Pennsylvania Archives

A Zen approach to education

August 23, 2012

Amanda Cregan, The Intelligencer: As students load up their backpacks and prepare for another busy school year, a handful of teens are looking forward to a stress-free semester.

At Tinicum Art & Science [Ottsville, PA], high school students are learning to focus their minds, erase life’s anxieties and tap into their creativity before classroom instruction can begin.

All classes and activities at the private, religious school are centered around the dojo, a room for meditation and martial arts that contains a shrine to Buddha.

Students begin each school day in silence as they sit in quiet reflection in the dojo, preparing themselves for …

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a day of rigorous academics.“The main purpose of the school is academics. But so much gets in the way of studying: sour relationships, fear, bad habits, confusing home life, weak skill set, and so on. We try to create the conditions that allow students to take risks and move beyond all that,” said principal Peter Ryan.

Throughout their weekly schedule, students are called to spend time in meditation, group therapy, art, chores and exercise, such as yoga and Shim Gum Do martial arts.

Meditation is an essential key; teachers and staff aim to improve the mind, body and soul of each student, said Ryan.

“Meditation develops self-awareness, first through a general quieting of the chatter within oneself, and then the capacity to observe the self while alone, and then while with others. This creates a stable space inside the self. Over time, with instruction, students learn to bring this stability to other parts of the school, even to their lives at home and with peers,” he said.

Julia Boddy, 18, of Bridgeton, graduated from Tinicum Art & Science in June.

As a freshman at Palisades High School, Boddy struggled. She had trouble sleeping at night, struggled to pay attention in class, and was even sensitive to the florescent lighting. When she transferred to the private school in 10th grade, everything changed.

“It was everything I wanted,” said Boddy, “From meditation to better eating habits to getting involved in what I was learning, it kind of made me a better all-around person.”

She admits the culture at Tinicum Art & Science isn’t for everyone, but meditation helped change her from the inside out.

“Studying meditation every day really helped me get control over myself, and it’s made me more confident in every situation,” said Boddy, who will major in literary studies at The New School in New York City this fall.

Josh and Cole Mertz, both 17, struggled with poor grades, bullying and depression before finding their way to Tinicum Art & Science. The twins’ parents commute nearly three hours a day, from Carbon County, because their sons have found peace and success at the school.

For Cole, it’s a relief to not have to deal with the sometimes brutal social scene at public high schools. He describes his current fellow students as loving and compassionate.

“In public high school, everyone wants to be better than the other one. But here, we are all equal. The kids are more understanding of each other,” he said.

The school serves about 30 students.

There are seven teachers at Tinicum Art & Science, and students call their teachers by their first name. Classes typically have fewer than 10 students. Because of the small class size, staff members can focus a lot of time and effort on each student, said Ryan. Each student’s development and needs are continually evaluated, and teachers adjust accordingly, he said.

Daycare center features yoga, meditation for youngsters (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

November 4, 2004

Wildmind Meditation News

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Rebekah Scott, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Eighteen tiny yogis sit on miniature mats, their eyes are closed, hands still, palms up and fingertips forming O’s.

Hunter and Cameron, Angelina and Jamal, Gabe, Emma, and Mitch are all 4, 5 or 6 years old, and this is Tuesday afternoon yoga time at Wisdom and Wonders day care center and preschool in Greensburg.

The lights are low. The silence is total, but very, very temporary.

Angelina has the giggles, and Brendan’s got the wiggles. Austin has sniffles. But Tracey Thomas — “Miss Tracey” to this crowd — has a plan, inspired by a Sunday comic strip.

“We’re going to make the alphabet with our bodies!” she tells the class. The tots jump up, grinning and stretching and ready to “do yogi-ing” again.

A is an alligator, a belly-down upward kick with feet together and gnashing jaws made of both arms. Some would call it a “modified locust pose,” or even a shalabha-asana.

These “alligators” roar and wriggle…

B is a butterfly, with flapping knees and elbows and twitching antennae. C is a cat, an on-all-fours, up-and-down stretch for back and belly. And D is the much-loved “downward dog,” where 15 hands-and-knees “cats” transform in a single breath to howling hounds, their bottoms in the air and bodies forming perfect inverted V’s.

Small children are yoga naturals, Thomas says, because they’re energetic and unafraid to try things their friends are doing. They’re not self-conscious, and often their elastic little bodies know no bounds.

Kids’ yoga isn’t new in Western Pennsylvania. Yoga centers from Coraopolis to Carnegie offer classes for youngsters, but Thomas says she doesn’t know of another daycare center with its own yoga studio, meditation room and yoga gym.

Wisdom and Wonders is 1 year old, but Thomas has been a grammar school and day care teacher for more than a decade. She opened a day care when she needed one for her daughter and could find nothing suitable.

“Think about it,” she says. “A child’s life is full of stress, with upheaval at home and constant stimulation from television and lessons and siblings. … And when they go to day care, that’s stressful too. All those bright colors and flashy entertainment. We take an opposite tack here. Neutral colors, low light, soft music, quiet voices. And yoga. The kids love it. We’ve opened the classes to their parents, too, but so far we haven’t had a single taker. Everyone’s so busy.”

Many children see yoga as just another part of their day. Little Austin, at times a “holy terror,” somehow finds solace in yoga. When it’s time to sit quietly in mediation pose, he’s there on his mat, perfectly still for five minutes at a time.

“It’s not time out, It’s just like quietness all around,” the little boy says.

“This isn’t religion. It’s really just quiet, no matter what you might have heard. No worship going on here,” said Mary Furlo, a preschool teacher and co-owner at Wisdom and Wonders.

An after-school yoga class for older kids meets late in the afternoon, but it’s not working out too well, Furlo said. It’s a victim of its own success.

“The parents come to pick up their kids while the class is going on, and the kids don’t want to leave,” she said. “We don’t want to cause family fights, so we’re re-thinking how to schedule this.”

Thomas teaches a round of adult yoga classes, too, starting at 5:30 a.m. and extending to 9 p.m. “It’s a long day, and I shouldn’t have the energy to do it all,” Thomas said. “But I’m doing yoga. That’s what keeps me going.”

‘It’s not time out; it’s just like quietness all around’ Read the rest of the article…