This week's Thought For The Week is about generally reaching out to the community to offer Karate off-site, in addition to in a dojo or club.

In the past school year, the students of East Meets West participated in several off-site programs that helped bring Karate to a large number of children that otherwise might not have been able to receive it any other way. Everyone also knows about Sensei Mark and Sempai Deby Goldenberg's outreach program in Connecticut--a huge success!

The Thought For The Week--and Challenge For The Week--is to get involved in some way to help bring Karate to a larger number of people. One way might be to help the Goldenbergs directly. Another option is to help in the new Karate Study (see the proposal that follows) that is going to be done at Public School 11 and the High School of Graphic Communication Arts in New York City. There is enough work to be done on this study alone that there is room for everyone in the system to do something to help. If you would like to volunteer speak to your Shihan or contact Robert Hodes at Almost1@sprintmail.com. Any help, any idea, would not only be welcomed as help to the study, but also would be a direct contribution to propagating the art of Shorin Ryu Karate USA, under the direction of Grand Master Ansei Ueshiro. Arigato gozaimasu to all! Robert Hodes

PUBLIC SCHOOL 11 AND HIGH SCHOOL OF GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION ARTS KARATE STUDY PROPOSAL

The basic premise is that Karate, taught as part of the regular physical education program, will enhance the emotional, and intellectual, development of participants to a greater degree than the regular physical education program alone.

I suggest a one year study* to be conducted in the school and implemented as follows:

1. One class from each of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, grades will participate in the study.

2. One class from each of the 9th and 10th grades will participate in the study.

3. Half of each class will be RANDOMLY selected to attend Karate training two times per week and half of each class will be RANDOMLY selected to attend regular physical education classes two times per week.

4. At the class regularly scheduled physical education time, half will go to gym and half will go to Karate. This will make the experience the least intrusive in terms of structuring class times.

5. All of the students will be given psychological exams before the beginning of the study and again at the end of the study. The exact nature of the psychological exams will be decided in the coming weeks.

6. All of the students will be tracked in terms of their regular school grades.

7. All data will be analyzed and the results will be presented to the principals as well as be prepared for publication.

The study will run from September 1998, through June 1999. If the results are encouraging, I recommend continuing the project for an additional two years. The second year might include the addition of groups of "gifted" and "special Ed" children. The third year might entail mixing of some of the groups to ascertain the effect of adding a mentoring component.