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InTime
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Posts: 1676
Location: CHINA-at-large
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 Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:38 am Post subject: LaughterClubs--atChina'sStressfulSchools |
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Consider starting Laughter Club in your school!
(On the Promoting Change thread on this China Job-related pg.1, I have samples of how I use laughter w/kindy kids.)
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http://www.nbedu.gov.cn/english/show.asp?id=26267
Students urged to laugh out loud
BEIJING, March 23 -- Students at Shanghai's Fudan University are being invited to laugh away their cares and concerns by joining a new club set up by members of the faculty.
The "Heartfelt Laughing Club", which opened earlier this month, was set up by the university's psychological consultancy center, which helps students to cope with the stresses and strains of everyday life.
"While the club is still in its infancy, we are confident it will be a success, " Zhou Ye, a spokesperson for the university, said.
Li Shuzhen, a psychologist with the center and one of the club's founders, said: "We have already had more than 10 students coming to the club."
Li said the idea for the club came to her when she recalled telling her parents about the TV sitcom "My Own Swordman", which debuted on CCTV-1 during last year's Spring Festival and has been rescreened several times since.
"It wasn't the way I told the story, but because I was laughing so much, my parents started laughing too," Li said. "That's when I realised that laughter is contagious and that it can be very influential."
Li discussed her idea with colleagues before putting forward a plan for the club to the university's administration.
Zhou Ye said that before submitting the plan, the psychologists carried out a lot of research into similar clubs around the world.
"By surfing the Internet we found out about a laughter club in Shenzhen, which was the first in China," Li said.
After further research, Li and her colleagues discovered that the world's first club was set up in Bombay, India by physician Madan Kataria.
Kataria opened the first of his Laughing Clubs International in March 1995. Within a year there were more than 80 clubs throughout India, and today there are several thousand around the world.
Li said that club members generally gather in parks in the morning before work. They then raise their arms into the air to ease inhibitions, and then start laughing - loudly at first, then silently with the mouth closed, and finally silently with the mouth open.
Li said that sometimes the laughter is coupled with yoga - Kataria's wife is a yoga coach - to create laughing meditation.
The organizers of the Fudan University laughing club plan to hold training sessions for the students and psychologists to help build team spirit.
"After we have built up trust between the members, we will practise laughing meditation together, at first with help from a soothing environment, good music and funny masks," Li said.
"We hope our members will encourage other students, especially those feeling stressed, to find a release by laughing out loud," Li said.
(Source: China Daily)
Editor: Sun Yunlong
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This story is in harmony with the story on pg. 1 of this thread, posted a few years ago.
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http://www.nbedu.gov.cn/english/show.asp?id=26208
Survey: Teachers and students stressed out
BEIJING, March 20 -- Depression and other psychological problems are rife among school students and their teachers in Guangzhou's Yuexiu District, a new survey reveals.
The survey, conducted by the members of the district's political consultative conference, revealed 19.4 percent of the elementary students, 28.9 percent of the junior high school students and 36.8 percent of the senior high school students were so worried about their performance and lessons that they suffered sleeping disorders.
And 41.7 percent of the senior high school students also had bouts of depression.
The survey said those students in higher grades were more prone to serious psychological problems than those in lower grades.
And the situation is no better for their teachers, according to the survey.
About 46 percent of the elementary and secondary school teachers suffer mental exhaustion because of their work and want to quit their jobs or retire early.
Some 21.5 percent of them suffer from insomnia for high work pressure; 11 percent of them have the impulse to call their students names; and 26.9 percent of them feel misunderstood by others.
The district has 98 elementary and secondary schools with some 121,000 students and 7,000 teachers.
"The psychological status of the students and teachers in the district is much worse than imagined," Yang Yaming, who was involved in the survey, said. "Related authorities and school leaders should do something to prevent the situation from worsening.
"Serious psychological problems might lead to suicide or violence against others."
Yang said counseling and other mental health services should be set up immediately.
Lin Jianhong, a teacher at the high school affiliated to South China Normal University, and the father of an 8-year old daughter, said he believed psychological problems among students and teachers are widespread.
"This problem is not just restricted to the Yuexiu District," he said.
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therock
Joined: 31 Jul 2005
Posts: 1266
Location: China
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| Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:18 am Post subject: |
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I suspect a lot of schools have laughing classes at the moment..........they call them Oral English classes were students come to laugh at the foreign teacher.  |
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Sinobear
Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 1269
Location: Purgatory
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| Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:21 am Post subject: |
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Perhaps the classes can be called the "Road to Wellville" and Dr. Kellog's many theories can be put to the test
Cheers! |
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InTime
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Posts: 1676
Location: CHINA-at-large
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| Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:39 pm Post subject: |
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Sinobear...yes, I saw the Wellville movie...I even broought over the Book-on-Tape...8 years ago.
Yes, Kellogg was a virulent Vegetarian...
...like some Catholic Italian prig-priests are celibate
My models for V'ism are GB Shaw and Einstein...
For Laughter...there's the BBC DVD series called FACE...there is a segment there with the Laughing Club in Bombay/Mombasa
For myself personally, I truly enjoy having the kids and I do the happy/sad...laugh/cry dynamic.
But I hear you...these bits and pieces...round hole in a square peg
For example, my Chinese TA in the kindergarten has an Authoritarian streak...in my first week here she's hit 2 kids and womanhandled another...and threw a child's shoe out the window
The kid's feel fear of here
That's a POISONous environment...
I have the strong intention to develop my own whole-brained/hearted movie magic learning environment...
Ningbo is where it will be...if it's ever gonna be in China...
Let's...
Let It Be...  |
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