Meditation in schools: secularizing a spiritual practice?
Meditation is becoming increasingly important in everyday life, at work, and now at school. Is its entry into the educational sphere as innocuous as it seems?
Sylvain Wagnon, University of Montpellier
How can we explain the gradual shift of meditation from the health section of the media to the "education" section? The introduction of this practice, which has religious and Buddhist origins, into the public and secular educational sphere raises a series of questions about its definition, methods, links with learning, and purposes. With the introduction of mindfulness meditation into schools, can a spiritual practice be secularized?
According to Edouard Gentaz, professor of developmental psychology, meditation yields encouraging results, but these are still debatable in terms of combating anxiety, managing stress, and improving self-awareness.
The rise of this practice is supported by health professionals, and psychiatrist Christophe André has enjoyed great success in bookstores by discussing the benefits of meditation in hospitals and in everyday life. Its integration into research programs and university medical courses has become commonplace in cities such as Strasbourg, Paris, and Montpellier.
From the world of work to education
As a method of stress management, meditation was bound to attract the interest of management circles. In just a few years, mindfulness has gained popularity among personal and business coaches, who have turned this practice into a tool forentrepreneurial efficiency and improved employee employability.
Furthermore, advances in certain areas of research seem to legitimize the use of meditation by demonstrating its benefits for the structure and functioning of the brain. Matthieu Ricard, the highly popular Tibetan monk and doctor of cellular genetics, constantly emphasizes the importance of the interactions between meditation and neuroscience, as well as the spiritual purpose of this practice.
The publishing successesof Eline Snel, particularly her book Calm and Attentive Like a Frog, with a preface by Christophe André, appear to be the first step toward integration into the educational sphere. Following these books, which have become a kind of teaching method, there has been a flood of publications introducing meditation to children.
Between education and relaxation
These media successes—and the benefits recognized by teachers themselves—make it an educational tool that has been incorporated into several education systems to improve student well-being, attention, and performance, such as in Canada and the Netherlands.
Meditation evokes emotions, attention span, kindness, and resilience in children. The question is therefore how to implement this practice, which has spiritual origins and touches on psychology and the unconscious, in public education. When teachers introduce it into their classrooms, is it really meditation? Or should it rather be seen as an educational tool, relaxation sessions, or sophrology?
The association for meditation in education appears to coordinate numerous projects without providing any real assessment or measurable results. An international program called MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) is defined as a protocol for the use of meditation in education.
This integration into the educational sphere is actively supported by Emergences, an organization that seeks to disseminate all concepts and practices related to personal development. The association includes Christophe André, Mathieu Ricard, Frédéric Perez, Ilios Kotsou, Frédéric Lenoir, and Céline Alvarez, who have jointly published the book Transmettre, a collection of essays on the relationship between personal development and education.
A framing to be discussed
The religious nature of meditation is often overlooked, but it seems necessary to seriously consider incorporating spiritual practices into secular public education. It is important to know the purposes for which meditation is practiced: simple relaxation, breathing exercises, developing attention to promote learning, reducing violence in schools, personal empowerment, or enhancing the employability of future employees.
Can this practice be "compatible" with secular schools? Is it the school's responsibility to teach mindfulness? If so, teachers must be trained. Focusing on children's "awareness" raises the question of the responsibility of schools and teachers.
No decision has yet been made by the educational institution, leaving the door open to all possibilities and definitions of mindfulness meditation, such as making it a replacement of punishmentsThe National Education System must address the issue of the increasing number of disparate interventions by associations that are not always accredited, as well as the growing interest among teachers in this practice, which effectively opens up a field of unexplored possibilities.
Sylvain Wagnon, Professor of Education Sciences, Faculty of Education, University of Montpellier
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