Mindful School Communities

Michele M. Rivers Murphy Yvette Jackson foreword by Lee Bolman and Terrence E. Deal

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Christine Mason

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This work is copyright. Apart from fair dealings for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review, or as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), no part should be reproduced, transmitted, communicated or recorded, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

PO Box 3160 Mentone East, Victoria 3194, Australia Phone: (03) 8686 9077 Website: www.grifteducation.com Email: orders@grifteducation.com Code: SOT8364 ISBN: 9781923198364 Printed in Australia

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Originally published in 2020 by Solution Tree

Acknowledgments

There is power to shared emotions like love and compassion. Tragedy and loss can enter our life without notice, expectancy, or invite. The depth and significance of suffering is especially evident in so many of the children, youth, and educators who I have been blessed to know or visit throughout the years. You have all taught me much about compassion and love for others, despite your own hurting. For that, I extend my sincere gratitude for the profoundness of opening your hearts and gifts to others, the power of your unconditional love to change lives for the better, and the remarkableness of your capacity for compassion to transcend all barriers and provide hope.

It is with further gratitude and love that I recognize those who have served as extraordinary examples of love and compassion in my own life: my godson, Jayson, a remarkable

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We each learn about compassion in our own ways. Sometimes it is life’s lessons that bring us to our knees. In agony, we may turn to others, or we may turn inward. If we are fortunate, we receive answers that further our own healing, giving us confidence and courage, and helping us open up our own hearts. As humans, no one is immune to suffering, yet we know some have experienced more than their fair share and are more in need and less likely to be resilient. Robert K. Greenleaf (2002) speaks of transforming moments that “may come from anywhere” (p. 341) and be sustained by trust. To those who have aided my healing, helped me learn to trust, and sustained me on my inward journey to understand my heart and theirs, I send my love. To all the children who have been my teachers, to my daughters, my husband, John, and my family: thank you for your patience and guidance as I have learned to value family and to understand that compassion is needed not only for the world and my work, but for those in my inner circle. My love, too, goes to the many students and teachers I have taught over the years for the lessons I learned from your feedback, for the deep heartfelt connections we made, and for those connections that I continue to make. And finally, my thanks to the yogis and philosopher kings and queens, poets, psychologists, and scientists who have deepened my convictions about the need to know our hearts, to speak from our hearts, and to let our hearts be what Greenleaf (2002) calls servant leaders from whom we are led on a most remarkable journey to becoming whole. —Chris

The process of education—bringing out the potential of all students—is a reciprocal process. What enables students to thrive and flourish is the same for teachers. But education is also symbiotic—a process in which teachers’ joy and fulfillment are bound to those of their students, and vice versa. Together, they form bonds that imprint their hearts and spirits long after their time together has ended and the bond has become unconscious.

I want to acknowledge and thank the teachers who give so selflessly to ensure that their students feel that bond, vitalized not only so that their brains are enlightened, but that their hearts are enlivened to appreciate the profound gift they are to others!

I have been fortunate to have had such teachers in my life, with the most impactful of my educational career being the eminent cognitive psychologist Dr. Reuven Feuerstein.

Dr. Feuerstein taught me the power of belief in the innate propensity of all students to be awakened for engagement, high-level intellectual thinking, and the desire to make contributions. It was this belief that encouraged me to affirm in teachers the power of their heart to invigorate in students the belief in their capacity for developing personal strengths for self-determination and contribution!

I am also deeply grateful to my mother, the teacher whose heart guided and fortified my belief in myself! Her spirit is my daily revitalizer! —Yvette Jackson This book has been a labor of love for many. Our community has been nurtured and sustained by a cadre of educators, editors, and researchers. At Solution Tree, our utmost thanks to Tonya Cupp, who skillfully guided our publishing process. Thanks as

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teacher and coach, teaching meaningful life lessons on and off the links; Father Peter Gregory, serving as an instrument of compassion, with a capacity to heal; my sister, Audrey Barbarotta, never missing an opportunity to extend her love, supporting heart, and presence; and my mother-in-law, Mary Lou Murphy, opening and emptying her heart tank to anyone in need. With great love and gratefulness to my parents, Dick and Paula Rivers, who willingly and selflessly demonstrate the immense power of compassion and nonjudgmental hearts, opening their doors and selves to comfort, console, and care for others. Most treasurable, endless gratitude, and love for my husband, Tom Murphy, who continues to share an unwavering belief in all our hopes and dreams for a better today, never complaining, always loving and positive, seeing and thinking the best in others, setting an incredible example for our two girls; and to our compassionate and loving daughters, Julia and Abigail Murphy, who continue to surprise us with their goodness every day, and who at a young age, understood the importance of reaching out and being present for those who are suffering, whether in need of a smile, hug, laugh, warm embrace, or conversation, their hearts leaned in to deliver joy and love.

