The Vital Force Archive

Carol Glinski recounts a class where a mother arrived with her two young children after her sitter cancelled, and the restless pair ended up still, hugging the teacher goodbye.

Joanne Sultar describes a student who arrived feeling as rigid as Richard Nixon, and her new morning program moving with 318 kindergarten through third grade children in the schoolyard half a block from her house.

Mary Hong's piece for the Glenbrook South Oracle profiles math teacher Amy Hackenberg, who found T'ai Chi Chih through a Los Angeles Times notice and now offers free after-school classes to students and faculty.

Jean Katus taught eight introductory sessions at an international high school theatre festival, and when a rowdy group of six disrupted her final class, the movement itself quieted them without a word of reprimand.

Lois Mahaney describes five years of presenting T'ai Chi Chih to a Seniors Concerns Class at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, closing with student Alinya Charron's poem.

Carolyn P. Shaw, accredited since 1979, has taught T'ai Chi Chih to New Mexico school counselors and students, faculty wives in Singapore, colleagues in Madrid, and friends in Belgium and Holland, calling it a "grace note" rather than a business.

Southwestern College's newsletter The Heartlink put Janet Yannacone on its front page as new Art Therapy Program Chair, describing her therapeutic model blending art therapy, T'ai Chi Chih and spiritual principles for children.

Leslie Johnson-Leech passes along the water poetry printed on a T-shirt from WATER WAYS, a children's workshop at Point Loma Arts Academy, plus the Namasté greeting a San Diego State extension student offered.

News of Shelley Morey carrying T'ai Chi Chih to Ecuador with the Peace Corps, and Sr. Yolanda Tancinco's report on sisters in Cebu City finding grounding and changed attitudes.

Teachers report in: Denver weighs hosting the 1995 conference, Chris McLain documents blood pressure and anxiety changes in Fargo, Pam Towne heads to Russia, Verna Wenger copes with inoperable cancer, and Daniel Froese adapts movements for wheelchair users.

Esther Kieffer leads four and five year olds with disabilities in Rocking Motion each morning to Daniel Kobialka music, ending with a minute of silence in the dark before the school day begins.

Pam Towne describes tutoring a 9th grader failing algebra with a half hour of T'ai Chi Chih before each hour of math, after which he earned the top final exam score among his teacher's six classes.

Connie Hyde visits Carmen's weekly Children's T'ai Chi Chih class, where a girl without her fee is welcomed in and half an hour of coaxing and praise has the children trusting what they know.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst describes teaching a mixed-age after-school class in Albuquerque, where children reported clouds circling their shoulders, pillows under their feet, and confidence drawn from their own contact with the Chi.

Barbara Peller ignored warnings that seventh graders would be the worst audience and led two groups of fifty through movements, chi-between-the-hands experiments and questions, then was invited back.

Lois Mahaney taught twenty second graders in Hayward in just two one-hour sessions for a Chinese New Year multicultural program, and their demonstration impressed a visiting martial arts instructor.

Marlene Brown, newly accredited in Cincinnati, describes teaching at the Procter & Gamble and GE fitness centers and the 14-year-old student whose mother noticed the sparkle return to her eyes.

Billie Blair Miller describes team teaching with Fran Dukehart and taking over Martha Immel's Morro Bay classes, while Betty Comey lists the fitness clubs, bookstore, third graders and cable series her accreditation opened up.

Lia Ridley of Denver traces her teaching principle back to her first day facing 32 fourth graders, and to the pride-swallowing it takes to keep coming from love rather than self-concern.

Carmen Brocklehurst gave a 30-minute demonstration to court-mandated "At Risk" teenagers in Albuquerque, fielding wisecracks and giggles until one departing boy said it was the calmest he had felt in a long time.

Melodye Gustafson, a school counselor who also works at a Fargo rape and abuse crisis center and teaches through adult education, describes using T'ai Chi Chih with children, teens and clients alike.

Donna Bundock and Loretta Shiver led a November 1991 T'ai Chi Chih workshop for middle school children, built around self-expression through clarity about who and what we are.

Three short items: Lucy Hocking's doctor unwittingly prescribes heel-ball-toe rocking for her sprained ankle, Roxann Post's mother mishears T'ai Chi on the phone, and a ten-year-old student adds the "A's".

Donna Shaffer brought T'ai Chi Chih to the first "Get Fit Los Gatos" weekend and a TANDEM Computers health fair, while Carmen Brocklehurst won a contract teaching New Mexico school staff.

Teacher updates include Christeen McLain speaking at the American Holistic Nurses' Association conference, Shoko Purdy teaching in Japanese to her mother, Michael Martin's free drop-in classes on Chicago's Navy Pier, and Theda Gillespie's library demonstration with the mayor.

Lois Mahaney traces her path from 1917 Hancock, Michigan and wartime WAAC service to substitute teaching, a Sunday park practice session, and a high school demonstration where students' chi set her hands fluttering.

Memorable quotes gathered at the teachers' conference, including Lia Ridley calling the movements a universal language, Steve Ridley on containing the chi, and Justin Stone's "Inch, time, gem."

Roundup of newly accredited teachers' classes, from Harriet Henderson's Church of Religious Science in Newhall and Lynne Blackford's Montana retreat workshops to Dorothy Marks's 65 students and St. Luke's Hospital Arthritis Clinic.

Chris Curran was hired by the PTA at Roosevelt Elementary in Fargo to lead Joy Thru Movement for early-drop-off children, drawing 20 to 50 kids twice weekly and local TV coverage.

Loretta Shiver's first eight-week class for five children aged 7 to 10, including two with motor problems, one of whom her occupational therapist noted had improved.