Many of the images we’re shown these days are of fractures between peoples. The unexpected but unambiguous results of the US election is confronting many of us with the challenge of seeing our own silos, our own lack of interest to hear the pain points and the dreams of others who are different from ourselves. It is a time for … Read More
Insight from Inmates
Everyone can present themselves well in the right circumstances. The question is, when the human being is at rest, what is our essential nature? And how much does our conviction about our potential and inherent nature depend on those who touched us early on in life? I teach a mindfulness class in a prison just south of town. It’s not … Read More
Racial Stress & Mindful Spaces
It’s Fall. Back to school. Reconnecting with my teacher friends who have been out on summer break. Most of them hold summer jobs, in part for the extra cash to make ends meet, and in part because teachers just like to engage. They’re “people” people. I was having brunch with one of my best teacher friends. A delightful person, someone … Read More
Teens, Respect, Classroom Mindfulness
How do you win the respect of teenage African American girls when you’re a soft-spoken, sensitive African American male teacher, educated at Columbia and UPenn, a musician, social activist, cultural commentator with hipster leanings, note the dreads and plaid poncho perfectly draped? You got it. Not easy. The more postmodern pluralism you allow in the classroom, the more challenges you … Read More
First Day of (Mindfulness) School
Support Teen Inner Strength Training here. Read and share on LinkedIn here. Tools for Teen Mindfulness Teachers – jump to end of article The phone rang, and it was a number I needed to take. Awkward. I was rushing out of the subway, bundled against the cold, my eyes darting around for a place I could duck into to be … Read More
For the Love of Learning Interview
Join Lainie Liberti, Betsy Hanger, Kathryn Byrnes and myself for an indepth discussion about our experience bringing mindful into the school system. For the Love of Learning Episode 46 Mindfulness in Education Description: First, we must ask, what is mindfulness? Jon Kabat-Zinn, the biologist who first coined the term “mindfulness” in the ’70s, defines it as a state of mind: … Read More
