2009 Winter Conference Materials

“Opening the contemplative mind in schools is not a religious issue but a practical epistemic question... Inviting contemplative study simply includes the natural human capacity for knowing through silence, pondering deeply, beholding, witnessing the contents of consciousness and so forth.

These approaches cultivate an inner technology of knowing and thereby a technology of learning and pedagogy without any imposition of religious doctrine whatsoever. If we knew a particular and readily available activity would increase concentration, learning, well-being and social emotional growth, and catalyze transformative learning, we would be cheating our students to exclude it.

Long dormant in education, the natural capacity for contemplation balances and enriches the analytic. It has the potential to enhance performance, character and the depth of the student's experience."

Tobin Hart, Opening the Contemplative Mind in the Classroom, Journal of Transformative Education Vol. 2 No. 1, January 2004