TCC class offered to kids in public middle school in Raleigh, NC

I moved to North Carolina about one year ago from Canada. Unable to work under the present immigration visa, I was searching for volunteering options.

I offered to work at the Guidance Office at my son’s [public middle] school, first filing for about two months, (the time needed to develop some contacts and to assess the need for T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) practice). I then offered to teach the TCC movements to my son’s counselor, Mrs. Lord. She, right away, more than welcomed the idea since she had always wanted to introduce T’ai Chi to the school to see how this would help the students, especially those presenting attention, concentration, and coordination difficulties.

We were both excited about this and organized a meeting to plan the classes. It was presented to the administration and to the teachers as an experiment to evaluate how it could help some students. Mrs. Lord chose the students. I provided her with some information about the TCC discipline to give to the parents with their written approval for their child to learn the TCC movements.

The first time I met the students was informal. I presented the TCC practice to them and we practiced some movements. They were all immediately interested in learning the TCC discipline.

The schedule was set up in such a way that we had a half hour during homeroom for me to teach. A classroom was available most of the time and a few times we needed to move to another classroom. Any distraction in the regular schedule resulted in time needed to adjust and refocus on our TCC practice.

I quickly realized that within the hectic school schedule, unexpected changes could come up regularly and I needed to be very flexible and flowing — not attached to what I had planned that day and how much I would be able to teach because by the time we gathered everyone and got settled, the 30 minute session became a 15 minute session (which we did twice a week for consistency and continuity). I learned not to be attached to how much they were actually learning during the 10, 15, or 20 minutes that were left to teach and practice the movements. I decided to come with the attitude and intention that whatever they were getting that day was exactly what they needed to learn.

Their short attention span and constant distractibility was so high that, in a way, the time allowed was short, but the quality of the teaching and integration were 100%. I taught them one new movement per class and practiced the learned ones with three repetitions. The emphasis was on putting their attention in the soles of their feet and moving slowly through very thick air. Although some had difficulty integrating the movements due to coordination difficulties, they were able to move with fluidity through movements done reasonably well.

The kids I was teaching are the ones who are always criticized, put down, shown that they are wrong. I wanted them to live a positive experience so when they were showing fluidity, shifting their weight onto each leg, moving onto bent knees, they were congratulated tenfold for each time they were showing it. I also wanted us to have fun. Our relationship and feeling of acceptance helped the flow of the Chi on many levels. The kids were always looking forward to the TCC class and said, “Here we can have so much fun.”

Here are a few spontaneous comments that were said during the sessions. After doing “Around the Platter” and starting to teach “Bass Drum,” one said: “We’ve done enough dishes for now — we are ready to play music.” During a very peaceful class, the shoes of one of the students were squeaking so much that they kept losing their focus to attend to the squeaking sound of the shoes so I told them that this was actually the TCC bird’s sounds. We all laughed and they returned their attention to the soles of their feet, peacefully, and concentrated for the rest of the class on listening to the TCC bird. I utilized any comments or reactions to bring them back to the TCC practice and towards more understanding of the movement or the principle of the TCC discipline or the CHI itself.

Out of six students who started:
One boy stopped because it was obvious that the more he was quieting the more he was fighting it. He was not able to tolerate what was inside of him. He needed his hyperactivity at this point in time. One girl learned individually the first nine movements. She had missed too many sessions from the beginning as she had been expelled for a while from school. She learned quickly and enjoyed her TCC practice. She told me that after practicing the first time after school, she brought her youngest sister to the park and did all the clean up of the house because she had so much positive energy in her. She felt great. The challenge, of course, is to practice the TCC movements consistently in order to have lasting results.

One boy quit after he had learned eight movements and came back after Christmas but has not been consistent. He was interested to know so he could quiet down kids that he babysat by moving very slowly or simply by quieting himself.

