Look at all the trash they pulled out of the creek! This was a great job by these students.
Lila G. cleans up Aberdeen Creek with her family
Return to Wudang Mountain
Greetings
I am Corey Hopp, a student at the school of Master Yuan Xiu Gang in Wudangshan, a rural city in Hubei province, China. I have been training here intermittently since 2008, and with full-time intensity since 2009. I am now a member of our school’s traditional class, an amazing opportunity for non-Chinese to learn the ancient arts of Taijiquan (Taichi), Gongfu (Kungfu), and Qigong, as well as Daoist philosophy and tradition.
On my recent trip home to Annapolis, I had the pleasure of meeting the Balanced Life Skills community and teaching a brief seminar covering some of the basic exercises I have learned here in Wudang. With this blog, I want to continue to share some of the rewards of my adventures here. Imperfect as my understanding of my Master’s teachings may be, I hope to set down my reflections on what I am learning and give a series of snapshots of the life of a foreigner in rural China. I won’t claim the things I write to be anything more or less than my own opinions and observations, but hey, that’s blogging.
As I mentioned, I am a member of the traditional class. This means that I have committed to be here at the school 11 months of the year for 3 or 5 years. I have committed to a disciplined and rigorous lifestyle and training program. I have pledged myself to do what my Master tells me to do, in the faith that his wisdom will rub off on me someday. A day when I am not in pain, whether from fatigue or from sparring practice, is rare. The discipline makes space, however, for great peace of mind. Check out www.wudangtaoistarts.com for more info on my class.
I have just returned to Wudangshan from a trip home to visit my family and repair my finances. Before that trip home, I was in China for my longest continuous training, 15 months. Those months changed me, and just being home for a while was an adventure in itself. But check in next time to see what I mean.
3 Things I Learned While My Plane Crashed
What would the thoughts be that go through your mind, if you knew that your life was about to come to an end? What we can be reminded of by someone who went through this experience and lived, can help us to be aware of the preciousness of living our life and being there for others, especially family. The 3 things this man learned may be the same for you or maybe not. It does remind us though to pause and ask ourselves … “If I knew I only had a short time to live, how would I live it?” Here is my reminder – All of us have a short time to live.
Ryan R. performs leadership with art
For my service project I worked with my grandmother to design an art project from my class to complete together for the fundraising auction at our school. We designed an under the sea collage. My class divided into groups and each completed a square. Marmee and I painted the background, and my group did the treasure chest square. We named it “Shark Bottom”. The golden shark is the one I made. It was lots of fun, and here is a picture of it all finished.
“You can’t play with us” – what can you do about young girls who bully?
If you are bullied as a young child will you continue to be bullied as you go into your teen years and beyond? In 2009 there was a study done that indicates that for boys who were victims of bullying at the age between 6 and 9, they were no more likely to continue to be victims 2 -4 years later. However this was not the case for girls.
“The researchers said that girls’ “tightly knit” friendship networks could make it difficult for them to “escape the victimization role”. *
As we look at the behavior of young girls even in pre-school developing habits of excluding each other, we need to recognize the long term affects on both of them. For those who are the target of the exclusion with, “you can’t play with us”, this is a very confusing time. This type of behavior is not just a ‘rite of passage’, or ‘girls being girls’, anymore than a boy who continues to hit another boy should be allowed to do so. This sort of aggression should be taken as seriously as any other type of aggression. 
If a young girl takes on a role of ‘victim’ this may be taken into all of her relationships including into who she dates and possibly marries. So what can we do?
Parents and teachers should be aware of the formation of these close ties that exclude others and suggest that if they want a special time to play together, that can be arranged, but we are now going to play in a manner that is good for the whole group.
Teaching our young children to play together with respect is starting them off of the right foot. If we as parents take a strong stand on friendships, exclusions, and respect for the feelings of others, our children will respond to those values.
Balanced Life Skills is working on bully prevention and more important on character building in all of our students. Do you have a story about bullying that you would share with us? The more information we have on what is happening in our community, the better we can prepare our children to be better citizens.
Social network: Stop Bullies Now
Forum question: Has your child been bullied in school?
Thank you for your help and be sure to send these links to your friends as we work to build a community against bullying behavior.
*Wolke, D., Woods, S., & Samara, M. (2009). Who escapes or remains a victim of bullying in primary school? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27 (4), 835-851 DOI:
Are Pre-School Children Being Bullied?
The simple answer is YES! Having said that though, some of the teasing that takes place with pre-school children is not bullying in the classic sense and definition. It may be young ones just trying on their social skills and not yet having them honed yet. The definition of bullying is the intentional use of power over another person to manipulate or hurt the target physically or emotionally over a period of time. Therefore it is something that is taking place on more than one ocassion.
Increasingly though we are seeing and hearing reports of pre-school children repeatedly picking on, teasing and physically hurting other children in their class or on the playground. In an effort to understand what is happening to our children and then to offer suggestions to resolve these issues with parents and teachers I am interested in hearing the stories from you about what has happened to your child or to someone you have seen. What have you done to resolve the issues? How have teachers and administrators reacted when you have discussed the questions about bullying? For the teachers, how do you deal with this conduct when you see it in your classes or playground?
What is your story? Were you bullied as a small child? Is your son or daughter being teased on a regular basis or being bullied in another way? Tell your story here as we work on changing the culture in our communities.
Continue to check back as we work on this subject of helping our children build the character and courage to be their best.