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.”
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.”
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