Our daughters provide hope and faith that our future todays will be kinder, gentler, and more compassionate. May your heart song always sing! —Michele

well to Meghan Wenzel, Dana Asby, Joanna Marzano, Effie Cummings, Ingrid Padgett, Didi Dunin, Kaela Farrise, Lauren Kiesel, and Lindsey Feltis, who aided our quest to find the best examples for the many practical exercises and historical lessons we have included, and for their questions, critiques, and recommendations. And finally, thanks to our colleagues Jill Flanders, Kate Retzel, Kathleen Sciarappa, Suzan Mullane, Hilary Hodgdon, Paul Liabenow, Jeff Donald, and Matt Bergey for standing beside us, walking with us, and joining with us as we celebrate the joy of being, living, learning, loving, and healing. —Chris, Michele, and Yvette

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Table of Contents About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 What Is Connectedness? . . . . . . . . . . . . .

What Is Heart Centered Learning? . . . . . . . .

What Are Heart Centered School Communities? .

What Will You Learn in This Book? . . . . . . . .

How Might You Approach This Book? . . . . . . .

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Part I: Scientific Basis and Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

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Heart Centered Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

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Heart Physiology and Heart-Mind Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

How Do We Implement Heart Centered Learning? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Why Does Heart Centered Learning Matter in School? . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The Origins of the Focus on Heart Centeredness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Your Heart’s Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Heart-Versus-Head Decisions: Our Heart-Mind Connection and Coherence . 28 Physiology: The Wandering Nerve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Heartbeat Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Part II: Heart Centered Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

3 4

Consciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

What Is Consciousness? . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Why Does Consciousness Matter in School? . . .

How Do We Teach Consciousness? . . . . . . . .

What Does Consciousness Look Like Historically?

How Do We Measure Consciousness? . . . . . .

Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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. 39 . 41 . 42 . 50 . 56 . 57

Compassion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

What Is Compassion? . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Why Does Compassion Matter in School? . . .

How Do We Teach Compassion? . . . . . . . .

What Does Compassion Look Like Historically?

How Do We Measure Compassion? . . . . . . .

Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

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Confidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

What Is Confidence? . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Why Does Confidence Matter in School? . . . .

How Do We Teach Confidence? . . . . . . . .

What Does Confidence Look Like Historically? .

How Do We Measure Confidence? . . . . . . .

Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Courage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

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Heart Centered Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

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What Is Courage? . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Why Does Courage Matter in School? . . .

How Do We Teach Courage? . . . . . . . .

What Does Courage Look Like Historically?

How Do We Measure Courage? . . . . . .

Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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What Is a Heart Centered Community?. . . .

Why Does Community Matter in School? . . .

How Do We Teach Community? . . . . . . .

What Does Community Look Like Historically?

How Do We Measure Community? . . . . . .

Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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. 97 107 111 119 121 124 126 127 133 142 145 146

Heart Centered Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 What Is Heart Centered Leadership? . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Why Does Heart Centered Leadership Matter in School? . . .

How Do We Teach and Practice Heart Centered Leadership? .

What Does Heart Centered Leadership Look Like Historically? .

How Do We Measure Heart Centered Leadership? . . . . . . .

Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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148 157 161 166 167 169

Epilogue: Taking Heart, Having Heart—Looking to Our Future . 171

Expounding on Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Becoming More Fully Aware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Taking a Global Journey—Connection, Happiness, and Relationships . . . 172

Appendix: S-CCATE—A Visioning and Assessment Tool to Create Heart Centered Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 The S-CCATE Tool . . . .

The S-CCATE Supplement .

S-CCATE Use . . . . . . .

Reflection . . . . . . . .

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References and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

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6

About the Authors

An expert in compassionate responses to childhood trauma and organic ways to provide relief to students in stress, Mason has experience teaching and developing teacher-mentor and youth dropout prevention programs in high-poverty urban areas. She is the developer of Heart Beaming®, a meditative practice for classroom mind breaks, and co-developer of the School Compassionate Culture Analytic Tool for Educators (S-CCATE). Her workshops incorporate up-to-date research on brain neuroplasticity, scientific evidence, and practical activities, as well as findings from her work helping educational leaders guide visioning and implementing strategies for transforming school cultures. Mason’s experience as a principal at an international boarding school in India has been instrumental in developing the five Cs. While in India, Mason became steeped in the philosophy underlying meditation and its value in alleviating stress and freeing the mind to be more consciously aware and compassionate.

