Mindfulness is for Kids too!
As both a long-time student of meditation and an elementary school teacher I've followed the development of mindfulness in education with great interest. In my own classroom I've experimented with mindful listening exercises, mindful eating, and class discussions of kindness and respect, which I view as mindfulness in action. Though I was encouraging my students to be mindful, I never used the word “mindfulness.” I briefly introduced my Grade Three students to current theories in neuroscience which describe the role of the various parts of the brain in regulating emotion and processing information. Since I was teaching in French I was delighted to find a French language website at McGill which includes diagrams of the brain. (http://lecerveau.mcgill.ca)
Despite my best intentions, however, I don't think I succeeded in teaching my students how they could practice mindfulness themselves and how it could benefit them in many ways. My attempts to introduce simple mindfulness practices were sporadic and didn't link up with the regular curriculum. What I've discovered is that any learning (whether it's about mindfulness or about the correct use of the passé composé) requires regular and sustained practice over time. So I've been curious to see how curriculum designers might put together a sequence of lessons that introduce mindfulness into the classroom setting and offer teachers a way of reinforcing and practicing the learning throughout the school year.
Two different programs are being implemented on the West Coast and in other parts of Canada and the U.S. One is called Mindful Schools and is based in the Bay area of California. I will be attending a Mindful Schools training later this fall. The other is the MindUp program, developed by the Hawn Foundation. At the end of August I attended a MindUp workshop at the Vancouver School Board. MindUp can be described as a curriculum for social and emotional learning that gives children the skills to develop awareness of themselves and the world around them. After six years of implementation in the Lower Mainland, over 600 teachers have received the training and other school districts are also getting interested.
What surprised and delighted me most at the MindUp training was the number of stories of children taking ownership of this simple practice – listening to a chime, then bringing the attention to the breath. Patricia Morris, the Vancouver teacher who facilitated the workshop, used the expression “listening to the breath” as a way of introducing the idea of paying attention. She described how a student of hers, after only three days of learning the MindUp core practice of following the breath, was excited to discover that noticing his breathing helped him remember the facts he had been about to present to the class but had forgotten. Patricia teaches kindergarten. She describes herself as a “good” teacher, but not a great one. Yet, she is seeing improved academic performance in her students, which she directly attributes to their increased ability to focus. The three minutes of core practice three times a day in no way take away time from her regular teaching. In fact, she feels like she has more time, since she has less “fires to put out” (i.e. less disruptive behaviour). Though the curriculum includes a sequence of fifteen lessons, these can be repeated and extended throughout the year.
The other part of the presentation that caught my attention was hearing how curious and excited the children are to learn about the brain, using words like “pre-frontal cortex” and “amygdala” as if they were naturally part of a five-year old’s vocabulary. Helping children learn about the body and demystifying the natural processes of life are key to empowering these young people as learners.
Teaching children simple skills for calming themselves and focusing seems like common sense. When daily interludes of mindfulness practice naturally lead to increased awareness of others and of the environment, it is more than common sense, it’s essential that children have access to these kind of programs.