The Wonder of Wen-Do

By Deidre Macpherson, Athletics Director and Senior HPE Teacher

In December, our middle school students took part in a two-day Wen-Do self-defence course for young girls and women, as part of their health and physical education program. The excitement and anticipation leading up to Wen-Do at Linden is always palpable. In Wen-Do the girls:

• learn simple and powerful physical self-defence skills
• explore a range of effective verbal self-defence strategies
• develop their ability to recognize and deal with threatening situations
• increase their confidence
• have fun! (wendo.ca)

The students all had an amazing experience with Deb (a senior instructor and an inspiring speaker and teacher). She emailed after the program about our Linden girls and her experience teaching them. "It’s clear to me that these young women came into my classroom with a strong sense of themselves; their opinions mattered and they were accustomed to being listened to. It would appear that their strength was re-enforced and bolstered after two days of Wen-Do. They were open and ready for this program," Deb shared in her email to me.

Here are some exciting words the Grades 7 and 8 students used to describe Wen-Do:

Empowering, Powerful, Awesome, Great, Fun, Open, Safety, Protective, Intense, Loud, Strong, Amazing, Confident, Courageous, and Productive!

Below are some of their reflections on the course:

"I feel confident and proud to be able to protect myself and others."

"I felt more safe and powerful and in control after the workshop."

"I feel much better because I know what to do in different situations that I may encounter."

"I think the workshop was empowering. I now feel like I can protect myself wherever, whenever."

"I feel confident about my ability to protect myself"

"I won't forget any of the moves because Deb taught them in such a memorable way."

Wen-Do will be back next December for our current Grade 6 students!