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Christine Mason, PhD, an educational psychologist, has over thirty years of experience as a classroom teacher, college professor, educational leader, and researcher, and eighteen years of experience as a yoga, mindfulness, and meditation teacher. She presents experiential workshops for school principals and teachers. Mason is the founder and executive director of the Center for Educational Improvement (CEI), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to uplift schools with teachers and principals who are caring, compassionate, and knowledgeable about learning and teaching. CEI focuses on mindfulness, social-emotional learning, early childhood science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and collaborated with Yale University staff, educators, psychologists, and social workers to address mental health concerns as a partner with the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center, where Mason serves as director of the ChildhoodTrauma Learning Collaborative.

Mason is credentialed through the International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association and Radiant Child Yoga (a Yoga Alliance registered school). She has been a yoga practitioner for over twenty years and a yoga and meditation instructor since 2001, teaching classes at a local recreation center and offering workshops for teachers and students of all ages. She was trained directly by Yogi Bhajan, who brought Kundalini yoga to the West from India in 1968. Early in her career, Mason received an award as researcher of the year from Montana State University. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Ashoka named her a pioneer in children’s well-being in 2016. She coauthored Mindfulness Practices: Cultivating Heart Centered Communities Where Students Focus and Flourish (2019) with Michele M. Rivers Murphy and Yvette Jackson and coauthored Visioning Onward: A Guide for All Schools with Paul Liabenow and Melissa Patschke (2020).

Mason received her doctorate in educational psychology at The Ohio State University, with post-doctoral research at the University of Washington and a fellowship to further inclusive education practices in India.

To learn more about Mason’s work, visit www.edimprovement.org or follow @Edimprove on Twitter or CEI on Facebook and LinkedIn. Michele M. Rivers Murphy, EdD, is the associate director of Heart Centered Learning for the Center for Educational Improvement (CEI) and an independent educational consultant at KIDS FIRST! Rivers Murphy is a seasoned consultant, presenter, and educational leader for both regular and special education. She has served as a change agent for over two decades, helping transform some of the highest-needs neighborhoods and districts by improving student engagement, school culture, and academic success.

Rivers Murphy’s work is based on the most current neuroscience and organizational research and specifically addresses the challenges associated with childhood trauma and stress that compromise learning and teaching. Rivers Murphy is also a program associate for the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center

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Mason served as executive director of research and professional development for the National Association of Elementary School Principals, a senior scientist in disability education, director of professional development for the Student Support Center in Washington, D.C., and the senior research associate at the Council for Exceptional Children. Mason has authored several books and research reports, including books on teacher mentoring and universal design for learning, and research reports on student self-determination, scenario-based planning, principal mentoring, urban schools, arts integration in schools, and inclusive education. She has presented internationally on mindfulness, trauma, Heart Centered Learning®, visions for 21st century instruction, yoga, meditation, and student self-determination.

Network (MHTTC), where she delivers presentations and webinars on mindfulness practices to promote healing and healthy school communities and on encouraging selfcare for students and teachers suffering from trauma and stress.

Rivers Murphy believes that a holistic approach is critical for the development, growth, and success of every child and that children’s lives cannot be compartmentalized; all parts must be key to the big picture of educating the child. Rivers Murphy’s passion is to help facilitate mindful leadership and mindfulness practices in school communities, cultivating heart centered, compassionate, supportive school environments so that educators and students alike can thrive from a more balanced social-emotional health and well-being and academic achievement focus. She coauthored Mindfulness Practices: Cultivating Heart Centered Communities Where Students Focus and Flourish with Mason and Jackson.

Rivers Murphy obtained a doctorate in educational leadership (K–12) from Northeastern University. Her doctoral thesis specifically addresses the gap between what students are learning in school and what they need to know to prepare for college, career, and life in the 21st century.

To learn more about Rivers Murphy’s work, follow @RiversMurphy on Twitter.

