6309 SW Capitol Highway, Portland OR, 97239
503 432 7450
Our guest instructor for today’s Inservice Camp was Aaron Kandlik of The Oregon Fencing Alliance. Students were taken through various drills that helped them understand basic fencing footwork with advance, retreat, lunge, and handling of the various equipment with the foil, gloves, mask, and coat.
The lifeskill of the day was
Effort, and along with discussions surrounding Personal Best and the benefits of conditioning on one’s body and psyche, we shared a dramatic read-aloud, “Dancing to freedom : the true story of Mao’s last dancer / Li Cunxin.” This poignant autobiography likened the unlikely journey of one poor Chinese boy’s path to freedom and fame as an international ballet star to a parable told to him by his father of a tenacious frog long trapped in a deep well. The students were able to parse out the theme as one of hard work as a path to freedom, and likewise inferred that maintaining an attitude of openness over time [in this case to possible opportunity] can demand great effort.