Artists in the Classroom (11-12)

Jon Kabat-Zinn - A Benefit For Mindful Schools

“it’s no big deal. just everything.” - JKZ

That’s how Jon Kabat-Zinn closed his talk on Friday night at the Mindful Schools Benefit Gala in Zellerbach Hall @ Berkeley. I attended with my friend Liane who also works with youth. It was a powerful and inspirational evening that began with a group meditation and ended with a q&a session that drew far more inquisitive people than could be accommodated. I’m relatively new to the Mindfulness Movement taking place in Bay Area schools. From what I’ve seen, it’s pretty powerful. The more I hear about it, the more I connect with it and want to support it. Below are some of my notes from the talk.

Vocabulary & Terms I hear being used a lot:
- emotional navigation
- embodied empathy
- cultivating inner resources
- living your way into yourself
- interiority
- escorting your attention
- intentionality
- befriending our experiences
- relationality
- drop back in

What is mindfulness?
- Paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgement (or being aware of the awareness of the judgement).
- The core of mindfulness has to do with “non-doing.” It’s a way of being vs. a technique or method.
- MBSR = Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

Big Ideas about Mindfulness in Education:
- We are all here for some non random reason (when talking about the make up of the room).
- you have to tune your instrument (of learning) before you can learn.
- attention is a (cultivated) skill
- kids are usually paying attention to something that’s more interesting than the teacher.
- We spend so much time focused on the doing vs. asking the question: Who is it that’s doing the doing?
- We want kids to be met, seen, and known for who they are.
- We often get caught in binary dualism: it has to be “this or that.” But it doesn’t, it can be both. And it’s very powerful to teach kids this early on.
- We want to cultivate the idea of making space for children “as they are.”
- When we ask “How are you feeling?” They might say anything, including the truth. And we might not be ready for the truth. Because we have no idea what they are coming from.
- We want our kids to grow up and be full fledged, emotional, planetary adults.

On Teaching:
- Teaching is an intrinsically stressful profession in which there is never enough support.
- Teaching is a beautiful undertaking.
- Any subject can be interesting or dead boring. It depends on the passion of the teacher.
- You have to be authentic in your teaching - kids can sense when someone isn’t authentic in a nano-second.
- If we are not tuning our own instruments and taking care of ourselves, how can we be present in the classroom? How can we bring our passion and our love into what we are doing if we aren’t tending to ourselves?
- We are preparing kids for journey we know nothing about.
- How many of you remember the name of a teacher in elementary school who had a big impact on your life? And a sea of hands went up -  it was a beautiful moment.

A Message to Educators:
- The kids who aren’t listening may be your best students.
- Let’s not kill kids love of learning.
- How do we make school interesting?
- The question you should ask yourself: Do you have something worthy of attention to give to your students?
- Can we relate to what’s happening underneath their problems?
 - How about seeing someone and making room for them with a degree of kindness, a degree of acceptance.

Generally Wise Stuff:
- You are not your thoughts.
- You awareness holds your experiences.
- Learning how to get out of your own way.
- It’s not the stress, it’s how you respond to it, and we have a lot of latitude in that regard.
- We often talk personally, things that have nothing to do with us.
- If you open up to awareness, you open up to everything, the pleasant and the painful, it doesn’t segregate.
- It’s about putting out the welcome mat - turning to what is most _____ (can’t read my notes, lol!) and then finding a way to have a healthy relationship with it.
- When you go against the dogma of the day you pay a certain price.
- Institutionalized education can make you narrower instead of more expansive.

On Meditation / Buddhism / Spirituality:
- On meditation: it’s never the objects of meditation that are most important, it’s the awareness itself.
- The Buddha wasn’t a Buddhist. Buddhism is a term coined by Europeans.
- There is nothing about paying attention that is the property of any view or spiritual tradition.

How do we facilitate the teaching of Mindfulness?:
- We don’t have to use the word “mindfulness” to teach it. And it could be better if we don’t, as it becomes more popular.
- There is nothing about paying attention that is the property of any view or spiritual tradition. Don’t even use the term “spirituality.”
- We need data to show the benefits of this and we need to have a robust vocabulary that doesn’t play into a dualistic views.
- It’s a growing movement but it’s important to stay grounded in the practice.
- It’s very hard to teach this stuff unless your practicing it yourself.

Golden Lines:
- “Like any good student, she didn’t listen to me.”
- “Ask yourself: What do I love so much, I’d pay to do it?”
- “Feast on your life.”
- “It’s no big deal. just everything.”