Thorough, lengthy instruction offered for credit at IL college

My two year anniversary as an instructor of T’ai Chi Chih was June 6, 2000. It does not seem possible that it has been two years only since I was accredited. In other ways it seems that there was no other time before being an instructor of T’ai Chi Chih. I am fortunate to have classes in a variety of locations. Each has its great and not-so-great points. I would like to share with you a bit about the college classes. The classes at the College of Lake County (CLC) have something special. TIME.

Having moved from state to state and county to county for over 35 years, I personally know it takes 90 to 120 days for one to adjust to their new life. So, as an instructor of T’ai Chi Chih, I know students need encouragement to add one more thing to their busy lives, and they need time.

It is fortunate for the students that take T’ai Chi Chih instruction at CLC, where it’s been offered for four semesters now. It is offered as a credit class and combined in the past with the continuing education class. T’ai Chi Chih also has been offered for three years, once in the fall and once in the spring, through the Discovery Program, a seniors’ program offered through CLC. The classes offered through CLC have a wonderful advantage over classes offered at other locations. This advantage is the time requirement for a credit class. The CLC credit classes are arranged in eight weeks, 16 hours of instruction for ½ credit. So if students register for Beginner (½ credit) and Intermediate (½ credit), they then have a full credit for PE and 16 weeks or 32 hours of T’ai Chi Chih!

The first eight-week Beginner Course is for instruction in the complete set. If students stop taking class after this, they have had 16 hours to learn and practice T’ai Chi Chih. This is double the time of other locations. The students are able to practice T’ai Chi Chih on their own.

All the movements are introduced. There is a written test and an assignment. The assignment is to research two articles on the benefits of T’ai Chi [Chih or Ch’uan], chi gong, etc. Usually the students do more and are very excited about other things they learn and love to share their articles. The enthusiasm this generates for doing the practice is worth the work I have to do for the record keeping.

The second eight weeks is an Intermediate-level class. With two hours for class, the first part is for questions, review, and refinement — refinement in the steps, shifting weight, beginnings and endings, the names and order of the movements. We use a video camera (for four weeks) to tape some moves to check for leaning or refinement of a movement. The last half of most classes are spent doing the set. The Great Circle Meditation [taught by Justin at the back of the text] is introduced and practiced after the set. Some classes that seem ready also do T’ai Chi Chih mentally. Many of the students say they then continue that on airplanes or at the office. In this Intermediate class the students have a project to do about T’ai Chi Chih. It can be anything they want. I do not give any guidelines. One student’s project was the artwork that was on the cover of the Vital Force in June. Others have started doing poetry again. Pyramid Poetry is popular. Some have been in the Vital Force. One student who could not remember the Six Healing Sounds drew the sounds in English and Chinese on a rock and says now she knows the sounds. There have been numerous wonderful projects by the students.

I find that the students who take the college classes have a greater depth to their practice sooner than students from the classes that are offered for shorter times, hours or weeks. There is a very big difference in the students’ movements, comfort zone and skill quality when they have the time to incorporate T’ai Chi Chih into their lives in a gentle time-expanded class. When students have time to learn T’ai Chi Chih and make it a part of their lives, they have a greater opportunity for continuing their T’ai Chi Chih practice. They also find out that what they are doing is valuable. They have the opportunity to learn about the gift of T’ai Chi Chih without rushing it.

In order to help the students practice, I use a 100-day chart for students to track their days of practice. The students that use this method of tracking their practice time seem to enjoy it. One hundred days aids in giving the students the time they need to incorporate something new in their lives.