Evanston, IL School Paper

Amy Hackenberg, Evanston, IL: article appeared in The Glenbrook South Oracle, the newspaper at the high school where she teaches. (Staff Reporter, Mary Hong)

In contrast to the hilariously dubbed Samurai Sunday movies, the truth of the martial and meditative arts is quite profound, and their history long-lived. Why didn’t these mind and body disciplines become as obsolete as, for example, the practice of binding girls’ feet? Looking beyond the obvious factors, the reasons for training in the arts are often as simple as the feeling of increased awareness and energy.

T’ai Chi Chih (tie chee chuh), a 20-year old art that has been growing rapidly in the United States, is one of these popular practices. But far from being a new concept, T’ai Chi Chih, which literally means “knowledge of the way of energy,” has much of the same foundation as the most ancient of all martial arts, T’ai Chi Ch’uan. In purpose and practice, however, T’ai Chi Chih differs in many aspects. Composed of twenty circular, cyclical movements, the intriguing purpose of these arts is to circulate and balance the Taoist concepts of Yin and Yang, two opposite forces.

The opportunity to learn the movements of this art has come to Glenbrook South through a faculty member from the math department, Amy Hackenberg. T’ai Chi Chih grew to be a central part of her life during her early career. She explained, “I was in my second year of teaching math in California. I always felt so much anxiety on Sundays, being a teacher….And it was January–the worst month, because it falls right in the middle of the year. I read about a class in the Los Angeles Times. It interested me, so I tried it”… As she persisted through year after year of classes, the personal benefits of T’ai Chi Chih became evident, and was even encouraged to teach the classes…

Now, a certified instructor of T’ai Chi Chih, she says, “I’ve come to believe it’s the most valuable thing I teach.”…Though she had been teaching night classes primarily for adults, she realized she hadn’t offered classes for teenagers and thus decided to start offering them freely at Glenbrook South.

Hackenberg’s class tries to provide Glenbrook South students and faculty with the ability to better cope with daily stress and pressure. Thus T’ai Chi Chih is a new and exciting after-school prospect for those looking to move and feel better about themselves.

The classes meet on Wednesday at 3:15 p.m. in the makeup room below the stage. Newcomers or people already involved in other activities may come whenever they have available free time. Hackenberg explained, “It takes practice and doing, not words. You can’t read about it in a book and say, ‘There. I know T’ai Chi Chih.'” An open mind is also necessary to understanding it. Delving deeper into the meaning of T’ai Chi Chih, it emerges as mainly a body exercise that concentrates on how to move softly and fluidly. As Hackenberg elaborated, “People think softness is weakness. But it’s not. In China, there’s a saying that softness is the greatest strength.” In this way T’ai Chi Chih differs from the strength-minded martial arts. Also, T’ai Chi Chih does not involve opponents, as in the duality, one-on-one sense of movement in karate and similar martial arts. The purpose of T’ai Chi Chih is not self-defense, and the benefits of the movements are improved muscle tone, more awareness of the body, increased energy and alertness, and even a feeling of peace.