Yvette Jackson, EdD, winner of the 2019 GlobalMindED Inclusive Leader Award, is adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York and senior scholar for the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education. Jackson’s passion is assisting educators in cultivating their confidence and competence to unlock the giftedness in all students. She is driven to provide and promote pedagogy that enables students who are disenfranchised and marginalized to demonstrate their strengths and innate intellectual potential. Jackson’s approach, called Pedagogy of Confidence, helps educators believe in and value these students and optimize student success, which for Jackson is the basis of equity consciousness.

Jackson is a former teacher and has served New York City Public Schools as director of gifted programs and executive director of instruction and professional development.

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Rivers Murphy coauthored the School Compassionate Culture Analytic Tool for Educators (S-CCATE) and created a full-service innovative 21st century school community model, supported by an equity framework and driven by the pedagogy principles of confidence, to inspire high intellectual performance. She presented her 21st century high-performing public school solution for high-needs neighborhoods and districts to the Massachusetts secretary of education and facilitated a pilot study using S-CCATE as an envisioning tool and guide for transformational school culture change. She is also facilitating CEI research regarding Heart Centered Learning, with the foundational practices of mindfulness and mindful leadership.

Jackson received a bachelor of arts from Queens College, City University of New York with a double major in French and education, and a master’s degree in curriculum design, master of education, and doctor of education in educational administration all from Teachers College, Columbia University.

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She continues to work with school districts to customize and systemically deliver the collegial, strengths-based High Operational Practices of the Pedagogy of Confidence that integrate culture, language, and cognition to engage and elicit the innate potential of all students for self-actualization and contributions to our world. Jackson has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard University’s Urban Superintendents Program, the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education at Stanford University, the Feuerstein Institute, and Thinking Schools International. In 2012, the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences honored Jackson with its Educators’ Voice Award for education policy/researcher of the year. She has applied her research in neuroscience, gifted education, literacy, and the cognitive mediation theory of the eminent cognitive psychologist Dr. Reuven Feuerstein to develop integrated processes that engage and elicit high intellectual performances from students who are underachieving. This work is the basis for her award-winning book, The Pedagogy of Confidence: Inspiring High Intellectual Performance in Urban Schools. Jackson also coauthored Aim High, Achieve More: How to Transform Urban Schools Through Fearless Leadership and Unlocking Student Potential: How Do I Identify and Activate Student Strengths? with Veronica McDermott, and Mindfulness Practices: Cultivating Heart Centered Communities Where Students Focus and Flourish with Mason and Rivers Murphy.

Foreword

Public schools once had heart and soul. Writing in 1932, Willard Waller captured the zeitgeist: Schools have a culture that is definitely their own. There are, in the school, complex rituals of personal relationships, a set of folkways, mores, and irrational sanctions, a moral code based upon them. There are games, which are sublimated wars, teams, and an elaborate set of ceremonies concerning them. There are traditions, and traditionalists waging their world-old battle against innovators. (p. 96)

Beneath the veneer of rationality, these age-old dynamics still prevail, though in a more muted sense. But what has been lost is the vital spirit that once made schools special, and the notion that teachers make a difference. That is something Tracy Kidder (1989) observed after spending a year in a teacher’s classroom by saying that “good teachers put snags in the river of children passing by, and over the years they redirect hundreds of lives” (pp. 312–313).

Somehow, these warm sentiments have been challenged or replaced by the cold logic that casts schools in a factory motif where results, as measured by tangible outcomes, prevail. As one government official reportedly pronounced, “If it can’t be measured, we aren’t interested.” This sentiment flies in the face of sociologist William Bruce Cameron’s contrary observation: “not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

The message of Heart Centered Learning in mindful school communities could not be more timely and vital. When many would-be school reformers push for testing, policy prescriptions, and other failed remedies, Christine Mason, Michele M. Rivers Murphy, and Yvette Jackson rightly focus on a much more humane and holistic approach. They recognize that the heart of teaching lies in the hearts of teachers—and in their students.

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By Lee Bolman and Terrence E. Deal

Almost everyone argues for educating the whole child, but too often it is only empty rhetoric. Mason, Rivers Murphy, and Jackson take that idea seriously and develop intellectual, emotional, and psychological qualities for modern classrooms. Their five Cs—(1) consciousness, (2) compassion, (3) confidence, (4) courage, and (5) community—are just what classrooms need to nurture the whole child. For each factor, the authors explain why it is powerful and vital for student development and offer specific activities and strategies that teachers can use in their classrooms.

