Mindfulness as part of the curriculum
While reading Powerful Interactions and how the authors highlight the need of “Stay in the Moment and Connect with Children” a thought came to my mind. Some days ago I saw a documentary by Kristín Ólafsdóttir called “Insaei”, word that in icelandic means “with the sea within” and it’s translated in English as “intuition”. It’s astonishing how they reflect in this documentary the reality in which human beings are immersed; busy agendas and day to day ceaseless activities. With this hectic lifestyle, humans are less and less connected with their direct environment. This frenetic way of living affects from very young children to mature adults, there’s no age discrimination. Children attending school can be bombarded by various overwhelming stimuli that might affect their socio emotional development. How does mindfulness cooperate in that process?
To begin with, it’s necessary to explain what mindfulness is. Mindfulness is not a new concept, it’s a very known process of meditation practiced in the eastern hemisphere over 2000 years ago. It’s said that buddhists may had been the pioneers in mindfulness practices, but there’s enough evidence that other prior civilizations like mayans had probably practice it too. Mindfulness has recovered popularity in the western world in the past 20 years, introduced mainly by psychologists in their methods. Important educational centers like the University of Massachusetts, Harvard University, Stanford University among others, have held therapies and studies that have determined the positive impact of mindfulness practices. How has mindfulness been incorporated in classrooms and what have been the results?
The documentary “Insaei” gives very explicit examples of how mindfulness is managed in different schools around the world. Through mindfulness children become more aware of their feelings, on how to be empathetic, on how to be connected with their natural environment and respect nature’s resources; children have an overall understanding of how each action has a reaction and they must be accountable for them. Including mindfulness practices in the curriculum helps children to regulate their body energy levels, communicate needs, work better in teams and be more conscious of their decisions. It sounds like a magic solution to all the behavioral and emotional issues children face during their schools years, is mindfulness really that efficient?
Mindfulness has not only proven to be have long lasting positive results, but it’s transformational to the brain and its functionalities. The text “Evidence for the Impact of Mindfulness on Children and Young People” explains:
“Mindfulness meditation reliably and profoundly alters the structure and function of the brain to improve the quality of both thought and feeling. It produces greater blood flow too, and a thickening of, the cerebral cortex in areas associated with attention and emotional integration.
In these subjects, imaging showed increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus, known to be important for learning and memory, and in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion and introspection. Participant- reported reductions in stress were also correlated with decreased grey-matter density in the amygdala, which is known to play an important role in anxiety and stress” Weare (2012).
Based on this premise, it’s necessary for teachers in our country to be trained in mindfulness practices and to incorporate them in the curriculum. The preparation of a child in school has to include more than the academic scheme. A child has to be educated in the multiples areas that constitute a person including the socio emotional area that mindfulness addresses.
References
Dombro, A.L., Jablon, J., & Stetson, C. (2011). Powerful Interactions: How to connect with children to extend their learning. Washington, D.C.: NAEYC.
Weare, Katherine. (2012). Evidence for the Impact of Mindfulness on Children and Young People. Retrieved from https://mindfulnessinschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/MiSP-Research-Summary-2012.pdf
