Comments on: Reduce Student Stress through Stillness

By: Kathleen Jasper

Kathleen Jasper — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 16:56:17 +0000

I completely agree Valerie. I do think schools have inadvertently hurt our “inner selves” as you say. With the emphasis on proficiency and deficit thinking, our inner strength sometimes gets abused. I find meditation to bring my out of deficit thinking and into a more positive space. Thanks for your comments, we are glad you’re here

By: Kathleen Jasper

Kathleen Jasper — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 16:54:28 +0000

Lot’s of people think it’s a weird relies thing, but really it is just silence and learning to be still and aware. I love your idea of silent positive self talk. That is such a great idea

By: Valerie Warfel

Valerie Warfel — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 19:31:17 +0000

So true! It is such a shame the school is associated with such stress. This gives students the idea that learning is correlated with stress or being bored.

Adding quiet time can definitely help as Jasper has proved to us in this article, but I think it goes way beyond that. School needs to be COMPLETELY restructured so that it resembles almost the opposite of what schools look like today. Learning needs to be viewed as fun and exciting , and intelligence needs to stop being viewed by how well someone did on the SATs or any other standardized test.

Schools have become so harmful to us, especially to our Inner Self that some people have to go through an almost recovering phase after school ends. It leaves no space or time for stillness or playful self- directed learning. What a shame. Things need to change fast…but until then..hey add some meditation for sure!!!

-Valerie Ann

By: amferry

amferry — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 19:26:34 +0000

Another possible hinderance would be parents who may think we are imparting some kind of weird religion because they don’t understand that meditation fits into any religious belief (or lack thereof). A retired Reading teacher, Jewel Faerber, used to actually guide her students through some yoga breathing techniques to relax at the beginning of class so the kids could implement this strategy on testing days. I am not prepared mentally nor do I have the physical space to roll out mats and start meditation in class, but this blog did inspire me to set aside a few minutes each class to engage in silent positive self-talk. So, thanks for that.