Feedback from students of Robert C. Parker School on their Meditation Practice
‘Focusing on Breathing’ was introduced to all the classes Robert C. Parker School in Feb 2009.
The investment of time and effort was
- Introduction to all the teachers during a faculty meeting – 15 minutes
- Introduction to each class – 15 minutes for classes Pre K 4 to Gr 5 and 30 minutes for Gr 6 to 8
- One review visit by me to every class after about 3 months
- Some classes (Pre K4, K/1 and Gr 2/3) used to practice it every day, for a minute or two as part of their daily circle meeting. Gr 4 to 8 had no such daily reinforcement.
- Cost was NIL to the school.
Meg Taylor Head of Parker says in her Blog Dt Dec 1,09: “One of the ways we help children cope with stress at Parker is by practicing the simple mindful breathing taught us by C.S., the grandfather of Veda in 4-5. It is one of his life’s missions to spread this easy and effective way to reduce anxiety. The breathing technique is practiced regularly by almost all the children in the school.”
Is there any such technique that can be introduced to children of this age group so cheaply, that will be absorbed so easily and enables them to practice on their own and would elicit such feelings and thoughts?
Please explore the possibility of introducing this technique in your child’s school. I can help on-line.
The Feedback from all the classes was collected in a simple form from all the classes in May 10. It is presented below, first the summary and then class wise.
_________________________________________________________T PART ONE: Summary (Look at the end of this part for class wise feedback)_________________
Summary of feedback from all the classes on Meditation Practice and Benefits
| Class | Age | On Roll | Number practicing | % |
| Pre School | 4 | 15 | 7 | 50 |
| KG & Gr 1 | 5 to 7 | 20 | 18 | 90 |
| Gr 2 & 3 | 7 to 9 | 18 | 17 | 95 |
| Gr 4 & 5 | 9 to 11 | 16 | 16 | 100 |
| Gr 6 to 8 | 11 to 14 | 33 | 5 | 17 |
| Total | 102 | 63 | 60 | 60 |
When do I practice the Meditation?
| Time of practice | Number | % |
| Bed time/ Sleep | 27 | 43 |
| Morning meeting | 21 | 33 |
| Angry/ Mad | 8 | 13 |
| At school | 7 | 11 |
| In car/ Bus/ Plane | 7 | 11 |
| Morning at home | 5 | 8 |
| In shower | 4 | 7 |
| Others | 2 each | Bored, At home after school, On waking up, When stressed. |
| Others | 1 each |
To become calm: Crazy, Feeling yucky, Trying to hold tears, Out of control, Upset, Overwhelmed, Before Dinner to be patient, Sad To cope: Need to focus, Tired, After exercise To engage themselves: When I like it, Grandma’s house, Every day at home I Don’t use it: Not very often, I don’t use it. |
How does it help me?
| Helps me in | Number | % |
| Calms me down | 21 | 33 |
| Sleep | 18 | 28 |
| Relax | 18 | 28 |
| Concentrate | 7 | 11 |
| Keep away sadness | 2 | 3 |
| Survive | 2 | 3 |
| Feel good | 2 | 3 |
| Others -1 Each | For better mental states: Be peaceful, Feel the silence, Shuts my mind down, Makes me feel happy, Feel silent, Have a good day, Stop crying as much, Helps me be patient at dinner time, On the plane it helps me because I am usually scared but I don’t get scared any more
Practical uses: After that I am not tired any more, Keep away bad dreams, Wake up, Keep awake at home after school, Takes away my cough a little, Stop car sick, Slow down my heart rate, Shortens the lessons, Relieve stress, Helps me so I can get my books and not lose any of them Unique experiences: It makes me disappear and I do not know where I am any more, It calms me down and when I feel like running around the room it makes me not do that, Makes me feel real good and I feel like I can be a rock or stone, Makes me feel like I am bathing in the sun, “If people do this, all the wars in the World will end” one girl in K/1 told me when I first introduced the breathing to the class and asked each one of them felt about the experience. |
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___________________________________________________________
PART TWO: Grade wise Feedback__________________________
Pre School – 4 years (7 out of 15)
Place of practice
- Every day at home
- Right after I go to school
- In the morning and at night
- At bed time deep breathing with mommy
When do I practice and how does it help?
