By Katelyn Fry
with additional reporting by Savvy Auntie Writers


When we hear the word “detention,” we tend to imagine students taking naps on desks, whispering, texting or passing notes to one another, or acting out even more. Basically, students in detention are doing anything but reflecting on why they ended up in detention in the first place.

Mindful Schools, the Holistic Life Foundation, and the David Lynch Foundation, all non-profits, have embarked on a different way of working with students who are misbehaving and/or who are at risk, which seems to be significantly benefiting our nieces’ and nephews’ generation. Meditation is the new detention. Or, at least in many cases, it's become a way of preventing misbehavior so that detention becomes unnecessary.

The mission of Mindful Schools is to introduce and implement the practice of mindfulness meditation in education systems. Mindfulness offers stressed students “a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, emotions, sensations and surrounding environment,” by focusing on the six major benefits of mindfulness practice: "the strengthening of one’s attention span and focus; emotional regulation; adaptability; compassion; self-calming; and resilience." Mindful Schools has introduced “Mindfulness-Based Interventions” in all 50 states, partnering with schools to offer courses on methods of stress management, emotion regulation and interpersonal skills.

A prime example of the Holistic Life Foundation's program is taking place at the Robert W. Coleman Elementary School in Baltimore, MD. According to Upworthy, the school has paired up with HLF and replaced the dreaded detention room with a “Mindful Moment Room,” filling the room with “lamps, decorations, and plush purple pillows.” The students are encouraged to meditate and breathe. The practice helps them “calm down and re-center” and share what happened. As a result, the school can boast zero student suspensions. Patterson Park High, a neighboring school that has since also adopted the practice, has also reported a significant decrease in suspensions and an increase in school attendance.

The David Lynch Foundation, which supports another form of meditation called Transcendental Meditation, introduced the “Quiet Time” program at urban schools throughout the country to "improve academic performance and reduce stress and violence." James S. Dierke, Executive Vice President, American Federation of School Administrators reports that the Quiet Program is “the most powerful, effective program I’ve come across in my 40 years as a public school educator. It is nourishing these children and providing them an immensely valuable tool for life. It is saving lives.”

Some educators and researchers are concerned that mindfulness and meditation are just a new trend that will disappear as soon as the next one surfaces, and that the long term benefits are still undetermined versus other programs. However, it seems some are coming around to the idea of introducing mindfulness in schools. The Atlantic reported late last year that some researchers, like Linda Lantieri, who helped develop the successful twenty year social-and-emotional-learning (SEL) movement that has proven to help at-risk students, argue "that the best approach to education combines mindfulness and SEL skills rather than treating one as a sufficient replacement for the other."

The practice of mindfulness and transcendental meditation in schools is showing that these methods benefit students – and those who are responsible for their well-being at school and at home. They are less stressed, more calm, and better able to manage everyday challenges. If these practices are taking place in your niece's or nephew's school, perhaps they will give you a little lesson in meditation of their own. That would sure be QualAuntie Time.


Photo: Wavebreak Media Ltd
Published: October 19, 2016