Mason, Rivers Murphy, and Jackson provide a varied and stimulating compendium of ideas, techniques, and strategies. Read straight through, or dive in at random, and you will keep finding insights or pearls of wisdom. They note, for example, that when teachers hover, micromanage, or overcontrol, the paradoxical result is an increase in chaos and unrest. The result is mindlessness rather than mindfulness. When teachers see the big picture and model compassion and courage, they inspire students to new levels of achievement and self-confidence.

Test scores dominate school performance assessment, despite the fact that standardized test scores capture a small part of what education offers to young people. In our book, Reframing the Path to School Leadership, we write: Too often, outside pressures have sapped the spirit of principals and teachers. Most external reform initiatives unfortunately are based on narrowly rational assumptions. With few exceptions, teachers are pressured to raise test scores, particularly in the STEM skills of math, science, and the other technical skills often assumed to be the keys to future success. . . . [M]ore and more businesses and other places of employment are coming to realize that this mythical assumption does not hold up to reality. The “soft skills” that are often undervalued contribute at least as much as technical skills to career and life success. (Bolman & Deal, 2014, p. 153)

We add that preparing the next generation for the future they will inherit is sacred work—nothing is more important. Mason, Rivers Murphy, and Jackson echo that message. They call on teachers to embark on a soulful journey of joy and reverence with the confidence that educators can make a real difference in their students’ lives.

As we emphasize in our own work, schools succeed when they develop a culture that is rooted in the local community and its deepest values. For too long, educational critics with little real experience in contemporary classrooms have brought a bird’s-eye view Grift Education • 9781923198364 • SOT8364

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The authors’ message is rooted in educational and neurobiological research, but even more importantly, it embodies the wisdom of experience these educators have attained from devoting their professional lives to understanding how schools work and what it takes to make them work better.

that obscures the authentic and grounded knowledge that is offered by people who serve in the schools on a daily basis. Views from ten thousand feet almost invariably miss the fine-grained details that make schools special. Schools are filled with heartwarming stories of students who suddenly manifest new insights or surprising capacities. The abstract perspectives of policy-makers bring a bloodless and distorted picture of what schools are all about. Mindful School Communities offers a much-needed alternative that enriches the possibilities in schools.

Kudos to this timely trio, who have courageously offered new ways to think about the challenges of education!

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Introduction

—Nelson Mandela

Imagine schools filled with joy, where learning is fun and engaging, where excitement fills the air, and where the vibrations of love are palpable and students step forth with confidence to tackle difficult problems. Imagine schools where students and educators gain a sense of equanimity—calm and balance—and where academic learning and social-emotional health are equally recognized and considered crucial to success in school, career, and life. Most important, imagine that compassion, love, and heart are at the core of everything we do and become in school communities.

And yet, the reality we face is far removed from this vision. Varying levels of stress and trauma accompany hundreds of thousands of students as they struggle to complete everyday tasks, learn new skills, and meet parents’ and teachers’ expectations—and their own expectations. The prevalence of the most severe forms of childhood trauma is staggering. According to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2019) report, in 2017 child protective services (CPS) “received a national estimate of 4.1 million referrals involving approximately 7.5 million children,” mostly for neglect (74.9 percent) and physical abuse (18.3 percent; p. ix). While it’s difficult to measure childhood abuse and neglect rates on a global scale because of differences in reporting methods, measures, and cultural norms, we know this issue influences the lives of children worldwide. For example, neglect happens to around 14 percent of children in Europe; in Asia, the statistics are around 25 percent (Moody, Cannings-John, Hood, Kemp, & Robling, 2018).

Stress and trauma invade the lives of many students regardless of their race, culture, gender, location, or socioeconomic status. Whether it is poverty, violence, abuse, neglect, bullying, rejection, or feelings of inadequacy, trauma and stress compromise students’ well-being and futures (Shonkoff, 2012). Stress, whether short term or pervasive, presents a huge barrier to learning, undermining people’s “ability to concentrate, remember

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A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

things, and control and focus their own thinking” (Thompson, 2014, p. 45). Under stress, people’s minds may even shut down or slow down, their attention may wander, and they may suffer from low self-esteem (Breslau, Peterson, Poisson, Schultz, & Lucia, 2004; Scibberas et al., 2014; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016).

If you are like many educators, you think about how to help your students improve not only their academic achievement but also their self-esteem, self-regulation, and likelihood for lifelong success. You may come back to questions about what to do. If it isn’t foremost in your mind, you may reflect on it when contemplating your successes and the barriers that stand between the students you serve and the dreams you have for them.

