Photo: holisticlifefoundation via Instagram
Oh, detention– a room full of ‘misfits’ forced to sit at their desk and relish in boredom until the timer is up. Was that the experience when you went to school? Well, a school in Baltimore, MD, is trying to change that.
The Mindful Moment Room at Robert W. Coleman Elementary School is a meditation room that is the alternative to sending kids to detention or the principal’s office. Students who would typically face detention are instead encouraged to sit still in the mindful moment room to meditate or do breathing exercises to help them calm down and re-center, in the hopes that they’ll begin to learn how to deal with stress. They are also asked to talk about their prior actions.
The meditation room was created as a partnership with the Holistic Life Foundation, a local nonprofit that runs other programs as well. For more than 10 years the foundation has been offering the after-school program Holistic Me, where kids from pre-K through the fifth grade practice yoga, mindfulness exercises, and courses about the environment.
Photo: holisticlifefoundation via Instagram
The meditation room was created as a partnership with the Holistic Life Foundation, a local nonprofit that runs other programs as well. Kirk Philips, the Holistic Me coordinator at Robert W. Coleman says that at Coleman Elementary, there have been exactly zero suspensions last year and so far this year. Meanwhile, nearby Patterson Park High School, which also uses the mindfulness programs, said suspension rates dropped and attendance increased as well.
Photo: holisticlifefoundation via Instagram
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