A recently published study out of Harvard, in conjunction with MIT and the Center for Educational Policy Research, found that mindfulness is connected with: higher grades, higher standardized test scores in math and ELA, better school attendance, and fewer suspensions. (Gutierrez, Krachman,Scherer, West, & Gabieli, 2019)
These findings were across the board, even accounting for; gender, economic disadvantage, race/ethnicity, English language learners, and special education students.
Knowing that mindfulness helps, no matter a station in life, is an empowering reason to build mindfulness into our day.
Daniel Rechtschaffen, in his book, The Way of Mindful Education, shares that the rich-poor achievement gap is up 40% in 30 years, (Reardon, 2013).
If we look at this information we can plainly see that there is an unmistakably large gap in achievement based on economic status. At the same time we can also observe that mindfulness helps increase achievement across the board, no matter economic status.
Why wouldn't we utilize this tool of mindfulness to help close this achievement gap and support our students?
D. Rechtschaffen continues on in his book to share that impoverished students are more likely to drop our of school, develop addictions, and end up incarcerated.
What if we could help reduce this likelihood by giving our students a tool which will support them not only in school, but in all aspects of their daily lives?
As we explore why mindfulness is beneficial let's also take some time to reflect on what mindfulness is and what it is not.
I was talking about mindfulness with my sister over the weekend and learned that the high school she teachers at tried it for a time. The teacher that utilized it, utilized it in an unproductive manner and mindfulness got a bad reputation. Due to this poor reputation mindfulness was stopped. My sister shared that students were using mindfulness as nap time and missing class and the rest of the teachers had to play catch-up with student learning.
Mindfulness isn't about napping. It may relax you enough that you fall asleep but it has a deeper purpose.
Some see mindfulness as a way to eliminate emotions, or reactions to emotions which they do not wish to see in their classroom. Mindfulness isn't about ridding our lives of the negative emotions. In mindfulness we do not dismiss our feelings but rather try to understand them, embrace them, learn from them, and then release them in a healthy and productive way.
One emotion that people most often would like to eliminate in students is anger.
I met with a group of 4th grade girls the other day and asked them "what emotion do you believe you are not allowed to show at school?" They all answered with a synonym for anger. Sadly students and adults often believe they need to get rid of, suppress, or eliminate the emotion of anger.
There is nothing wrong with being anger.
You are not wrong to have anger.
Mindfulness teaches us to accept our anger, process where it is coming from, sit with the anger, and then let it go in a healthy way.
Mindfulness can help us productively channel and display an emotion.
Mindfulness isn't about making challenging students easier to handle, but rather, it opens the doors of our hearts, minds, and classrooms to a new understanding of those students. Mindfulness helps us accept the present state our students arrive to school in and helps us extend more understanding and empathy.
If we look at this information we can plainly see that there is an unmistakably large gap in achievement based on economic status. At the same time we can also observe that mindfulness helps increase achievement across the board, no matter economic status.
Why wouldn't we utilize this tool of mindfulness to help close this achievement gap and support our students?
D. Rechtschaffen continues on in his book to share that impoverished students are more likely to drop our of school, develop addictions, and end up incarcerated.
What if we could help reduce this likelihood by giving our students a tool which will support them not only in school, but in all aspects of their daily lives?
As we explore why mindfulness is beneficial let's also take some time to reflect on what mindfulness is and what it is not.
I was talking about mindfulness with my sister over the weekend and learned that the high school she teachers at tried it for a time. The teacher that utilized it, utilized it in an unproductive manner and mindfulness got a bad reputation. Due to this poor reputation mindfulness was stopped. My sister shared that students were using mindfulness as nap time and missing class and the rest of the teachers had to play catch-up with student learning.
Mindfulness isn't about napping. It may relax you enough that you fall asleep but it has a deeper purpose.
Some see mindfulness as a way to eliminate emotions, or reactions to emotions which they do not wish to see in their classroom. Mindfulness isn't about ridding our lives of the negative emotions. In mindfulness we do not dismiss our feelings but rather try to understand them, embrace them, learn from them, and then release them in a healthy and productive way.
One emotion that people most often would like to eliminate in students is anger.
I met with a group of 4th grade girls the other day and asked them "what emotion do you believe you are not allowed to show at school?" They all answered with a synonym for anger. Sadly students and adults often believe they need to get rid of, suppress, or eliminate the emotion of anger.
There is nothing wrong with being anger.
You are not wrong to have anger.
Mindfulness teaches us to accept our anger, process where it is coming from, sit with the anger, and then let it go in a healthy way.
Mindfulness can help us productively channel and display an emotion.
Mindfulness isn't about making challenging students easier to handle, but rather, it opens the doors of our hearts, minds, and classrooms to a new understanding of those students. Mindfulness helps us accept the present state our students arrive to school in and helps us extend more understanding and empathy.
Pause.
Breathe.
Make it happen.
Make mindfulness a part of your daily routine. Don't set it apart from your routine. Normalize. Practice. Display. Participate. Encourage.
Structure into your day mindfulness. Consider times such as; first thing in the morning, after lunch, after recess, after specials, or at the end of the day.
Mindfulness education research shares with us that to effectively teach mindfulness to our students we need to practice it ourselves.
This week consider how you can make your classroom a more mindful environment that sets your class and yourself up for success.
Perhaps printing a photo you or your students find calming. Place that photo in your calm down corner, or in various places around the room.
Engage your students in the process of creating a mindful classroom. Participation creates ownership.
Remember you have many tools available to you including; Inner Explorer, this blog, and resources in my office....and me!
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