WREG, Memphis: You could hear a pin drop Tuesday during recess at Lausanne Collegiate School.

A group of middle schoolers decided to opt out of recess to meditate.

The 5th through 8th graders sit in complete silence once a week to help improve their concentration in class.

Lausanne’s Middle School principal says about fifty kids have signed-up for the “unplugged session.”

“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Greg Graber. “The kids say not only do they enjoy it but it helps them concentrate and to focus and to feel better. They feel re-energized.”

“After you do it, you just feel a lot more relaxed, and you feel like a lot better …

An exhibit opening Sept. 15 at the University of Tennessee’s Frank H. McClung Museum explores both the simple yet elegant beauty and the deeper meanings of art developed around Zen Buddhism.

“Zen Buddhism and the Arts of Japan” is at the museum, located at 1327 Circle Park Drive on the UT campus, through Dec. 31.

The display includes such objects as tea bowls, robes, bronze memorial plaques and a wooden sculpture of the guardian figure called Fudo Myoo. “Zen Buddhism” also shows more than 40 hanging scrolls whose paintings and calligraphy were created by Zen Buddhist monks from 1600 to 1868.

The beliefs and practices of Zen Buddhists were …

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Mary Barnett: Former athlete and current assistant principal at Orchard Knob Middle School LaKesha Carson said she was used to employing a variety of techniques to de-stress and unwind after a particularly crazy day.

But what she learned last week during the first day of faculty in-service at the middle school was the opposite of everything she has ever done or thought to do.

“As a former athlete I have been all about a good hard workout. So I think of de-stressing as going hard, pumping the weights, running, running, and getting that sweat up,” Carson said.

Slowing down, breathing correctly and just sitting quietly were just a few of the techniques Carson and the entire…

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