We are all familiar with that creepy room where disruptive children are sent where they have the chance to reconsider and reflect on everything bad they have done.
However, people attending even one day in the detention room will confess that they reflect on nothing, but instead they have tried to get out of there or they have talked to another detention mate without being caught.
So, long story short, children sent on detention don’t learn a valuable lesson about well-behaving and prospects in life.
But, what if we told you that some schools have a different approach towards disruptive and misbehaving children- mediation. This may come as a shocker, but what it’s actually even more shocking is the result from this approach.
Needless to mention the benefits from meditation, this school proves that hours spent in detention can be beneficial and useful for the kids, minus the dark atmosphere and leaving kids to figure out on themselves that what they did was wrong and shouldn’t repeat this action again.
The old-fashioned detention’s odds of the kid repeating the unwanted behavior is always possible and that’s the time when we need something new, innovative or in other words, to think out of the box.
Meditation instead of Detention
The first step towards changing a whole method of punishing disruptive children comes from Baltimore school, where they replace sending kids to detention or to the principal’s office with some valuable lessons of meditation or as they call it, the Mindful Moment Room.
First of all, it has nothing to do or has no resemblance to your standard detention room. Instead they chose to decorate this room with plenty of lamps and other cozy decorations and by doing so, they expect that the misbehaved children will feel more pleasant and encouraged to participate in fixing and detecting the problem where it all began in the first place.
They try to help the kids focus and re-center by practicing meditation or doing some breathing sessions. They are also encouraged to talk about their mischievous behavior and about the situation that lead them to this room in the first place.
The benefits of Mindful Meditation
Meditation in general is becoming extremely popular nowadays and people of all ages are taking that step when they help themselves overcome some difficulty or they simply enjoy the benefits that meditation has to offer and it’s true that many have found comfort and stability in practicing meditation or even consider it as an alternative medicine.
Among the benefits of meditation are the improved memory and concentration as well as sharpness of the brain and better focus. Meditation can easily wear off bad or negative emotions and therefore improve your overall wellbeing, decreasing stress levels and controlling your bad temper.
People are relying on medication more and more by the day and science is even accepting the amazing results that medication has on people and their body and mind. Mindfulness specifically had its share in some successful psychotherapies and this elementary school is trying to take full advantage of its benefits.
The Story behind the Mindful Room
The entire story started with the partnership with the Holistic Life Foundation, an organization offering other programs to schools, where kids can practice yoga and mindfulness exercises. They even emphasize the fact that kids are able to meditate in silence and find their peace, to everyone’s surprise.
We all know that it’s in the kid’s nature to move around and even get naughty sometimes, however you’ll be surprised by the results and what mindful meditation can do for children and their future development in life.
These sessions can actually have a great impact on the kid’s perspective and way of seeing things, they even get excited over meditation and often bring their experience at home and practice it on their siblings or even parents.
More than a Meditation Program
Aside from the meditation sessions and breathing exercises, this program also acquaints children with their surroundings and the environment as well as tutors and monitors the children.
They actively participate in the program and are even let to be co-teachers, leading the sessions on their own and feel involved and a part of this great program.
Moreover, they are also cleaning up parks, visiting various places such as the local farms and they are also building their own gardens.
However, this project is not just a one-school experiment, on the contrary, many schools in the UK as well as USA are acknowledging the great benefits of this type of programs and are pretty open to the idea of implementing such holistic thinking.
And why shouldn’t they? This program has had so many successful stories and incredible results that many schools are setting up such or similar programs in their daily activities.
The results are remarkable
Undoubtedly the success is inevitable. Hard work and patience truly pays off and many schools start to acknowledge mindful meditation and its remarkable impact on children in particular.
It was even stated that Robert W. Coleman Elementary School had no suspensions noted last year and their nearby neighbors, Patterson Park High School had also lowered the rates of suspensions and as well noted an increased attendance.
No one can guarantee the success or convince you in the benefits of mindful meditation unless you’re open to try this on yourself. It’s worth the try once you read about all the successful stories out there and especially the ones where children are involved.
Sources:
http://www.upworthy.com/
http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/
http://edition.cnn.com/
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A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.