The education that we envision for the future will have heart—a true connectedness.

Schools with a solely academic focus are not addressing these urgent issues, yet they could be a critical part of the solution (Blankstein, Noguera, & Kelly, 2015; Noddings, 2016; Wright & Ford, 2016). As sociologist and author Parker Palmer (2007) explains, the teachers who will help students thrive “possess a capacity for connectedness. They are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves” (p. 11). This book ultimately answers how to create this connectedness. This introduction answers questions such as, What is connectedness? What is Heart Centered Learning? What are heart centered school communities? What will you learn in, and how might you approach, this book?

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Thankfully, there are strategies and techniques that teachers and administrators can use to improve all of these learning barriers. Our experience is that these strategies and techniques can make a difference for individual lives even in the midst of global anxiety, terrorism, and trauma. Somewhat surprisingly, it is almost like being in the middle of a blue sky in the eye of a hurricane—trauma whirling around us as we feel centered, calm, happy, and successful. We believe one viable and sustainable solution is what we call Heart Centered Learning®. Supported by neuroscience and neurobiology, Heart Centered Learning is where emotions, consciousness, and student interests and needs are central parts of curriculum and instruction and the essence of creating a compassionate learning community (Davidson & Begley, 2013; Kaunhoven & Dorjee, 2017; Lazar et al., 2005). We believe that Heart Centered Learning is the necessary ingredient to build strong, supportive school communities for students, teachers, and school leaders. While Heart Centered Learning may, at first blush, sound like it is all about being kind (which is important), it is based on years of rigorous scientific investigations documenting how to help children thrive. You will see that research cited throughout this book.

What Is Connectedness?

Connectedness is a sense of belonging, or relatedness, which is important for teachers and students alike (Marshik, Ashton, & Algina, 2017; Reis, Sheldon, Gable, Roscoe, & Ryan, 2000). It is crucial to psychological health, as well as to motivation (Marshik et al., 2017). Connectedness—belonging—is critical to healthy growth and development.

Alienation, isolation, trauma, and stress mean there is a need for conscious development of connectedness. The repercussions from these experiences vary from individual to individual, but their effect on overall well-being and the capacity to learn is damaging (Shonkoff et al., 2012).

What Is Heart Centered Learning?

Heart Centered Learning is “education that is not overly dependent upon a focus on rigid academic scheduling or expectations for academic growth—instead taking a holistic approach” (Center for Educational Improvement [CEI], n.d.). This approach encourages and fosters the five Cs of social-emotional learning (external) and mindfulness (internal): 1. Consciousness 2. Compassion 3. Confidence 4. Courage 5. Community Heart Centered Learning reflects recent neurobiological information that provides strong evidence of neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to recover from stress (Davidson & Begley, 2013; Kaunhoven, & Dorjee, 2017; Lazar et al., 2005). Mindfulness, or conscious awareness, can help individuals who are experiencing trauma or stress by providing relief that calms hyper-alert neuropathways (Mason, Rivers Murphy, & Jackson, 2019). When we are conscious of our breath, of our emotions, and of those around us, we are more likely to act in compassionate ways and reinforce neuropathways that provide positive feedback about our lives (Singer & Klimecki, 2014). As we feel a sense of calm and goodwill, we are more likely to feel confident about our abilities. Over time, this sense of confidence can strengthen executive functions (including memory, attention, and organization; Diamond & Lee, 2011; Zelazo & Lyons, 2012) and our potential to be courageous—standing up to bullies, helping others in need, and considering someone

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Teacher-student connectedness is not often part of preservice teacher education or in-service professional development. However, to nurture and support the complex web of connectedness that Palmer (2007) describes, school leaders and teachers consciously weave webs of relationships with everyone in the school community. Connectedness is important to Heart Centered Learning.

else’s feelings—thus strengthening a sense of community. Heart Centered Learning intentionally provides a new lens for the neurobiological challenges of youth who struggle with impulse control, de-escalation, anger management, and self-regulation as a whole.

Through this new lens we are less likely to blame students for acting out and more likely to seek ways to alleviate their stress and nurture their well-being.

What Are Heart Centered School Communities?

In heart centered school communities, there is a shared belief that it is not enough to only educate with our minds, nor is it enough to only educate our minds. If we are to help mediate the inattention and inaction that so many decades of ignoring social-emotional factors have created, and if we are to teach students strategies to ameliorate trauma and stress, then new ways of being, learning, and leading together are necessary. In heart centered school communities, caring and compassionate action are embedded into practices, policies, and protocols. Further, as they implement Heart Centered Learning, educators also use the principles during interactions with families and the surrounding local community. Such a practice shows care for the whole heart centered school community. See figure I.1.

