A school-based mindfulness programme aims to keep children calm to help with their learning, writes MICHAEL KELLY
ASK ANY teacher what the most difficult times in the classroom are each day and they will almost certainly tell you that it’s the so called “transition periods” – the times when children are returning to the classroom first thing in the morning and after breaks during the day.
A ground-breaking new programme aims to introduce stillness and quietness into the children's day using mindfulness practice. The programme is called Mindfulness for Schoolsand is run by Anne Twohig, a Social Entrepreneurs Ireland awardee who runs an organisation called Ananda.
Ananda provides a variety of courses and workshops in mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness, according to Twohig, is a technique to integrate awareness into daily life. It is, she says, a learned skill that allows us that rarest of gifts – the ability to live fully in the now and find joy in the present moment.
“Regular practice can lead to reduced stress and helps us to handle anxiety more effectively. It leads to enhanced clarity, concentration and enthusiasm for life and helps us to tap into the innate joy and peace that resides within all of us,” she says.
Up until recently Ananda worked only with adults. Then three years ago, Twohig was asked to talk about mindfulness to transition year students in St David’s Secondary School in Greystones, Co Wicklow. Feedback from the students was so positive that she decided to adapt the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Programme (MBSR) for school-aged children.
Twohig believes the modern child is dangerously over-stimulated. “My experience is that they are truly over-stimulated, for a variety of reasons. Many of them don’t know what relaxation is. I have done mindfulness with a group of secondary school students and their exhaustion is so immense that some of them fell asleep almost immediately. They didn’t realise how tired they were and because they have never known relaxation, this over-stimulated state is the norm for them.”
An interesting question arises however – are younger children not more mindful than adults already? “They are – which is why it is so important that we encourage them to practise at a young age. It is something that we lose contact with. As adults, when we practise mindfulness we are getting in contact with something that came naturally to us as children. The emphasis in schools is usually on cognitive skills rather than emotional ones. Mindfulness allows for full integration between the cognitive and emotional parts of our brains.”
Ananda has adopted a “train the trainer” approach – working with teachers as opposed to teaching the children directly. “This approach takes into account the budgetary pressures that schools are under,” says Twohig. “We explain mindfulness to teachers and they observe the practice at work. Teachers are exceptionally stressed so it becomes self-care for them as well as being of benefit to their students.”
Twohig believes society is becoming more open to the benefits of mindfulness and meditation. “I do get questions from teachers, asking whether this is a religious thing, but really it’s got nothing to do with religion. Mindfulness is a spiritual practice – it is going into ourselves.”
In 2008 the programme worked with St Thomas Junior National School in Jobstown in Dublin, which has more than 500 children and nearly 50 teachers. Principal Fionnuala Wallace says they were open to anything that would have a calming effect on the children.
Having received training from the Mindfulness for Schools programme, teachers in the school had the option to introduce it into their classrooms. Twice during the day, musical chimes over the intercom are the cue for children to start their mindfulness practice. “The kids find the chimes almost magical,” says Wallace. “It creates a space for them to be calm. They get in to their seats and focus on their breathing. Some of them close their eyes and a lot of them would put their hands on their tummies to feel their breath there.”
Wallace cites one astonishing example of the impact of the practice. While walking in the corridor she came across a teacher dealing with a child who was having a tantrum. “He was very upset – in a full strop. The chimes came on and he immediately just stopped and went into the class, sat down and put his hand on his tummy. It has been a very positive intervention. When you have kids who are calm, it helps with learning – simple as that. Literacy and listening skills have improved as a result.”
Feedback from the children has been positive, according to Wallace. One child spoke of the chimes “making bad problems go away”. Another mentioned that “they relax you and keep you out of trouble”.
Some of the children, she says, try it at home. “I even had a child who told me her mother was stressing out in traffic and she said to her ‘Try breathing mammy’.”
Useful websites:
- ananda.ie
- innerkids.org
- mindfulschools.org/default/aspx
- thehawnfoundation.org
