The ABCs of Mindful Learning: Attention, Balance and Compassion (VIDEO)

When I was in elementary school teachers used "the ABCs" as a shorthand phrase for the alphabet, a fundamental building block of learning to read. While the traditional ABCs are as crucial as they ever were when it comes to reading, there is another set of ABCs which, in their own way, are equally important to learning: Attention, Balance and Compassion. A strong capacity to pay attention helps kids and teens stay on task and do well in school. But attention without a context is only part of what kids and teens need to flourish in our complex and ever changing world. They also need Balance and Compassion. Emotional balance allows children and teens to see what's happening in their inner and outer worlds clearly without an emotional charge, and compassion is the lens or perspective that allows kids to see both sides of an issue at home and in school. Thus, it's important our kids learn a new set of ABCs too -- one that draws upon the very old values of Attention, Balance and Compassion.

New ABCs flash animation from KidVidlit

 

 

 

Follow Susan Kaiser Greenland on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sKAISERg

Comments

[MerrieWay]

04:10 PM on 05/12/2010

Love your approach...you have added a missing link to the educational system. Balance is ignored and often medication is used to early, before developing the ability to pay attention. MerrieWay Community offers "Peace Smarts" when children get older, grades 5-12...when they are needing to adapt to peer pressure and raging hormones. Having compassion for themselves and world around them needs to be modeled by our society, by us, by parents. I am looking forward to reading your book and passing along the info'. Smiles.
www.merrieway.com

[Robert Adam]

01:19 PM on 05/12/2010

Learn a profound mind-body balance
http://www.theanatomyofhealing.com

[NancyPeske]

08:09 AM on 05/12/2010

I love this "ABC" concept and would like to see schools embrace these values. Unfortunately, when a child has poor attention or anxiety, and behavior that stems from those, too often, he or she is seen as a "bad child" who is the product of "bad parenting." I'd love to see yoga and mindfulness meditation taught in gym classes, supported by a mindfulness and ABC type approach taught in guidance class, in a school with a policy and culture of supporting self-awareness and personal responsibility. Punishment and shame-based discipline without any thought to where behavior comes from just plain doesn't work to help instill good values in the next generation of citizens.

Of course, people will ask, where are the parents, but parents, too, should be embracing these values of self-awareness and taking responsibility for all your "stuff," including that which embarrasses you. You have to "own" it before you can change it.

http://www.sensorysmartparent.wordpress.com

[Marlise Karlin]

05:36 AM on 05/12/2010

Hi Susan, beautiful understanding, for each of us, children and adults.. to find what it is that makes life worthwhile.. valuing one another... and this planet.. without that... what is there, really. I think you will enjoy hearing how Katie found that in school amidst all the daily challenges most 11 year olds face. You can hear (see video) what happened in her own words, once she began practicing Stillness in her life... http://www.marlisekarlin.com/index.php/teens3 - sending blessings, m

[khanti]

01:38 AM on 05/12/2010

Excellent article! What the World needs and will never have enough of.