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
Show Me the Money: Chicago Gun Violence Takes 500th Life This Year
Last night I watched a special report on the World BBC about guns in Chicago. It was a powerful and overwhelming report. While there is much to comment on, there was one line that stood out from the piece. The sheer quantity of weapons in the neighborhood has overwhelmed the residents, even the gang members. In the interview with a … 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
Teens Discover Context & Compassion
Published by the Shift Network Teens Discover Context & Compassion Posted July 2, 2015 By Amy Edelstein I’m sitting at a café having miso-mushroom soup, processing my meeting with an inner city high school principal about expanding the Mindfulness and Cultural Developmentprogram next year. The pilot was so successful; she would like it to see it reach the entire freshman … Read More
Direct Experience of Mystical Philosophers
As I have been preparing for my Spring Retreat I came across this quotation that I want to share, Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation. There is in the living act of perception always something that glimmers and twinkles and will not be caught, and for … Read More