This morning I was sitting in a neighborhood park with the English teacher from a local high school. In the hall of this summering school, four adolescent boys rehearsed their four-part harmony rap song, its melody echoing in the halls, quiet for just a few more vacation weeks.
“These kids are just kids,” she said to me. “I’ve taught all over the city in those neighborhoods which are supposed to be full of ‘bad kids.’ Give them the chance, and they just want to learn, learn interesting things, learn about themselves.”
A line of little children marched quietly past us, towels over their shoulders, arms swinging in unison as they headed to the public swimming pool. Their camp counselor was teaching discipline in addition to freestyle and crawl. They seemed happy. Happy to be learning, happy to belong, happy to be kids in a structure that supported them.
I look across the square. A large policeman in a bulletproof vest was leaning into a car window, chatting with a friend. Hanging from his side a baton, a magazine, a gun. I’m parked right behind him. I don’t need to be scared. Are those kids? An image flashed across my mind from earlier this summer. A lanky, sweet looking girl in a yellow and orange bikini roughly kneed and handcuffed by a burly Texas policeman. The infraction? Going to a pool party.
To be a teenager in an inner-city these days is to be faced with issues far more complicated than first loves or summer jobs at the donut shop.
There isn’t an easy answer to the complex social, economic, and environmental problems that face this next generation. Where do we begin when factors beyond any single person’s control loom so large? How do we support our next generation of teachers and architects, moms and business owners in a culture filled with so much dysfunction? And I guess the question that most haunts us in our quiet moments, if we can’t untangle this rat’s nest of issues, how could our young folk?
There is a place to begin. A place from which unexpected paths forward can emerge.
Inside.
Turning to that depth of mystery that is nearer than near and that knows no boundaries of race, class, or age. Cultivating inner strength for outer stability.
I am not alone in proposing that the answer lies within. Schools around the country are turning to ancient techniques for modern day problems. This next generation may well become known as the Mindful Generation.
And they’ll be a little different than the last generation that turned inward—the Be Here Now consciousness pioneers who were told to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” No, this quiet revolution is now being led by many of us who turned inward some thirty-forty years ago. Today we’re taking that “inwardness” outward. Marrying the exploration of consciousness with culture.
And taking that to our youth.
One program that is specifically bringing those two perspectives to kids is Mindfulness & Cultural Development. It’s teaches mindfulness and a cultural developmental perspective to our inner city youth—as part of their academic curriculum.
With all the benefits of classical mindfulness training, this year 700 students in Philadelphia high schools will gain objectivity on the thought process and de-stress as they learn to focus and let go. Then they’ll cultivate one more skill, which may make all the difference. They’ll look at their experience in a vast context of cultural and evolutionary development. It’s fun. It’s powerful. And it gives rise to interest and heart in spades.
When students learn about the interrelated net of cause and effect, looking at the last six hundred years of cultural development, when they connect with physiological triggers from our reptilian brain a light goes off. It explains so much. And it unifies everyone. From the silliest to the nerdiest. From the quietest to the most extroverted. We’re all influenced by factors beyond our control.
Then with the tools of mindfulness they discover an anchor they can drop, steadying themselves amidst the sea-changes around them. They experience their own resiliency and resources. With that direct experience comes faith that real change is possible for them. Why? Because they are already tasting new visions, new possibilities. It’s self-empowered change from the inside out.
If there was but one skill we could teach our next generation, if there was one single ingredient that would build a stable foundation for our shared future, I would vote that this expansion of perspective and heart be it.
Let’s spread these potent tools to our youth in as many ways as possible, as quickly as we can. Let’s share with them exuberance and conviction in the limitless potential of the human spirit. And let’s see how fully we can re-fashion our world when we start from the inside-out.
May all kids experience peace and freedom from anxiety.
May all students discover a profound interest in their experience.
May all teens realize compassion for self and others.
May we all live in harmony and wonder with the vast unfolding cosmos.
To learn more about and support Mindfulness & Cultural Development programs in the public school system: http://amyedelstein.com/mindfulness/mindfulness-for-teens/
Image by Darragh O Connor, courtesy of Creative Commons license.