MLE Friends and CCE webinar: "Bringing Calm to Kids..." with Anna Bornstein

In the most secular country on earth, short and simple mindfulness practices have become commonplace in school classrooms at all levels. Is this a dream? No, it has become a reality, thanks to the ‘Dream of the Good’ initiative in Sweden. In this heartfelt and engaging talk, Anna Bornstein, the founder of “Dream of the Good,” will tell the story of how such a project got off the ground and became the success that it is today. Drawing on her recent book Stillness in Preschool and School (Austin Macauley Publishers, 2022), Anna will recount her and her colleague’s formidable efforts and experience that were required to launch such a project and convince the many stakeholders in society of its utility.
This talk should be of interest to anyone interested in understanding the more practical side of implementing mindfulness practices in educational settings at all levels, especially in early-childhood education.
About the project: The first seed was sown in 1995-96, through the non-violence project, the "Dalai Lama's perspective," in collaboration with the City of Stockholm, which involved all 24 of its municipal high schools. Organizers held seminars and workshops for students, teachers, and parents throughout the school year, and the project culminated with 7,000 high school students meeting the Dalai Lama in the Globe Arena in the spring of 1996.
The students' enthusiasm for the short and simple mindfulness exercises inspired Anna and her team to develop a method that could be woven into the school curriculum at all levels, even as early as preschool. She founded the non-profit organization ‘Dream of the Good,’ and since then, a couple hundred teachers have been recruited every year to implement these simple practices in their classrooms.
Subsequently, the practices have been researched in high schools and the results have shown that these simple exercises not only improve students’ mental health and peer relationships, but also their capacity for learning. In her recent book Stillness in Preschool and School (Austin Macauley Publishers, 2022), Anna recounts in detail how this project came about and what the concrete results have been for the students who have benefited from this unique program.
Anna Bornstein is a Swedish writer and journalist, with a lifelong experience of stillness. Her books and journalism focus mostly on existential topics. For thirty years, she wrote regularly for the Swedish Daily News.
To learn more about the research that has been done about Anna Bornstein’s work and the “Dream of the Good” project in Scandinavia, we are including a few references below:
Henriksen, Marianne . Inre frid och yttre fred - Drömmen om det godas metoder i grundskolans senare årskurser. (Inner and Outer Peace, the Dream of the Good methods in elementary school's higher grades). Special Education 65-90 p, Report work 15 p Kalmar University. Department of Human Sciences, 2008.
Sommerfelt, Ole Henning och Vidar Vambheim. 2008. 'The Dream of the Good' - a peace
education project exploring the potential to educate for peace at an individual level. Journal
of Peace Education, 5:1, 79-95.
Terjestam, Y. Stillness at school: Well-being after eight weeks of meditation-based practice
in secondary school. Logos & Psyche, Spring 2011.
Terjestam, Yvonne, Jouper, John & Johansson, Caroline. Effects of Scheduled Qigong Exercise on Pupils' Well-Being, Self-Image, Distress and Stress. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, vol 16, no 9, 2010, pp 939-944.

[@veronicawilliams2478]

Thank you Anna 🌷 it was very lovely to see you and hear you 🙏🏼 We are trying to spread Dream of the Good in Quito-Ecuador patiently little by little. It has a great potential!!!

[@Everest4Peace]

The future generations need "Soft Skills" more than technical skills. Through Soft skills one becomes more socially and emotionally resilient and can cope better with the stressful situations