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- Mindfulness Teacher Diane Bonagura asks the class to show their courage and strength pose.
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- Students performing yoga poses in the mindfulness and movement classroom, taught by Mindfulness Teacher Diane Bonagura, on Oct. 16 at J. Mason Tomlin school in Mantua.
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- Students performing the Warrior pose, which is meant to bring courage to an individual, on Oct. 16 at J. Mason Tomlin school in Mantua.
In a dim-lit classroom at J. Mason Tomlin School, young students can be seen doing yoga poses and mindfulness exercises in front of a salt lamp and wind chimes with a screen in the background depicting sea animals swimming in the ocean on a constant video loop.
This year, as part of its Encore rotations – which include physical education, art, media, etc. – the school started a Social and Emotional Learning class, which aims to cultivate a caring, participatory and equitable learning environment and evidence-based practices that actively involve all students in their social, emotional and academic growth, according to its website.
“It was really part of our goal of educating the whole child. As a district, we were looking at kids who are stressed out, staff is stressed out, we’re trying to improve the school climate,” said J. Mason Tomlin’s mindfulness teacher Diane Bonagura.
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- At the end of the class, students lie down and listen to a guided meditation by the school’s Mindfulness Teacher Diane Bonagura.
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- Each student is given a book titled “Choose Love” to journal his or her thoughts. The title is taken from the Choose Love Enrichment Program curriculum, in which the class follows. Scarlett Lewis, the mother of Jesse who was killed during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, founded the curriculum.
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- The room was transformed into a mindfulness and movement studio over the past year. Mindfulness Teacher Diane Bonagura, who was a special education teacher before the class, persuaded the school to add a salt lamp and water fountain.
One of the yoga poses students practice is the warrior position, which is considered a “power” pose. After the movements, when students were asked what they wanted to be a warrior for, one student said she wanted to be one for a better world. Another expressed that he wanted to be one for his sister, who was sick.
“That just almost proves how much is on these kids’ minds,” said Supervisor of Curriculum and Technology Theresa Labbree.
Students take a portion of the class to journal their thoughts and goals within the curriculum’s units, which are courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion.
The district’s approach to this class infuses the social and emotional learning program with the Choose Love Curriculum, a no-cost infant, toddler, and pre-k through 12th-grade SEL program that teaches educators and their students how to choose love in any circumstance and helps them become connected, resilient and empowered individuals.
The curriculum was created by Scarlett Lewis, the mother of Jesse Lewis who was killed, along with 19 classmates and six teachers, in his first-grade classroom during the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012.
When the school began the class, it set aside an empty room to be used for a mindfulness and movement area. Teachers would have to sign up on a schedule, including Bonagura and her special education students.
When the room became popular among staff and students, the school decided to expand it.
“The class seems so well received from not only the teachers, but the parents in the community,” said Labbree. “The students want to come here.”
The district’s decision to add mindfulness in their schools is part of a larger international discussion around mental health and over-stimulation in the younger generation.
In fact, in New Jersey, the state will make SEL programs a mandatory requirement in all public school programs by the next school year, according to the district.
“They’re checking Instagram, they’re checking Twitter, they’re on Facebook, they’re on Youtube, they’re on text messages, they’re on email. The amount of mental inputs that kids have to deal with is five times the amount that adults just one generation ago had to deal with,” said Superintendent Robert Fisicaro. “So we’re trying to support them.”
