Mindfulness in Schools
Posted: July 25, 2009 Filed under: Mindfulness | Tags: children, Education 1 CommentI’m just now learning about the use of mindfulness in education and schools. This application of mindfulness is new to me, but seems very promising.
One great example is Park Day School has a Mindful Schools community out reach program that teaches mindfulness to teachers and students in Oakland CA.
A couple of other information packed mindful education resources can be found at the Association of Mindfulness in Education and Mindfulness in Education Network.
Here and Nowness 
I am about to embark on a 7-day retreat/course on Mindfulness in Teaching at Karme Choling in VT – I am both excited and fearful – which is good.
We were invited to prepare by reading several articles and a short book. I, typically an over-achiever, – let me amend that to a more postive – wanting to get as much as I can from the 7-days – read/am reading two of the books (starred below) from which the articles are taken. All very good. Here’s the list, in the event that others may find them useful:
The Heart of Learning: Spirituality in Education (multiple contributors)
*Writing Down the Bones: freeing the writer within. Natalie Goldberg
*The Courage to Teach: Esploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. Parker J. Palmer
The ‘required text’ is Radical Presence Teaching as Contemplative Practice. Mary Rose O’Reilley. This finally came in the mail and I’m having trouble with it. Not because I don’t find it helpful, but because it is very dense, and I find as I read I keep wandering off thinking of how I can apply this to my own teaching. It’s a book for pondering, and I think I’ll want to read it several times.