Imagine you work at a school and one of the children starts causing trouble. What is your occupation?
Traditionally, the answer is to give unruly children detention or suspension.
However, my recollection is that during my detention, I would often stare at the wall, get bored out of my mind, and try to secretly talk to the kids around me or read books to avoid being caught. If it was designed to make you think about your actions, it didn’t really work. It just all felt stupid and unfair.
But Robert W. Coleman Elementary School does something different by providing meditation for students as they perform.
Instead of punishing disruptive kids or sending them to the principal’s office, schools in Baltimore have something called “Mindful Moment Rooms.”
This room is no different from a standard windowless detention center. Instead, it’s filled with lamps, ornaments, and plush purple pillows. Children who misbehave are encouraged to sit in their room and do exercises like breathing or meditation to help them calm down and re-center. They are also asked to talk about what happened.
Photo provided by Holistic Life Foundation and used with permission.
Meditation can have very positive effects on your mind and body
Meditation and mindfulness are very interesting scientifically.
Photo provided by Holistic Life Foundation and used with permission.
child meditates
Mindful meditation has existed in one form or another for thousands of years. But recently, science has begun to study its effects on our minds and bodies, and some interesting effects have been discovered.
For example, one study suggests that mindful meditation can give soldiers in training a kind of mental armor against destructive emotions, and may also improve memory. Another proposal suggests that mindful meditation may improve a person’s attention span and concentration.
Although individual studies should be taken with a grain of salt (results are not always valid in all situations), as a whole, science has provided a very interesting picture of how great meditation is. It’s starting to build. Mindfulness, in particular, has become part of certain psychotherapies that have been quite successful.
Photo provided by Holistic Life Foundation and used with permission.
After school yoga.
Back to school, Mindful Moment Rooms aren’t the only way Robert W. Coleman Elementary School is encouraging kids.
The meditation room was established as a partnership with the Holistic Life Foundation, a local nonprofit that also operates other programs. For more than a decade, the foundation has offered Holistic Me, an after-school program where children from preschool to fifth grade practice mindfulness and yoga.
“This is amazing,” said Kirk Phillips, Holistic Me Coordinator at Robert W. Coleman. “You wouldn’t expect young children to meditate in silence, and they do.”
Photo provided by Holistic Life Foundation and used with permission.
Child meditating at Holistic Life Foundation
For example, there was a Christmas party where the children knew they would receive presents, but they were still expected to meditate first. ” I was trying to get a bag of presents and they did it! It was so amazing. We all looked at the presents and smiled at each other,” Phillips said.
Children may even take that mindfulness home with them. In the August 2016 issue of Oprah Magazine, Andres Gonzalez, co-founder of the Holistic Life Foundation, said: To sit. I have to teach you how to breathe. ”
This program not only teaches children about the environment, but also serves as a mentor and tutor.
Photo provided by Holistic Life Foundation and used with permission.
Build a vegetable garden.
They help clean local parks and build gardens, and visit nearby farms. Phillips said she also teaches children to run yoga sessions as co-leaders.
This isn’t just happening at one school. Many schools are experimenting with this kind of holistic thinking, with incredible success.
For example, in the UK, the Mindfulness in Schools Project teaches adults how to set up programs. Another nonprofit, Mindful Schools, is helping launch a similar program in the United States.
Oh, and by the way, schools are also getting tangible benefits from this program.
Phillips said Robert W. Coleman Elementary School has had zero suspensions so far this year and last year. Meanwhile, nearby Patterson Park High School, which also uses the mindfulness program, said suspension rates have decreased and attendance has increased.
Does it come entirely from practicing mindfulness? It’s hard to say, but it’s still a pretty amazing number.
This article was originally published on September 22, 2016.