- Sometimes I breathe right after I am mad – It helps me by calming me down
- When I feel really angry – It is calming
- At play time when I am mad – Calms me down
- Before dinner – Helps me be patient
- When I am upset – Stop crying as much
- When I am excited – It helps me by calming down
- Bed time – It helps me go to sleep
- When I am tired
- When I am overwhelmed
Others
- It helps me so I can get my books and not lose any of them
- Helps me focus
- It takes away my cough a little
KG and Grade 1 (5/ 6 Years)
(18/20 students, 15 of them practice ‘Going into silence’ and 3 of them mentioned ‘breathing’)
All of them practice at the morning meeting and feel these effects
- It is relaxing
- It feels nice, I feel calm
- It makes me much calmer
- It feels calm and good
- It calms me down when I feel like running around in the class room, it makes me not do that
- It feels good and relaxing
- It makes me feel really relaxed
- I feel the silence
- It makes me feel peaceful
- It makes me feel real good like I can be a rock or a stone
- It makes me feel like I am bathing in the Sun
- It makes me disappear and I don’t know where I am any more
Other practice times and effects
- In the morning at my house – I feel relaxed
- At my house at night time – It helps me to go to my bed and sleep
- At my grandma’s house, sometime in the morning – it makes me feel happy
- Sometimes when I am in the bath I close my eyes – It makes me feel like it is the middle of the night and I am fast asleep
- When I am going on vacation in the car – It stops me from being car sick
- When I am mad
- At night time when I get back home
- In the car
- At home
- On the plane when I try to go to sleep – It helps me because I usually get scared – I don’t feel scared any more
- Before I go to Tae-Kwon-Do – It makes me do good work
- When I have nothing else to do – It feels good
- I fall asleep
- It makes me feel silent
Grade 2/3 (7/8 years) (17 out of 18)
When do I practice and how it helps me
- Morning meeting
- - Focused
- - Having a good day
- - It helps me focus for the rest of the day
- - It helps me to calm down
- - It helps me concentrate
- - It helps relax me
- At school – To survive
- At night when it is hard to get sleep – Keeping bad dreams and sadness away
- Before I go to sleep – It helps me sleep
- Bed time – It calms me down
- Before bed – Calm down
- At home 6.30 am – To survive
- In the shower – I don’t know
- In the shower – Relaxed
- In the shower – To relax
- When I wake up – It helps me complete my day
- When I am waking up – it helps me wake up
- At home after school – Keep awake
- When I am trying to hold in tears
- When feeling yucky – Feel relaxed
- When sad – less sadness and focus
Gr 4/5 (9/10 years) (16 out of 16)
When do I practice and how it helps me
- When stressed – Helps me relax
- When angry and need to focus – Helps me concentrate better
- When I want to sleep – Helps me sleep better
- Before bed – Go to sleep
- Before bed – I am sleepy
- At night – It helps me sleep
- At night – Relaxes me
- At night – It helps me fall asleep
- When I go to sleep – To fall asleep
- At night – Get to sleep
- Gong to bed – To relax
- At night – It helps me calm down
- When I go to sleep – It helps me relax and sleep
- In school – It calms me down
- At school
- When I am mad – I am calm
- When I am meditating – I am peaceful
- When crazy or stressed
- It does not really help me that much
- When I am in the car – Calms me down
- In the car – To concentrate
- Sometimes in the bus – Stay calm
- On the bus – Relieves stress
- It shortens lessons
- When I feel like it – It calms me down
- When I am out of control – Relax
- In the morning
Middle school Gr 6 to 8 (11 to 13 years) (5 out of 33)
When do I practice and how it helps me
- When I am bored – It helps me go to sleep
- When I have a hard time sleeping – It relaxes me
- When stressed – It calms me down
- When I am angry – Helps me relax
- When I am going to sleep – Helps me shut my mind down
- After exercising – helps slow down my heart rate
- Some times – Relax
- It does not help me
Teachers (5 out of 9)
When do I practice and how it helps me?
- I breathe every morning before getting out of bed when my mind starts racing. I don’t get up until I’m centered and ready for the day.
- At the beginning of morning meeting – Keeps to focus and think about the day ahead of me
- When I have difficulty sleeping – Greatly helps put my mind to rest
- When I can’t sleep – It still my mind and usually makes sleep come to me
- When I am faced with a particularly challenging moment – Helps me to be calm and focus on the issue at hand
- Morning meeting – Relaxes me as I prepare for a busy day
- Between activities to transition to next task – To be more focused and ready for next learning activity
- After lunch – Helps students stay on task
- Some students do this at morning meeting or on their own before the meeting
- Some students use this technique before a learning activity that is difficult or challenging for them. I have seen students do this on their own to calm themselves or refocus
- In the evening – Relaxes me
- When I feel stressed – Relaxes me, Calms me and helps me to be more focused
- When I need to be more focused – Helps me transition to the next activity
- I truly feel that, what we in the class call “going in your silence” has made a very big difference for the children and Lynn and me. I often watch the children during those times and I can see their whole body relax, their facial expression become calm, and whatever the next activity we have, the children begin it with more focus and calmness. Closing eyes remains a challenge for some children and we continue to work on this piece. For me personally, I find the breathing helps me relax, refocus, brings back my humor and ability to see things around me a bit differently and more clearly-truly helpful in the classroom as well as life.
Liliana (teaches K/1) said in separate e-mail after I raised some questions on how she has been teaching the ‘going into silence’ practice.
“I try to teach the children that “going into your silence” is not the same as no noise (lack of noise). I tell them that it’s about learning to find the silence inside even if there is lots of noise and distraction around them. We have discussions about what all this means. We practice sitting quietly and keeping the body as still as possible. I teach the children the meaning of the word “stillness” and I teach about stillness. As you can see, I don’t really have a method or technique – what I do is part of who I am, how I teach, the values I want to instill in children, and I try to teach them about peace. I teach about the peace within (in the silence) and how when they are able to find their own peace, they become peace makers. I don’t have a set time – can be a minute to a few minutes – I usually get a feel about how long we should do it.”
