Mindful School Essay

Mindfulness in Schools
Introduction
How many times a day, in any given classroom, do you hear the words pay attention? Children and adults alike are easily distracted by the world around us. What if there was a way to encourage children to focus on what is going on in the moment? Many teachers spend a large majority of their day just trying to manage their classroom. What if there was some way to teach children to self regulate and manage their own behavior? The teachers could focus more of their time on actually teaching and the students would have to deal with less distractions from other students. If there was a way to combat these problems, would schools use them as part of their curriculum? Recently, one such method has been implemented in schools around America. This method is called mindfulness.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is not an easy concept to define. A famous teacher of mindfulness meditation named Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as paying attention in a particular way. Mindfulness involves being aware of the present moment . The idea is that the a person is completely involved in what is taking place in the present moment and how they are personally responding. It involves not judging, reflecting, or thinking. It can be as simple as being aware of each breath as it is replaced by the next. Mindfulness started in Buddhist traditions. Now the skills are taught without any religious references (Thompson, 2008).
Mindful Schools
Recently, the idea of teaching children to be mindful through meditation has been adapted to a few classrooms around the nation through programs like Inner Kids, Impact Foundation in Colorado, Lineage project in New York, and Mindful Schools. This paper will look at the program called Mindful Schools (Http://www.mindfulschools.org). Mindful schools was founded in 2007. Mindful schools has been