Our Mission: We exist to teach baduk in our community to people from every walk of life, with a particular emphasis on community development in high risk neighborhoods and equipping leaders committed to teaching young beginners.
Our Vision: Our vision is of communities wherein gentle people of all persuasions through the game of baduk enjoy enriching communion across boundaries.
ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
* Teaching Teachers (Our Number One Objective): In order to maximize our reach to children and youth, we have found it works better to focus our limited manpower and time on giving priority to teaching those groups which include adult volunteers willing to learn alongside their younger charges, and even come to our home for weekend workshops where we can give higher quality, one-on-one attention to focus on rapidly building the basic playing and teaching competencies of these adults, who will be teaching beginning young people. For example, the Creedmoor/Butner area has several hundred adult volunteers working in the public schools, and they are currently "under-utilized," opining that they "do not have enough to do." This unusual level of community spirit to transform the lives of these children and youth is a veritable goldmine, a blessing from God. Accordingly, we want to give all we have to help those adults become capable teachers of beginners (in extra-curricular after-school go clubs, or during in-school special activity hours). Many adults feel they are not good at learning complex strategy games. Not a problem. We are far more interested in attitude and expression of long-term commitment than in initial competency.
All this is based on the understanding that while we have learned the game fairly well while in South Korea for 14 years (my kids taking daily lessons from age 3), we are only five people teaching. We see potential for far greater riches by focusing on adults with a strong desire to help teach. Additionally, these like-minded adults, volunteering their time as teachers of beginners, will surely be sharing their wisdom with all these beginning students, and that quality of one-on-one individual attention is something our underprivileged youth need so badly, many coming from over-stressed, single-parent homes. Baduk is an ideal game for sharing quality time together and building positive, enduring relationships across wide demographic and age boundaries.
* Cognitive Development: We want to see dramatic gains in the mental performance of our students (evident on school test scores). And if we the opportunity to introduce this delectable game to senior citizens, we would hope to get feedback from them that they feel mentally sharper. Such studies are manifold in South Korea, where you can get a Ph.D. in this game, and where neuroscientists have long held a keen interest in the brains of baduk players.
* Excellence in Diversity: Just as Jesus says that heaven will contain individuals from every people group, so we would like to eventually see the emergence of top players from every socioeconomic and ethnic group develop within our sphere of influence, such that they can compete well in tournaments. We believe this sort of success should serve as stellar "pioneer advertising" for the game in America, and foster strong interest in baduk among the young, much as the way Bobby Fisher's success precipitated a huge interest in chess among the youth of our nation.
* Character: For optimal character development, we want to always strive to live model lives before our students, being above and beyond reproach.
* Influence: When working in churches and explicitly Christian organization, we want to be open to sharing our testimonies in a genuine, articulate manner that could be engaging and inspiring to the youth we teach. Working through the public school system and other secular venues, we want to get to know students and imbue them with confidence in themselves, inspiring them to do well in their studies and other areas of life, not remain entirely focused on the strategies of the game. In secular settings, we want to fit in well with administrative methods and objectives which view the game of go as a fabulous learning supplement.
FOCUS GROUPS:
* Outreach: While our primary focus group is public schools and churches which serve disadvantaged students; where we have time available, and when group leaders can come to our home for more intensive training, we want to teach anyone with a strong interest in learning. Our heretofore experience is mostly working through the public school system, Lighthouse Christian homeschooling association, and teaching seminary students who hope to use baduk building relationships in their outreach.
However, we want to be open to and attractive to varied groups who could benefit from our teaching, such as children from lower income families, orphans and de facto orphans, juvenile delinquents, and the elderly. Again, we will prioritize among these secondary target groups, selecting first those who have adult workers/volunteers who are willing to learn the game and commit strong investment of their time to teaching beginners. We share our time in the hope that the Holy Spirit might use this experience to endow us all (teachers and students alike) with greater hope and stronger faith.
* Building Family Unity: We have seen the best results when teaching the whole family (parents included) so that they can learn together and play together at home between lessons, fostering family unity (and time for family engagement in a fun way that omits TVs, smart phones, electronic gaming machines and computers. We feel that these electronic media, while useful, can have an unsavory tendency (when not used judiciously) to isolate family members even while they live together under the same roof. We have had several families come learn from us at our home, and after seven sessions, we award them with a certificate of achievement.
* Public Safety Servants (First Responders): We have taught two groups of firemen (who quickly took to the game with an unusually robust panache vis-a-vis the competitive aspect of this ancient Chinese military strategy game). This spirited, positive reception inspired us to consider teaching police as well, in hopes that they could one day know the game well enough to teach beginners and volunteer an hour or two once a month in our center (future pipe dream) ensconced in a high risk neighborhood. This could assist the realization of one salient objective within modern day police forces, which is to build more positive community relations in precisely these high risk neighborhoods.
* We believe the sort of mental acuity promoted through the particular skills development you acquire through learning the game of baduk would be particularly beneficial for people working in emergency and critical situations where the mind must instantly be able to recognize patterns and threats requiring immediate attention verses secondary threats, which can wait a couple of seconds. Baduk was originally conceived as a military strategy game in China several thousand years ago. It later rose to the level of one of the four fine arts that every Chinese nobleman should know.
