“What makes best education? The best education is education of doing nothing. Students do not see it happening, but it poses true influence over their mind and helps put their potential into play. This makes the best education on earth.”

This is what Jean-Jacques Rousseau writes in his major work Emile, or On Education, which indicates his expectations on education. Many compare the process of sports competitions to life in enrichment, with both ups and downs. Experiencing the course of lifetime in a short span of time is indeed helpful for broadening horizon and enriching life. For educators, sports can not only make human body stronger, but also make human feelings smoother and will stronger, thus making a best way of personality education.

Indeed, comprehensive development of people starts from sports. Athletes are in pursuit of excellence and honor when fighting hard on the competition field, are tested for devotion and will during hard trainings, and eventually harvest respect and friendship in fair competition.

At Kaiwen Academy, arts, PE and science are all important parts of student courses. Physical education, among them, not only builds up a good physique of students, but more importantly, develops their comprehensive qualities reflected in sportsmanship, cultivates their sound personality and promotes them to apply sportsmanship into study and life. As Michael Jordan said, “I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying.”

Competitions

Tennis players showing great energy

On October 19, little tennis players of Kaiwen Academy showed up at National Tennis Center for a basic tennis tournament held by Tsinghua University High School International-Chaoyang. Over 70 students from different international schools participated in the contest.

After eight hours of playing, 5^th grader Andy Li entered the quarter final; 5^th grader Candy Chu entered the semifinal and came third; 9^th grader David Huang entered the semifinal and came third; 10^th grader Novak Zhao entered the final and came second.

Football players shining on the field

On October 26, the 2019 U14 Men’s Football Tournament sponsored by Kaiwen Academy was held. Little football players of Kaiwen and students from another seven international schools in Beijing joined the game.

Paul Ifrim, Head of Kaiwen PE Teachers in charge of the game said: “Our U14 school team students also participated, gaining valuable experience, having lots of fun, and enjoying some quality football in the sun. Parents, staff and students enjoyed the day in a nice environment on our beautiful campus!”

Baseball players exercising skills

On October 26 and November 2-3, Beijing Autumn Game of MLB Junior Playball was held at Kaiwen Academy and Kaiwen sent its Demoiselle Crane U10 team into the game. On the field, the little baseball players of Kaiwen, in high spirits, were decisive in executing tactics, smooth in applying techniques and quick in reacting, putting on rounds of “double play”, “touch out” and “inside-the-park home run” amid an intense and compelling competition atmosphere.

HKWA PE Course

The motion is the source of all lives.

Leonardo da Vinci, a representative of European Renaissance and polymath, once said: “The motion is the source of all lives.”

PE teachers of Kaiwen are the practicers of the saying. In daily PE courses, it’s more about students in motion, rather than teachers in explanation. Therefore, the students quite enjoy the relaxed pleasure in sports. Meeting standards is merely the result and we pay more attention to the process.

What to learn from PE teachers?

Educator Zhang Bocen once said: “As educators, we teach students on knowledge and physical exercise, but more importantly, teach them how to be a man.”

A man with positive view of life,

A man in a healthy state,

A man of wisdom and learning,

A man of cooperation and tolerance,

A man of independence and self-survival.

These are exactly the teaching targets in the PE courses of Kaiwen.

Health is the greatest treasure of life.

True physical health is about enabling children to properly understand physical health and proactively participate in physical exercises.

At Kaiwen, there are four PE classes weekly, among which three are basic ones on track and field, basketball, football, badminton, floor hockey and fun sports, and another one is distinctive class on baseball, fencing, tennis, swimming, handball, golf, climbing, touch rugby and table tennis. All the sports proceed in modules to offer the students more experience in more sports and intrigue their interest in sports.

Beauty of life lies in health and health in its true meaning is the combination of physical health, mental health and strong social adaptability. Physical education at Kaiwen takes the cultivated health of everyone as its ultimate objective. Therefore, while encouraging the students to build up a good physique, the teachers will also emphasize “a sound mind”.

Being responsible and strong --- core qualities developed by sports

British educator Viktor Emil Frankl said: “Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.” Thus, “being responsible” is the fundamental quality for mankind to exist.

Physical education at Kaiwen guides the students to be responsible for their own act. PE teachers will make clear the impact of attendance, times of trainings and performance in class on the final score to cultivate their sense of responsibility. Meanwhile, amid the repeated trainings and hard work, the students grow up day by day and develop a strong mind and will, which is the core quality to be fostered by physical education.

Persistence in sports makes one optimistic.

Famous American educator Dale Carnegie said: “If we think happy thoughts, we will be happy. Act as if you were already happy and that will tend to make you happy.”

In the “exercises with fun”, PE teachers guide the students to participate in various sports activities. The school has school teams in football, basketball and baseball, which students good at the sports can sign up for. The school teams organize two events weekly, such as instructions from Manchester City youth coaches and from Major League Baseball coaches, so that the students get access to more professional guidance. Beginners in certain sports, but with keen interest, can sign up for reserve teams, where they can improve physical quality and skills through basic trainings until they are up to a certain level and can join the school teams. In participating more, the students get to enjoy more fun. Sports make one happy, enrich their life and shape their personality.

Our Goals

At a CCTV program “The Reader”, Yao Ming once read Ernest Hemingway’s famous work True Nobility: “There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.” He said: “This should be one of the core spirits of physical education. Sports themselves are about competition and success of one is the result of elimination of numerous others. It’s those who have exited that makes our success come true, including our competitors.”

Wish Kaiwen students will acquire more skills in sports they love, develop a strong physique and sound personality, be able to appreciate the unique culture and spirit of sports and run to the world with high and positive spirits!