INTRODUCTION EXERCISE: Reaching for the Stars

To consider the benefits of adding heart, we would like you to pause, consider someone you love (it could be a family member or friend), and check to see how you feel. Now, participate in the following exercise (Mason & Banks, 2014). Read through the steps and then close your eyes and follow them.

1. Close your eyes, put your hands on your heart, and take a few deep breaths.

2. Focus on the warmth at your heart center and imagine stars twinkling in a night sky.

3. As you continue to look, notice that one star seems to shine a bit brighter.

Focus on that star.

4. Visualize the face of a loved one on that star.

5. Feel the love bond, take a few deep breaths, and reach up with one of your hands and pull that star into your heart.

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Put simply, when teachers and administrators strive for Heart Centered Learning, they place the learners’ social-emotional needs at the forefront of their instruction and policies while cultivating a natural safety net within the learning community. When their teaching is heart centered, educators’ conscious understanding of neuroscience (including neurobiology and also a conscious understanding of learning, perception, and behavior) and stress informs their attitudes, practices, communication, and instruction with learners. This effort can lead to a heart centered school community.

Families and Neighbors Schools Classrooms

6. Take a few more deep breaths, feeling the love bond and a sense of peace, and open your eyes.

When you do the exercise, remember to take a few deep breaths at the beginning and at the end. How did you feel? Did you notice a difference in how you felt between simply thinking about someone you love and after doing the Reaching for the Stars exercise?

You have activated a connection between your feelings, your mind, and your heart. A positive physiological change in your heart actually occurred (Childre & Martin, 1999).

What Will You Learn in This Book?

In Mindful School Communities: The Five Cs of Nurturing Heart Centered Learning, teachers of grades K–12, school counselors, social workers, and administrators get the research-based essentials to creating mindful classrooms and school communities that better prepare students to be more responsive to their individual, collective, and societal needs. We also provide the following.

• Insights into research • Examples of how other educators have implemented the practices • Guidance for thoughtful and conscious decision making • Exercises to improve students’ and educators’ lives (Visit go.SolutionTree .com/behavior to access free reproducible versions of these exercises.)

• Activities and tools to infuse heart centered factors naturally into curriculum in the context of academic subjects and across grade levels Readers who have little knowledge about mindfulness, or “paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 143), will find that Mindful School Communities: The Five Cs of Nurturing Heart Centered Learning gives them food for thought regarding consciousness, compassion, confidence, courage,

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Figure I.1: Heart centered school communities.

and community—the five factors that compose Heart Centered Learning. Each of these topics is covered in an individual chapter, with examples of activities that can be used across grade levels and academic subjects. Each chapter also has examples of how teachers can build their capacity for awareness and heart centeredness in their interactions with students (and how administrators can do so in their interactions with teachers) and establish mindful school communities that are more caring and compassionate.

Developing and sustaining compassionate classrooms is not a short-term investment. We are in such need of a curriculum that will help integrate compassionate practices, including the five Cs, across academic areas. Teachers need guidance and advice about how to incorporate these important practices while continuing to focus on academic development.

(J. Donald, personal communication, June 5, 2019)

Mindful School Communities: The Five Cs of Nurturing Heart Centered Learning is divided into two parts.

3DUW , 6FLHQWLÀF %DVLV DQG 2YHUYLHZ Chapters 1 and 2, in part I, provide an overview of the theoretical, scientific, historical, and contextual information that is the rationale for Heart Centered Learning. Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of Heart Centered Learning. Chapter 2 describes the physiology of the heart and why it’s important to help students understand their emotions (our bodies’ responses to external stimuli) and feelings (our mental reactions and associations to these emotions).

Part II: Heart Centered Components In part II, chapters 3–7 each cover one of the five Cs that being a heart centered community requires. Chapter 8 centers on conscious leadership, and the epilogue reflects on the implications for schools, communities, and nations, and looks to the future. The appendix introduces the School Compassionate Culture Analytic Tool for Educators (S-CCATE), a data-analysis and envisioning tool that ties directly to the five Cs. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/behavior for free reproducibles of planning tools for each of the five Cs, heart centered leadership, and heart physiology and heart-mind connections.