Our Vision: Our vision is of communities wherein gentle people of all persuasions through the game of baduk enjoy enriching communion across boundaries.
ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
* Teaching Teachers (Our Number One Objective): In order to maximize our reach to children and youth, we have found it works better to focus our limited manpower and time on giving priority to teaching those groups which include adult volunteers willing to learn alongside their younger charges, and even come to our home for weekend workshops where we can give higher quality, one-on-one attention to focus on rapidly building the basic playing and teaching competencies of these adults, who will be teaching beginning young people. For example, the Creedmoor/Butner area has several hundred adult volunteers working in the public schools, and they are currently "under-utilized," opining that they "do not have enough to do." This unusual level of community spirit to transform the lives of these children and youth is a veritable goldmine, a blessing from God. Accordingly, we want to give all we have to help those adults become capable teachers of beginners (in extra-curricular after-school go clubs, or during in-school special activity hours). Many adults feel they are not good at learning complex strategy games. Not a problem. We are far more interested in attitude and expression of long-term commitment than in initial competency.
All this is based on the understanding that while we have learned the game fairly well while in South Korea for 14 years (my kids taking daily lessons from age 3), we are only five people teaching. We see potential for far greater riches by focusing on adults with a strong desire to help teach. Additionally, these like-minded adults, volunteering their time as teachers of beginners, will surely be sharing their wisdom with all these beginning students, and that quality of one-on-one individual attention is something our underprivileged youth need so badly, many coming from over-stressed, single-parent homes. Baduk is an ideal game for sharing quality time together and building positive, enduring relationships across wide demographic and age boundaries.
* Cognitive Development: We want to see dramatic gains in the mental performance of our students (evident on school test scores). And if we the opportunity to introduce this delectable game to senior citizens, we would hope to get feedback from them that they feel mentally sharper. Such studies are manifold in South Korea, where you can get a Ph.D. in this game, and where neuroscientists have long held a keen interest in the brains of baduk players.
* Excellence in Diversity: Just as Jesus says that heaven will contain individuals from every people group, so we would like to eventually see the emergence of top players from every socioeconomic and ethnic group develop within our sphere of influence, such that they can compete well in tournaments. We believe this sort of success should serve as stellar "pioneer advertising" for the game in America, and foster strong interest in baduk among the young, much as the way Bobby Fisher's success precipitated a huge interest in chess among the youth of our nation.
* Character: For optimal character development, we want to always strive to live model lives before our students, being above and beyond reproach.
* Influence: When working in churches and explicitly Christian organization, we want to be open to sharing our testimonies in a genuine, articulate manner that could be engaging and inspiring to the youth we teach. Working through the public school system and other secular venues, we want to get to know students and imbue them with confidence in themselves, inspiring them to do well in their studies and other areas of life, not remain entirely focused on the strategies of the game. In secular settings, we want to fit in well with administrative methods and objectives which view the game of go as a fabulous learning supplement.
FOCUS GROUPS:
* Outreach: While our primary focus group is public schools and churches which serve disadvantaged students; where we have time available, and when group leaders can come to our home for more intensive training, we want to teach anyone with a strong interest in learning. Our heretofore experience is mostly working through the public school system, Lighthouse Christian homeschooling association, and teaching seminary students who hope to use baduk building relationships in their outreach.
However, we want to be open to and attractive to varied groups who could benefit from our teaching, such as children from lower income families, orphans and de facto orphans, juvenile delinquents, and the elderly. Again, we will prioritize among these secondary target groups, selecting first those who have adult workers/volunteers who are willing to learn the game and commit strong investment of their time to teaching beginners. We share our time in the hope that the Holy Spirit might use this experience to endow us all (teachers and students alike) with greater hope and stronger faith.
* Building Family Unity: We have seen the best results when teaching the whole family (parents included) so that they can learn together and play together at home between lessons, fostering family unity (and time for family engagement in a fun way that omits TVs, smart phones, electronic gaming machines and computers. We feel that these electronic media, while useful, can have an unsavory tendency (when not used judiciously) to isolate family members even while they live together under the same roof. We have had several families come learn from us at our home, and after seven sessions, we award them with a certificate of achievement.
* Public Safety Servants (First Responders): We have taught two groups of firemen (who quickly took to the game with an unusually robust panache vis-a-vis the competitive aspect of this ancient Chinese military strategy game). This spirited, positive reception inspired us to consider teaching police as well, in hopes that they could one day know the game well enough to teach beginners and volunteer an hour or two once a month in our center (future pipe dream) ensconced in a high risk neighborhood. This could assist the realization of one salient objective within modern day police forces, which is to build more positive community relations in precisely these high risk neighborhoods.
* We believe the sort of mental acuity promoted through the particular skills development you acquire through learning the game of baduk would be particularly beneficial for people working in emergency and critical situations where the mind must instantly be able to recognize patterns and threats requiring immediate attention verses secondary threats, which can wait a couple of seconds. Baduk was originally conceived as a military strategy game in China several thousand years ago. It later rose to the level of one of the four fine arts that every Chinese nobleman should know.