NEWS & CITY LIFE
Educa t i o n | By Hugh Minor
Calm Amid the Chaos Providence-based education program brings mindfulness to the classroom “I learned to believe in myself and to never give up.” That’s the feedback from one student participating in ResilientKidsTM, a curriculum developed to help children and adults manage stress, overcome obstacles, cultivate compassion, and thrive through adversity. One of many initiatives led by the Providence-based organization Inspiring Minds, ResilientKids is currently offered in 93 classrooms in 21 public and charter schools in Cranston and Providence, serving a total of 2,350 students. By focusing on mindfulness practices, the program provides lessons that help students feel centered and find a safe place from which they can reset and start again. And the impact on the school environment is noticeable. “Our school collaborators are seeing students demonstrating increased self-awareness and improved self-control and, ultimately, a decrease in the number of kids sent to the principal’s office with discipline issues,” explains program director Shannon Smith. Teachers report improvements in the behavior of participating students in both the classroom and in the real world, with 76 percent seeing increased student awareness, as well as a drop in stress levels among middle and high school students. “We saw students less frustrated with difficult tasks and using their de-escalation techniques,” one teacher notes. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, ResilientKids’ year-long curriculum is designed to help students and their teachers build self-awareness, executive functioning skills, balance, focus, and empathy from the inside out as they learn to respond to stressful situations calmly and confidently. They gain these skills through a range of activities that focus on concentration, from belly breathing to using a Hoberman Sphere (the colorful and expandable plastic toy you might remember from the ‘90s) to learn visual cues for inhaling and exhaling. Kids especially love the glitter jar, a simple container filled with water and glitter that
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ProvidenceOnline.com • February 2022
Inspiring Minds’ ResilientKids program uses a range of activities to instill mindfulness
