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Page 4 of 4
When I ask Cowan what she
sees as the benefit of teaching mindfulness to schoolchildren, she
talks about a YouTube video of Fred Rogers, the host of “Mister
Rogers’ Neighborhood” on PBS, testifying before Congress. “If
we can teach children that feelings are mentionable and manageable,
we will have done a great service for mental health,” Rogers said.
“That’s what mindfulness
does for children,” Cowan said. “It offers young people access to
the fundamental human capacity to pay attention to oneself, to have
self-awareness.” She said students very quickly discovered a
quality of peace and stillness and ease, “of not having to respond
to external stimulus,” which translated into a look of relief on
their faces.
Cowan feels Mindful Schools
has been able to enter so many schools because the mechanisms and the
benefits of the program are straightforward and promote better
education: mindfulness creates space between our emotions and our
reactions to them, giving us the opportunity to make choices more
consciously. “When I teach, I often start by talking about anger,
and I ask the kids to think of as many examples as they can of things
people do when they’re angry. You can imagine the list. Then I hold
up two fingers tightly together and say the action so often
automatically comes right after, together with the emotion.” Cowan
then separates her fingers and explains that mindfulness can open up
a space between them. “In that space, we have a choice.”
She
points out that it’s critical to the program that it is not
authoritarian, telling children what they should
do, or how they should
behave. “Every school has a list of rules on the wall,” she said,
“but in a moment of intensity, a child is too overwhelmed to
remember how they should act. Mindfulness practice could help them
cultivate an internal awareness that allows them to stop momentarily
and make a different choice.” The program is not trying to engineer
their way of being and does not present an ideology or belief system.
It’s “trying to give them access to making their own choices, but
it’s not dictating what those choices are.”
Although mindfulness
practice does not dictate choices, there is faith that when given an
honest choice in a real moment of space, people will choose peace.
“So often the children tell me,” Cowan said, “‘I was so angry
and I was about to kick my little brother, throw a glass—or even go
get a weapon—but then I remembered my mindfulness and calmed down.’
At the end of one session, a boy said, ‘I think if we did this
every day, there would be no more fighting.’”
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