In order to have calm kids, we must understand how we are calm adults. Obviously, we have given thought to personal balance, healthy environments, peace of mind. All we have to do is walk down Main Street, Anywhere, USA and count the spa, tai chi, massage, yoga, acupuncture and other studios that dot the body of merchants to see how important serenity is in our lives.
1. ENVIRONMENT. What our location looks like, how spacious it is, the surrounding smells, our comfort level in the space and more factors affect how calm we are. The temperature of the building we are in or the placement and type of lights in the classroom all have to do with our peace of mind. When these factors are physically built into the arena where our kids spend their time daily, we are using the first way to calm kids.
2. POSITIVE SELF-ESTEEM. Although it is nice to be in a nurturing but empowering atmosphere, not all schools or institutes, where kids receive a large part of their education, provide these traits. Some believe in the tough love type of teaching, where the student must keep up with the teacher. Other teachers consider it a responsibility to reach the pupil. Depending upon how a student learns, these two standards make a tremendous difference in the peace of mind of the student. If the student learns and evolves well through "the very old school method" of getting the ruler to the hand for not understanding the lesson, and the school provides this; the student's self-esteem will be positively affected by these lessons. Likewise, if the student learns well from an instructor who is determined to teach without embarrassment or learning from fear, and the school offers the more compassionate side, again, the student will learn. In the scenario where the student's innate nature and the method are mismatched, the student can experience stress which may lead to negative self-esteem.
The fix lies with the discipline watcher, the teacher, the principal, the coaches who must be on the lookout for students in stress. Some students will act out; others will not; some will look stressed or sad or angry. The knowledge managers, meaning all the staff in a school, can notice, say a kind word and provide a program that addresses peace of mind. Having the "adults" take on the responsibility of monitoring their charges is what being responsible means But, once recognized, then what? And is it possible to be a diligent observer and provider with under-staffing and overwork? The answer, IMHO, is, "Yes."
3. MIND-SET. It is the school's responsibility to prepare the student's outlook on socialization, commerce, art, and fitting in or out, whichever the student chooses. It is also the school's responsibility to discuss the state of well-being. Yes, this is work for "at home," but it is not exclusive and must be discussed in school. Many public and private schools have a difficult time with the fine line not to cross between what belongs at school and what belongs at home. Students can't excel without personal balance. So the topic of how to maintain and accelerate calmness makes sense to be available at school.
Take writing and penmanship as an example. When we are in the process of learning it, we don't really know how it will open up our lives. But after our knowledge of it becomes part of our life, only then do we see its benefit. The same goes for talking about the state of well-being. In school, we are told to put our heads down to rest, to run around the track, to eat nutritionally. Are we taught why all this is important? Do teachers realize that this has to do with mind-set as well as code compliance? It is crucial to mention the state of well-being topic so that the student knows it is normal to consider it and so that, when the student is offered a class in well-being (such as tai chi or yoga), the student will connect the training to the topic and both to her (his) life and gravitate toward it. Also, talking about the topic is an important part of generating the result.
4. STRESS RELIEF TRAINING. It's one thing to talk about how we need to be balanced and another to be taught how to do it. Although a full-curriculum including mind/body training would be great in a school system and should be part of the elective class in phys. ed or health, the best training would be regular, start-of-the-day, daily exercise that became part of the standard day. It should be part of the routine that goes along with checking into homeroom, saluting the flag, placing books in a locker, sharpening pencils, erasing the blackboard. This activity would not be sporadic. It would be ongoing and is preparation for learning and responsible living. This 4th method, stress relief training for kids, is a way to erase the student's internal blackboard so that the student is happy, healthy, feeling well before taking the first step into the daily school schedule. This regular mind/body daily training should be a standard in every educational institution.
5. KIDS CALMING THEMSELVES. The most important part of school relaxation training is for a youth or a teen to be able to take the lesson from school into her (his) own life. Translated, this means that kids hear about and are taught peace of mind at school, are exposed to physical training/mental exercise targeting stress and can easily use this training to balance their lives away from school.
This 5th and most important method of stress relief for kids is also the most challenging. What's easy to do as part of a class is not always easy to do for ourselves. The purpose of training a small segment of stress relief training every day as opposed to one 40-minute class once a week helps us in consistency training. The mind gets used to daily work, the muscles and the mind start to remember the daily calmness. Student gets to consider the topic of peace of mind, and the roller coaster ride of class, then no class, class, then no class is replaced with a daily, consistent body of work which makes the student comfortable with the training itself
CONCLUSION. Relating in-school training to external life is what every good teacher tries to accomplish. When schools openly talk about personal balance as part of life and give kids the tools to calm down, students can maximize these lessons and give them meaning.
Students realize that the way their parents go to the corner spa, tai chi, yoga studio is a type of stress relief. If some type of stress relief training is taught at school, kids can relate it to what their parents do as a normal activity and will be less likely to suppress their stress. They will be empowered, rather than ashamed of how they feel. They will have some idea that working on a mind/body lesson is about beauty on the inside, rather than who can be the most attractive externally. They will begin to establish a foundation in how to be calm through their program at school. Because of this, they will have the ability to call the training up when they are afraid to enter the next grade, when taking a test, to combat peer pressure or bullying, when going on a college interview. when going on a job interview and other times that call for feeling balanced and peaceful.
We, as adults, find many ways every day to keep our cool, calm ourselves, balance our lives. The same opportunities should be afforded our kids at a much earlier age than we had access to it, since we know how important it is. If children learn that stress is normal, they will be ahead of previous generations. When they begin mind/body training as 5-year-olds, they will have less stress at high school time and more temperance throughout their childhood, as teens and as adults. The purposeful experience of working on stress relief will account for greater personal balance in kids today and tomorrow.
