Over ten
years ago, our middle school’s drug and alcohol counselor, Cheryl, handed me a
small rectangular scrap of white paper with a phone number and a name written
on it:
893-8893
David Quinlan
“Call
him,” she said. “My son takes karate classes from him. I
think he could help you.”
We had
just walked out of a meeting in our principal’s office, and were wondering what
to do next. Beth, my teaching colleague, and I were asked to create
a general education alternative program for our students, and we had discussed
some possibilities. That’s when Cheryl gave me Dave’s phone number.
“We need
a less traditional classroom,” my principal, Mary, had stated at the
meeting. She was the newly hired principal for our middle school and
was in the midst of restructuring our teaching teams and programs. “We
need to offer a different classroom setting, a different approach and give our
students options.”
We
listened closely. Fresh from a conference on alternative education
programs, Beth and I shared some of our ideas with Mary, including a
description of the martial arts classes that were part of neighboring school’s
alternative program, Team Thrive. Neither of us had any martial arts
experience or any experience with alternative education, but from our
conversations with Phil, the lead teacher of Team Thrive, and his students, it
seemed like martial arts could be a good fit. Maybe we could do the
same for our middle school students. Bill Ayers, in To Teach, writes
that “the range of opportunities for students to experience success must be
wide and not narrow.” Martial arts would certainly broaden that
range.
“Go
ahead. Sounds like a good idea,” Mary responded, when we raised the
possibility of including martial arts in our middle school’s new alternative
program.
A few
days later, I held the small piece of white paper in my hand while I dialed the
phone number, and left a voice message. “Would it be possible for my
middle school students to take martial arts classes with you?” I
asked, and then left my contact information.
What I
didn’t know was that Dave, after years of working with adolescents, saw a need
to create a martial art that was purely focused on self-defense. Students
could experience the mental and physical benefits of martial arts without
learning offensive or dangerous techniques. Drawing from his years
of training in karate, judo, and Arnis, Bushintai-Do, the way of the warrior in
mind and body, was developed and my middle school students were to become its
first practitioners.
That
was May of 2002.
Sometimes
I am amazed that a brief conversation or a simple decision becomes, when
reflected upon years later, a significant event. This is true when I
remember the scrap of paper Cheryl gave me with Dave’s phone number, and the
intuitive decision Beth and I made to include martial arts as part of our
alternative program. That decision and Cheryl’s recommendation was
the beginning of a martial arts tradition for our alternative classroom, called
Team Velocity, and the beginning of a powerful learning experience for many of
our students, past and present.
Over the
years, I have witnessed how Bushintai-Do has helped our students grow in ways I
never expected. While students learn and practice the physical
skills of self-defense, they also make academic and social/emotional gains,
even though these two activities, martial arts and school performance, seem
unrelated. However, as I investigated and read more about this connection, I found
that current and emerging research confirms this link: The mind
moves the body and the body moves the mind.
 |
| Practicing the coordinated movements of Bushintai-Do. |
John
Ratey, MD, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical
School, states that when we move our bodies in coordinated and complicated
ways, such as during our martial art forms and techniques, and when we build
our aerobic and anaerobic capacities, such as when we exercise or practice a
martial art, we also spark biological changes in our brain cells that make us
more ready, willing, and able to learn (Spark, the Revolutionary
New Science of Exercise and the Brain). Dr. Ratey also claims that public
schools could better serve their students by building upon this connection, and
he gives the example of the public schools in Naperville, Illinois. Students
in this school district begin their day with aerobic exercise and movement
activities, such as yoga, dance or martial arts, and Naperville students boast
the highest achievement scores for eighth graders on the international tests of
math and science than any other school district in the United States. These
students rank sixth in the world for mathematics and first for science.
Team
Velocity students followed a similar trend. While pursuing an advanced degree
in mathematics
education, I investigated the relationship between physical activity
(aerobic exercise and Bushintai-Do) and academic performance. In a year-long
study focused on my students, I was able to show a statistically significant increase
in physical fitness, as well as an increase in mathematics achievement. In
addition to this quantitative data, Dave and I and other teachers have
collected over ten years of reflective writing that speak to this body/mind
connection. Many students often comment about their improved
ability to defend themselves or mention that they are physically stronger as a
result of their martial arts training, but all students eventually reveal their
personal insights and growth as a result of their participation in this martial
art. Interestingly, when we ask students to describe the qualities
of a Bushintai-Do warrior, students always think beyond the physical
traits and mention the qualities of determination, respect, courage, resilience, strength, open-mindedness,
self-control, leadership, knowledge, and heart.
 |
| Lessons begin and end with seated mindfulness practice. |
In over 25
years of teaching and learning with students, I know of very few “teaching
methods” that encourage this type of introspection and personal well-being and
growth. Because of integrating Bushintai-Do into my classroom, I have learned
from my students what it means to be a warrior in both mind and body and
believe this type of learning has made a lasting difference not only for my
students, but for me as well. As Bill Ayers concludes in his book To
Teach, “Teachers must understand that even as they teach, they will also be
taught. Even as they help others develop, they will, themselves,
change and grow.”
Nancy Keller, Education Coordinator
Bushintai-Do Programs, Inc.
Milton, Vermont
Teacher at Winooski Middle/High School
Winooski, Vermont
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