What is the worst detention you ever got in your school?
Five rounds of the playground? A trip to Principal’s office? Standing outside the classroom with your hands up? Or even worse, writing lines 100 or 500 or even 1000 times?
How did that make you feel? Angry? Frustrated? Or you simply don’t care with every intention of repeating your actions at the next opportunity? It was the last one for me every time by the way!
However, students at a school in Baltimore do not have to go through these age-old, practically useless methods of detention. Instead, they do meditation in detention. Whenever they misbehave, teachers send them to a special room called Mindful Moment room!
Mindful Moment Room
Yea, that is right. It is not a scene from some Chinese Kung Fu school or a school in a monastery. It is a scene from a regular and popular school in Baltimore named Robert W. Coleman Elementary School.
Whenever a student misbehaves in the classroom, he or she has to do meditation in detention and goes to the Mindful Moment room. The room has a typical setting of a calm space with purple pillows, decorations, and lamps.
In this room, the instructor guides the student for deep breathing and meditation exercises. Kids are even encouraged to discuss why they were sent to the room in the first place. Usually, there is a 5-minute targeted discussion with instructors and other kids and 15 minutes of meditation and deep breathing practice.
They learn the art of re-centering themselves and observe their thoughts. In this process, they learn to focus again and also take responsibility for their actions. The school built this room with the help of a foundation called Holistic Life Foundation.
The organization aims to train kids to develop their inner lives through a combination of yoga, mindfulness meditation, and self-care. It runs a Mindful Moment Program across schools to inculcate the practice of meditation and self-awareness among children.
Do Kids Really Do Meditation in Detention?
If you are wondering if those naughty kids who cause a headache to their teachers in classrooms really do meditation in detention, then the answer is a 100% YES.
Kirk Philips, the Holistic Me coordinator at Robert W. Coleman, says ,
“It’s amazing. You wouldn’t think that little kids would meditate in silence. And they do.”
In fact, it would not be a surprise if in near future they will actually want detention to go to Mindful Moment room for meditation once they actually start seeing the benefits of meditation!
And if you ask, has there actually been any positive effect of this unique way of detention? The answer is a resounding yes. Since the school began this practice last year, there were zero suspensions in that year and no suspensions so far in this year as well!
Introducing meditation in schools is a great step towards educating and training kids in the art of meditation and mindfulness. In the world, where we are struggling with serious issues of humanity, we need our future generation to become self-aware individuals who can guide the humanity towards progress rather than destruction !
