sabonim–a Korean term and title signifying a master level martial arts teacher/instructor
Our theme for the coming spring and end of the school year is maintaining focus. We remind our students and parents that like everything we want to excel at, this takes practice.
We play a game with our grade school students, a modified Simon Says, to encourage focus, concentration and listening skills. In order to be successful at the game you need to stay present in the current moment. It only takes a few seconds off task to miss an important direction.
When we do become distracted, we remind ourselves: “Focus my eyes. Focus my mind. Focus my body.”
We challenge our students and parents as well, to begin every day with a brief meditation. A recent article in the New York Times examined how mindfulness can help manage stress, improve communication and increase productivity. They quoted Dr. Baime from the University of Pennsylvania who said that mindfulness helps “create a world where you experience depth, meaning and connectedness. You see joy and sadness more fully and settle more deeply into an authentic way of being.” (
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