ADVICE from Mind Body teachers who have years of experience working in Public Education, etc. teaching school children.

Sifu Cooper has been teaching Mind Body for children for many years, and is Founder of "Push for Peace" a Tai Chi program reaching children worldwide like this Ugandan refugee camp in Africa. 

What is the value of a tai chi program for children? 

Tai Chi for kids is invaluable. As a teacher, sometimes you're not sure what impact you're having. Kids are often just behaving themselves as they are trained to do in school, and not providing feedback, but because I started this in 1999, many of the kids in those early classes have told me now that they're adults that those classes had a profound and positive effect on them. What should such a program involve?

Every Tai Chi teacher seems to have differing approaches, but we all agreed the most important thing is to make it fun. Kids are more agile and have no problem with the range of motion. The biggest problems are to get them to move slowly and to keep their attention. You need to engage their minds first. They actually grasp concepts like Yin and Yang and imaginary energy balls really well. 

SIFU COOPER RECENTLY WAS PART OF A PRESENTATION AT HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL ON "MIND BODY FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN," and the Global Transformation Project asked her ...

What responses did you receive from your presentation, poster, casual conversations and contacts at the conference?

Great responses all around, especially from other educators who are using Tai Chi in their classrooms. 

• What are our goals with the children’s program?

My goal is ... world peace. 

• Did you meet anyone at the conference who might be able to work with us or help us promote our plans?

Everyone I met was a sympathizer but they're engaging with their respective communities themselves. There were a few who promote others, like Lama. I met one amazing Sifu who has a cancer clinic in Seattle and has been curing cancers that came back after Chemo!  

Dr. CJ Rhoads was a pioneer in teaching Chi Kung Meditation to university students, and discovering via her multi-year research project that when students preparing for tests were divided into 3 groups (1) Doing Chi Kung Meditation prior to a test, 2) Doing aerobic exercise, 3) Studying for the test prior to taking it) ... that in every study the students doing Chi Kung Meditation outperformed the other two control groups on their test scores.

DR. RHOADS JUST RETURNED FROM PRESENTING "MIND BODY SCIENCE FOR SCHOOL AGE STUDENTS" AT HARVARD'S ANNUAL MIND BODY SCIENCE CONFERENCE. Here's her report  ...

" We did make an announcement about the need for mind-body education in public schools and many people went on and filled out the petition on Global Transformation Project or wrote down the information.  There was general agreement that this is a critical need by everyone."

-- Dr. CJ Rhoads, Kutztown University