Dear parents,
Last week was our last class before summer. At same time we had a parent meeting. A committee was formed to guide how our dizigui class move the next phase. It was determined that there is no class in summer and we will resume in September. For new session, we need to refresh this mailing list due to new registration. Most likely we'll stay at same community center. More details will come soon.
It's also a good time to do the postmortem. Our dizigui class was initiated by Ms. Liu, JinLing and Chen, Hua. During the beginning of the class, they spent HUGE amount of time and effort to set up this course. Without them, our children will miss this opportunity to learn dizigui. Thank you!! We understand this is no easy task. Especially for JinLing Laoshi, she, at that time, had a baby only 4 months. But she fearlessly faced this situation and came to teach every week till February.
Starting from the very end of last year, I gradually involved into the class and took over at the middle of session. You all gave (and continue to give) me a lot of support, feedback and encouragement. By reviewing my teaching during of past several months, I should confess that I have long way to go in this journey, especially on the aspect of the preparation of class. After discussing with Mr. Zhang, Feng who is dizigui teacher in Toronto, I realize the more effort should be put into the preparation and this is key to have steady quality of class (Thanks a lot, Mr.Zhang, I learned a lot from you during our phone conversation).
The other thing bothers me most is the special nature of the dizigui class. This is more or less a moral and Chinese culture class. I do not feel (consistently) I have enough moral standing to conduct teaching since there are lots of dizigui principles that I could not weave into my daily life. How can I tell others what should do if I could not following them by myself. I shared the following story of Gandhi with several of you to illustrate this dilemma:
A lady brought her son and said he ate too much sugar. She wanted Gandhi to tell him to stop. Gandhi said to bring the child back the next week. The next week she brought the child and Gandhi said “Stop eating sugar child”. And the child did. A month later the lady came back and said “My child has done what you asked, but why could you not have spoken to him the first time I came.” “Lady”, said Gandhi, “a week earlier I was still eating sugar”. (source: http://www.brefigroup.co.uk/acrobat/gandhi_and_sugar.pdf)
The great mind like Gandhi needed to challenge himself and then teach others. So should I. During summer break, I will spend some time on reflecting how to coordinate (I am afraid of using word "teach" now because of Gandhi) class more effectively.
I am running out of time for writing this note. Last words for all of you: Once again, thanks a lot for your continuous help, support and trust.
Enjoy your weekend, summer and happy life,
Fan
