are these instructors expected to accomodate all of them in case the rare student decides to train there? No, they are not. But, this becomes the millieu of law, and a lawyer is required here.
So to your question, I think more information is needed: the instructor is well within his rights to charge whatever he wants for private lessons - as long as those lessons are the same for everyone. If they are different for autistic students, he's skimming on thin legal ice, but his lawyer may have given him advice.
We can easily say $90/hr is a lot for martial arts training; but the instructor may be a trained mental therapist who can charge will over $100/hr for therapy. If his martial arts training can be qualified as therapy, then he seems within legal bounds to do so. And it is not uncommon for physical therapists to do exactly this: charge high rates for therapy where similar training can be had for less with a personal trainer. Such people went to school and are trained to provide therapy. It is not unreasonable for them to want to charge people to recoup that cost and to reap the benefits of their training and expertise.
One who is a licensed therapist and an accomplished martial artist is providing two services, and perhaps well deserved at 90$ + $100/hr, don't you think?
EDIT: So.... i did some research; Bernice Tom Sensei is a legit 7th dan; she's the first (currently, only one of two) women in the world to take unemi for a shihan at the all-japan Aikido demonstration, a particularly prestigious accomplishment.
Which makes her full of herself.
If this b**ch is going to use her celebrity status to take advantage of a 13 year boy with autism, I have no respect for her whatsoever. She's quite accomplished, and at 7th dan, she has many instructors under her who are capable of taking this boy as a student - privately or with a small class.
She lacks class, compassion, and humility, and I hope she rots in hell.
EDIT Liondancer, I agree the news report makes it seem like only Frank gets charged $90. However, Bernice ought to come out of clouds and give this boy a hand. I'm not saying she has to give a handout to every autistic or disabled person who comes here way. But if she is going to be the one closing the inns making Frank take the proverbial mangers for his training, I'd say she has lost her class. She should have refused his entry from the beginning, or set up a special class for him. She can still do that, and she can still get a tax credit for getting an aid to help Frank. I have seen no news reports since about what Frank is doing, so, I have only to assume he quit. How sad. That's not Aikido, and Bernice is an embarrassment.
First of all I did watch the video. Kimberly Hunt needs to get her facts straight. A Karate instructor teaching Aikido in private classes? I think she got that wrong and as media goes when they do a sloppy job like that they get lots of other things wrong too trying to rile the public with sob stories. They make it sound that everybody pays $5 per class but the disabled person pays $90 just by neglecting to say that the price for private classes is $90 for everybody because if it wasn't they'd be using that argument which would have much more leverage. That is not over the top for private classes. If you had your kid in this class and there was one student who required the attention of the teacher the whole time and your child would get little to no instruction even though you pay the same amount as the child getting all the attention where is this fair to the other 8 children she is responsible to teach?
Bottom line, look closely and don't trust anything that the media feeds you ever.
It would depend on the instructors knowledge and the student in question. One of my past instructors charged $100 an hour for private instruction. I used to charge $25 per half hour and that was cheap. Others I knew were charging $37.50 a half hour at that time. And this was in the mid 1990's.
Think about it this way..... What does a Doctor make if he charged by the hour? to me I think that there are very few instructors that are highly skilled and knowledgeable. How long does it take a Doctor to become a doctor? How many years does it take to reach a truly high level of knowledge in the martial arts. It is my opinion that a truly knowledgeable instructors are more rare than doctors are. If they must study and train longer than a doctor isn't it reasonable for them to be worth as much as a doctor or perhaps more?
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I will look at the video later. I'm at work and can't view youtube.
I work everyday with students with autism. They learn differently. It help if you have had training to teach students with autism. They often learn differently than others.
Edit: Now that I have had a chance to view the video I don;t see anything wrong with that instructor charging 90 for private lessons. I initially thought the charge was conditional for the student with autism. But it appears this is what the dojo charges for her private lessons. Working with students with autism and with ADHD private lesson may be the best place for such a student. This is for a number of reasons. Maybe in the future the student once on level can join the main class if mentally, physically, and socially able. Many students with the listed conditions learn differently and at a slower pace. One of the symptoms of autism is not being very social. It is good to work on that student to become more social, but at their own pace. I don't know how social that student is right now. But if an instructor has to slow the entire class down for one student the entire class loses. No one is learning what they should. As the instructor state that the students can learn but learns slower. It is not fair to the other students to be help back because of one student.
Bloody Hell! 90 an hour?
That's just wrong. So wrong, no excuse for it. I can see and understand that teaching an autistic student can be hard and challenging, but I believe the teacher is "using" this opportunity to rake in the cash.
But then again some high class personal trainers charge that much and their clients pay it gladly.
I suppose if the kid's parents are willing to pay that much I am fine with that, which I doubt they are.
But still. That's rather expensive.
And the teacher goes on to say that "he can learn" (if so, lower the price), and that "she's worth it"? What? Yeah right. Ego showing.
It's sad. No approval from me.
Try this out!
www.arofitnesskickboxing.co.uk
Maybe being autistic adds more problems to teaching him.
Definetely what you need to know.
What do you think about this teacher wanting to charge more for private lessons for a student who is mildly autistic? $90 an hour for private lessons to be exact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV9KOAljEmo