Figure I.2 (page 8) is an example of a completed planning tool.

Throughout the book, you will see the following.

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Will readers who are already implementing mindfulness also be interested in what we have to say in Mindful School Communities: The Five Cs of Nurturing Heart Centered Learning? Jeffrey Donald, a teacher and mindfulness coordinator in Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools, is implementing mindfulness across his district, and he thinks they will be interested:

In chapters 3–8, you will see the following organizing structures, where It stands for consciousness, compassion, confidence, courage, community, or conscious leadership.

• What Is It? This is a definition and explanation of the factor and how it relates to education. We also talk about issues you might have to take into consideration when planning to practice or teach the factor.

• Why Does It Matter in School? Here are the rationale and research for teaching this factor to students.

• How Do We Teach It? You get examples of how to infuse the factor into academic curricula.

• What Does It Look Like Historically? We discuss historic leaders who personify or who have advanced one of the factors. This topic can work as another way to introduce the factor into the curricula. Additionally, you can tap into current events or visit websites such as the Smithsonian Institutions (http://americanhistory.si.edu) for inspiration. Look for examples of these factors in the news or on social media, consider other gifted adults, and compare some of the traits they share.

• How Do We Measure It? We share several ways to assess how thoroughly or well each of the five Cs, plus conscious leadership, is incorporated into a school or district. Examples of three S-CCATE items for measuring each of the Cs are included as well.

How Might You Approach This Book?

How can you put more heart into your life? We expect that each of you has your own special interests and needs. You may be most interested in building students’ confidence or courage, for example. Before jumping to that chapter, please consider the advantages of Grift Education • 9781923198364 • SOT8364

© 2024 Grift Education. All rights reserved.

• Key principles: Each chapter begins with an underlying principle that summarizes that chapter’s main concept or theme.

• Exercises and activities: These are interspersed throughout the chapters in a purposeful order. The exercises are examples of how to implement Heart Centered Learning in classrooms and schools. Some are mindful breathing, yogic, meditation, or mindfulness exercises; some are discussion- or project-based activities. We recommend practicing the exercises first before implementing them with students.

• Professional development opportunities: We make references to resources and activities across a variety of subjects and grade levels for introducing each of the five Cs. • Reflections: Each chapter ends with a few questions that may help you understand the relationship of the material to your own situation, including your students, your classrooms, and your schools.

n/a

Grade 5

Grade 2

Strategies (page 85)

&RQÀGHQFH Superhero Capes (page 86)

October 10 One plan period

October 15 Art class (1:00 p.m.; extension activity: three days)

Grade Level

5HÁHFW RQ Your and Your Students’ &RQÀGHQFH (page 84)

Exercise

One day each week

Date and Time or Sequence Period

Talk with students about their successes, academic and otherwise, before we begin making capes.

During teacher planning, complete the strategies chart, decide one focus, and choose two or three strategies.

See strategies listed in this form.

Plans for Infusing in Academics

conclusions in classrooms and how to monitor results.

Determine if we need to focus on helping specific students or specific situations.

Commit to monitor impact.

Parents or other volunteers might be able to help students with preparing their capes, and we will consider recruiting their help.

We will determine a time during academics when students can wear their capes.

Do this for one week.

Decide how to apply

n/a

Adaptations

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after students have worn their capes for one week.

Extension: Class develops a superhero drama, developing vignettes where a good reader helps another student with a library book. The extension ends in a superhero celebration at the end of the week. Take a class picture with the capes.

We will repeat annually.

We’ll do an extension activity

We’ll complete twice annually.

n/a

Plans for Future Use

Grades 4–12

Grades 4–12

$IÀUPDWLRQ Meditation (page 92)

Following Talent (page 95)

Figure I.2: Confidence Planner reproducible—example.

K–grade 12

Strengthen Your Core (page 90)

October 12 8:30 a.m.

n/a

Grade Level

Acknowledging Negative Emotions and Supporting Positive Emotions (page 88)

Exercise

Every day

Date and Time or Sequence Period

Adaptations

Focus on praise during tough self-controlled times and boosting celebrations, informal and formal.

Consider as Bring knees to chest and a transition rock back and forth. movement— perhaps as students prepare to leave a circle area.

Will wait until second semester to infuse.

Will wait until world history unit to infuse.

Plans for Infusing in Academics

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Grift Education • 9781923198364 • SOT8364

Consider making this a part of movement brain breaks to be used regularly.

Plans for Future Use