Mindfulness Meditation in School
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 10:55 AM by Sifu Smith
Posted in Meditation, Stories
Using Tibetan Bowl and Buddhist technique of meditation, a 5th grade school in Oakland, California has found success in working with kids to quiet their minds.
“I was losing at baseball and I was about to throw a bat,” Alex Menton, 11, reported to his classmates the next day. “The mindfulness really helped.”
As summer looms, students at dozens of schools across the country are
trying hard to be in the present moment. This is what is known as
mindfulness training, in which stress-reducing techniques drawn from
Buddhist meditation are wedged between reading and spelling tests.
Angela Haick, the principal of Piedmont Avenue, said she was inspired to try it after observing a class at a local middle school.
“If we can help children slow down and think,” Dr. Haick said, “they have the answers within themselves.”
It seemed alternately loved and ignored, as students in Ms. Graham’s fifth-grade class tried to pay attention to their breath, a calming technique that lasted 20 seconds. Then their coach asked them to “cultivate compassion” by reflecting on their emotions before lashing out at someone on the playground.
Tyran Williams defined mindfulness as “not hitting someone in the mouth.”
Read the Full article in New York Times
Mindfulness Meditation in School