Say the fourth-grader was tussling with his on-again, off-again buddy on the playground — a taunt here, light shove there. He’s agitated. Stomping, huffing.
At most schools, governed by a traditional disciplinary approach, the offender would land in the principal’s office, likely followed by a few days of detention: an hour after school, empty classroom, utter silence.
At Robert W. Coleman Elementary School in Baltimore, kids are instead referred to the Mindful Moment Room, an oasis of colorful tapestries and beanbag chairs, oil diffusers and herbal tea, where they practice deep-breathing exercises, meditate and talk about what happened.
It’s one example of how mindfulness is becoming a standard part of the school day, offering an alternative to the usual punishments and, advocates say, arming kids with lifelong tools to cope with challenging situations, resolve conflicts and feel compassion and empathy for both themselves and others.
“You see kids dealing with a lot of anger and frustration that they were taking out on their peers physically, and now they’re able to manage that anger,” says Ali Smith, co-founder of the Holistic Life Foundation, a Baltimore-based nonprofit that implements mindfulness and meditation programs at Coleman Elementary and other schools. “They can feel anger rising, and they say, ‘OK, this is what anger feels like, and I can choose to express that anger or to re-center myself and get back to that place of inner peace and calm. Because once they learn it, that’s something no one can ever take away from them.”
[See: 5 People Who Are Changing the Face of Yoga.]
Mindfulness in the Classroom
The Holistic Life Foundation, born in 2001, oversees schoolwide initiatives at Coleman Elementary and nearby Patterson High (plus smaller-scale programs at more than a dozen other Baltimore schools). At the elementary school, each day starts and ends with 15 minutes of mindfulness broadcast over the PA system. The recordings guide students through breathing exercises, movement and meditation. It’s the same at Patterson High, sans the movement aspect: “We realized high school kids didn’t want to move and be singled out by their peers, so this way no one will know if they’re practicing or not,” Smith says. While elementary students need to be referred to the Mindful Moment Room, high school students can self-refer — and be trained as “ambassadors” who coach their peers through the practice.
A central focus, regardless of grade level, is breathing exercises. It starts with a “belly breath,” Smith says — “in through your nose, all the way down to your lower lungs, filling your lungs completely and then exhaling. A lot of people miss out on that, but the exhale is just as important as the inhale, because when you push all the breath out, you’re pushing out all the ruminating thoughts and clearing your mind.”
On the other side of the country, the nonprofit Mindful Schools, based in Emeryville, California, offers courses for educators — often those in under-resourced public schools — to learn mindfulness and share it with youth. “Every kid has been told and instructed to pay attention, but none have actually been told how to pay attention,” says director of programs Matthew Brensilver, describing one reason the practice is necessary. “Our feeling is we actually need to provide kids the concrete tools to do that. Some very simple practices and techniques … feel like a central component of a well-rounded education.”
At some schools, a few minutes of quiet time are reserved in each class so students can re-center. It’s important to “pay attention to the stillness,” Brensilver says. At Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School in New York, for example, 15 minutes at the beginning and end of the school day are reserved for students to practice Transcendental Meditation or sit quietly at their desks.
Brensilver says one challenge to the effort is weaving mindfulness into the school day in ways “conducive to that particular environment.” “There’s a lot of competition for time, and people can feel like it’s indulgent to pause even for a few minutes,” he says. But he’s noticed that even the teachers Mindful Schools trains begin meeting to practice with each other, sometimes during the lunch hour. “Their training … actually leads to their own balance, which spills outwards and has positive effects on the kids throughout the day.”
[See: 10 Ways to Break a Bad Mood.]
….and on the Streets
Mindfulness might originate in the classroom for some students, but that doesn’t mean it stays there. The Holistic Life Foundation uses a “reciprocal teaching model,” Smith says, which means students themselves lead some of the practices. “And that’s a cool way to get the practice out into the neighborhoods,” he says. “If we can’t reach everybody, the kids can. They get empowered by it because they understand how and when to use it, and a lot of them use it with their parents and the people in their neighborhoods. With the kids being young teachers, they’re able to go home and affect everyone around them.”
Smith adds that most Holistic Life Foundation staffers are former students. They learned about mindfulness in their classrooms during the program’s early days and were so touched that they’re back, “doing for other people what we were able to do for them.”
Early Childhood
Heather Collick, editor-in-chief of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s “Teaching Young Children,” says mindfulness is common in early childhood settings, too. Her publication, for example, has recently published articles like “Yoga Poses for Preschoolers” and “Mindfulness for Transitions,” which touches on mudras, or subtle, brief hand and breath movements, like placing your hand on your heart. “Young children are able to calm their bodies and minds through that,” Collick says. “It’s something they can hold on to.”
Another recent resource, “Mindfulness for Teachers,” is important because “when the teacher is in a calmer place, the children sense that.” She adds: “It allows them to be more attentive, compassionate and curious learners.”
[See: 8 Ways to Relax — Now.]
What the Research Says
Research is clear that mindfulness benefits adult brains: It can ease anxiety, depression, stress and pain, for example. And it can reduce rumination, boost memory and focus, lower emotional reactivity and increase relationship satisfaction, according to the American Psychological Association. Scant evidence exists on how the practice affects kids. “The research is in an embryonic stage,” Brensilver says.
Still, what does exist indicates increased attentional capacities and academic improvement. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies, based on 409 San Francisco Bay Area elementary schoolers, shows the kids’ improved classroom behavior lasted seven weeks after a mediation intervention.
And reports from mindful schools indicate something is working. Students at Coleman don’t get sent to the principal as often as they once did, and for the past two years, the school has had no suspensions — compared to four during the 2013-14 year.
There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that speaks to the positive effects, too. Brensilver recalls a letter from a mom whose child was receiving mindfulness instructions at school. The young daughter had a “relatively rare bedtime tantrum, and things were starting to spiral” — the mom, too, was “about to lose it and have her own tantrum,” he describes. “Just as things were about to escalate, her daughter said, ‘Oh, Mommy, I think it’s time for us to take some mindful breaths.’ They were quiet for a couple minutes, and then the daughter reached out and said, ‘I was sending you kind wishes. Could you feel it?'”
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