Meditation and Mindfulness in Schools

There is a clear trend toward using meditation and mindfulness practices in schools, both for students and for professional development. The benefits include improved concentration, cognitive performance, and greater capacity for compassion, all of which are helpful during learning and teaching.

In "Evidence for Mindfulness: Impacts on the Wellbeing and Performance of School Staff," Emeritus Professor Katherine Weare of the Universities of Exeter and Southampton looks at peer-reviewed studies, showing substantial benefits, including

• reductions in stress, burnout, and anxiety, including a reduction in days off work and feelings of task and time pressure, improved ability to manage thoughts and behavior, an increase in coping skills, motivation, planning and problem solving, and taking more time to relax
• better mental health, including less distress, negative emotion, depression, and anxiety
• increased kindness and compassion to others, including greater empathy, tolerance, forgiveness, and patience, and less anger and hostility
• increased cognitive performance, including the ability to pay attention and focus, make decisions, and respond flexibly to challenges
• enhanced job performance, including better classroom management and organization, a greater ability to prioritize and see the whole picture, becoming more self-motivated and autonomous, showing greater attunement to students’ needs and achieving more supportive relationships with them

Evidence also is mounting that meditation and mindfulness are beneficial for students. For instance, Robert W. Coleman Elementary in Baltimore is moving away from a punitive, detention-oriented approach to discipline, implementing instead yoga and breathing exercises for all students, and mindfulness work with disruptive students. 

In the Holistic Me program at Coleman, “which focuses on prekindergarden through fifth-grade students,” administrators already noticed a difference in the first year. “Instead of the students fighting or lashing out,” says principal Carlillian Thompson in the video above, they started to use words to solve their problems.” None of the students in the program have received suspensions or detentions, and many have become leaders and high achievers.

...Using these techniques, students learn to resolve conflicts peacefully and to reduce the amount of emotional turmoil in their lives. Rather than further alienating or traumatizing already stressed-out kids, this kind of intervention prepares them for academic and social resilience.

Crooked Creek Elementary School in Indianapolis has a similar program:

It might sound strange, but in a fast-paced classroom, teachers at Crooked Creek say just having their students close their eyes and listen for a minute can help them improve their ability to focus. It’s part of the school’s efforts to incorporate the tenets of the growing academic field known as “educational neuroscience” into the classroom.

...The idea is to introduce both teachers and students to a basic understanding of how the brain works. If teachers have an idea of what’s going on behind the bad behavior, they can more effectively reach their students because they know it might not just be a child choosing to be defiant or difficult. When students know how parts of their brains work, they might better understand why they might feel frustrated or aggressive. That can help them develop strategies to lower stress so they can work to improve behavior in the future.

And at Visitacion Valley Middle School in San Francisco:

In 2007 a meditation programme called Quiet Time was brought in to meet some of these challenges. “When I first heard about it I thought it probably wasn’t going to work,” says O’Driscoll. “We get thrown a new thing every couple of years so I didn’t put too much faith in it.” But in April, just a month after meditation began, teachers noticed changes in behaviour. “Students seemed happy,” says O’Driscoll. “They worked harder, paid more attention, were easier to teach and the number of fights fell dramatically.”
In the first year of Quiet Time suspensions at Visitacion Valley – which has 500 students aged 11-13 – were reduced by 45% (pdf). By 2009-10, attendance rates were over 98% (some of the highest in the city), and today 20% of graduates are admitted to the highly academic Lowell high school – before it was rare for even one student to be accepted. Perhaps even more remarkable, last year’s California Healthy Kids Survey from the state’s education department found that students at Visitacion Valley middle school were the happiest in the whole of San Francisco.

These are some compelling stories! For educators thinking of implementing meditation or mindfulness practices in their schools, here are a few links to check out:

Edutopia: Resources & Downloads for Meditation in Schools

Mindful Teachers: Mindfulness Activities and Teaching Resources

Mindful Schools: Resources to Introduce Mindfulness to Schools