my background runs from 7 years w/ a teacher who didn't do rank

to 13 years w/ one who did and I certainly did like some aspects of it...especially when early on as a white and gold sash I was thrashing some (not all) of his black sash students ...and also much later as I became his senior student and got to teach a lot.

then I moved to be able to teach on my own and to look for more...the first thing I did was revamp the sash groupings by not strapping a sash on them first thing then as I joined up w/ Pong Lai and they did not use sashes I gladly chucked them and most of my students at the time gladly put them aside as well.

but, later, I saw that I wasn't reaching some of them...and wasn't reaching hardly any of the new ones and they were just kinda in a holding pattern...even with the tons of new material I was kicking out.

so, now, after my shifu decided that we were going to get organized. We are back in to a sash system and most everyone is content and happy and most certainly it seems to be proving a valuable focus aid w/ children.

so, maybe in America at least, it's got more to do w/ your market, who you attract in general, and not holding to a spiritual ideal as a teacher when your students don't have the same value. The vast majority of people out there have the idea of a rank structure in their head. If you can get them interested and move them on to other ideals later then fine.