This post from an American school describes simple meditation techniques used in school to give pupils calmness and emotional control. They report fewer discipline problems, detentions and exclusions. This is reported at http://www.womansday.com/life/a56446/school-replaces-detention-with-meditation/.
Tranquility
We did something very similar in England a decade ago. We called it Tranquility to avoid the religious connotations of meditation.
I was very pleased to be invited to write a foreword to Vivian Bartlett’s book. ...Motivated teachers and motivated pupils tend to go together, but authoritarian teachers are more likely to produce either timid or rebellious charges. ... For two years we worked closely with disturbed and disengaged young people on ‘Tranquility Zone’ and ‘Discovery Zone’ activities. The first group of 11-13 year olds was chosen by secondary schools as needing particular support. I interviewed several after the project as part of my work as project evaluator. CONTINUE HERE.Like all projects, it took some thinking through in the early states. Its purpose partly was to encourage calm minds which could come to terms positively with emotions like anger, temper, jealousy and envy. It did this through story, listened to in an ambient tranquil setting, with flowers, gentle lights and quiet music. The story encouraged thinking, reflection. Discussion afterwards surrounded topics of hurtful behaviour, selfishness, helping others, cooperation and such like. Vivian Bartlett, one of the designers, wrote it up here where you can read a sample - Nurturing a Healthy Spirit in the Young. I evaluated the programme and wrote a foreword for the book. I interviewed all of the early cohort, all troubled youngsters turned off from learning who said it had drawn them back from suicide, put them on the route to training and careers, and even moved them into a university course, All had once been written off as no hopers. One ten year old had been very disruptive, liable to savage outbursts, but the story she got something from offered her a mentor in the head, a wise auntie as it were. When trouble brewed, she took herself off to a quiet corner to talk things through in her head and calm down. She received a best behaviour prize the following year. The mindset encouraged was to be contributors not consumers - to contribute to the community around rather than just hoarding stuff. The project took youngsters into care homes and set up a drop in cafe for those who wanted to chat. Funded with almost nothing, it succeeded with these disturbed youngsters where highly funded institutions had failed.
Our book Living Contradiction comes out in late summer.