One girl (Renée) was absolutely consistent in attending every single class. She just loved TCC practice. At mid term she wrote: “Thank you so much for teaching me [the] T’ai Chi Chih [movements]. It has been a wonderful experience and I will remember it for life. One day, my sister ask me what T’ai Chi Chih [practice] was all about. I told her that it was the circulation of energy in the body, and that it was great way to tolerate stress. Now, she looks at me in a different light. She is also more caring then she has ever been to me. It was amazing!” At the end of the year she wrote: “Thanks so much for such a great year. I’ve really enjoyed learning to use my energy for good. T’ai Chi Chih [practice] has reduced soooo much my stressful energy into energy that I can use. Thanks sooooo much!!!!!”

One girl (Karen), also consistent in her attendance, demonstrated at first an aggressive behavior with others. She has changed it toward softness during the course of the year. Her worry about it was that if she became soft it would mean that she is weak and others would take advantage of her. My challenge was to move her toward the paradoxical perception where being soft is powerful. I think that she was getting it towards the end of the classes. She needed to learn to tame her powerful aggressive energy. She wrote mid term: “Thank you for the lessons over the weeks. It has been a great experience and a lots of fun and I will most certainly be back for lessons in the New Year.” At the end of the year she wrote: “I’ve had lots of fun this year. T’ai Chi Chih [practice] has realy helped me and my school work. I’m going to Miss you and this class a bunch.”

One boy (Andrew) demonstrated the poorest integration of the principle of TCC practice and the moves themselves, yet he had gained more than what I could ever have expected. Here is what he wrote mid term about his experience: “Thank you for teaching me how to control my anger. My parents also thank you. We do not fight as often any more and now we laugh a lot more. My parents think that I use my energy for good reasons other than running around my room like a retard and you made me realize that people don’t always make fun of me and I just need to laugh at it. Thank you for everything.” At the end of the year he wrote: “Your teaching has made me deal w/ my anger better and concentrate better.”

The Counselor herself learned the movements, as she was part of most of the classes. She was there as a student. This also gave the students a good role model of how to learn.

This experience with 13-14 year old adolescents has taught me lots of good lessons that I wanted to share with the TCC community. I learned: to be more flexible, to let go of expectations of outcome, to accept the students as they were that day and focus on the positive and their success, to welcome them back anytime no matter what, that something happens inside even if I do not see it in the way they move, to trust that they are getting what they need at that moment, to let go of my Ego, to focus on the principles of TCC practice very early in the teaching.

During some very peaceful class they would say: “Wow, we did not know that there was so much silence and peace in quietness.” Their discovery of the CHI was as much a fearful thing for some as it was a curious thing to experience that it felt very good.

I took every occasion to correct their perception or bring new understanding about how their emotions changed naturally with the circulating and the balancing of the CHI. I referred to the Folsom Prison story where prisoners had transformed their anger into joy, love, peace, letting them know that if TCC practice had that effect on the prisoners, then imagine what effect it will have on them. TCC practice is a tool for them to use for their benefit, to help them harmonize their Body, Mind and Spirit.

I discovered that some students had a preconceived idea about the concept of the Yin-Yang. I needed to reframe this in an acceptable manner in order for them to feel OK with the concept of the yin-yang chi.

Here are some suggestions to be successful with teaching young adolescents: To have consistency in the method of teaching, being very focused, and leading them gently and firmly back to TCC practice in every possible way that you can imagine. Be creative. Have fun. Be very flexible. To have the counselor present for the first semester was very helpful until I got to know the students. As my comfort level grew and her confidence in my capacity to handle the class (remember those are kids presenting with behavioral difficulties), she was able to attend to other urgencies that came up during that time.

Many others students showed interest in learning the TCC discipline as they were learning what it did to this group of students but, unfortunately, even though we had planned to start a new group in January, it did not materialize due to the increased load that the counselors had to handle (many new students). We both agreed that I would continue to teach to the original group only as they were asking for it.

This was a great experience for everyone involved. All the students who continued with the TCC class throughout the year passed their State exams, showed increased confidence and softness. They showed more focus, improved attention during the class. My sense was that as they experienced the inner peace and joy that TCC practice brings, their attention was in seeking it and reexperiencing it again during and outside the classes.