In A Minute of Peace, Julie Pappas shares her own spiritual journey and her experiences as a casual teacher introducing meditation to empower teachers and children in mainly low socio-economic schools. This is a book of extreme depth, courage and wisdom. It is a must-read for all teachers, but especially for those exposed to the mayhem of classroom behaviours that is endemic in today’s schools!  - Dr Roger Cole Author International best Seller 'Mission of Love' 

Author Biography

Julie Pappas is a casual primary school teacher, mother and meditator. Her belief in the value of inner peace and her passion for sharing led her to facilitate an action research project in a primary school setting during her education degree at University of Wollongong.

The ‘Minute of Peace’ project involved five teachers and their students engaging in meditation for an eight week period to enhance the classroom learning environment. The positive findings were presented in the International New Directions in Humanities Conference, Paris 2007. Findings were published by Common Ground Publishing Melbourne, 2008.

Julie enjoys both the balance and challenge she receives from teaching casually. With the variety of schools and classes she sees on a daily basis she has found this to be a wonderful setting to observe both children and teacher relationships in a school setting – and more importantly to reflect on her own.

Julie feels that meditation is the tool that enables her to keep teaching in challenging classrooms. She has created a CD for children, ‘Peaceful Journeys for Little Souls’ to help children experience their own inner peace. Julie occasionally runs workshops and does talks for teachers, parents and children on meditation.

She lives with her family in the NSW Illawarra. http://www.childrensmeditation.net

Preface

One way to reflect on today’s world is through the eyes of a child. Look to the eyes of a child and listen to the words they speak and you will know their heart and soul. Today as adults in a child’s world, if we learn to listen to their hearts and see the world through their eyes we may have a better chance of connecting with their souls. Once we can do this, there will be a real relationship, one with the kind of respect that we all need as human beings. If we want to touch children and make a difference we need to have a spiritual vision, this is true love, a love for humanity that is divine in nature and sees through behaviours like a transparency. But to do this we first must know and love ourselves.

Once, we could look at the world through a child’s eyes and see joy, innocence and spontaneity. Of course, this is still true for some yet many seem to have lost innocence. In today’s busy age, youthful eyes sometimes tell us something different and often it is painful and fearful. The eyes are the windows of the soul. Today in schools, there aren’t as many sparkling eyes as there used to be. When I’m marking the roll, I sometimes ask children to give me a word to describe how they are feeling. The words lonely, angry, sad and tired aren’t often expected.

In today’s challenging classroom children’s behaviours often tell us that they are experiencing hurt in their lives. Adults today suffer more stress and depression than ever before and all of this colours a child’s life and behaviours. Not only do they learn from us as individuals, but they are learning from the collective society in which they are immersed. I believe today’s classroom to be a reflection on today’s world. As a teacher in low socio-economic schools, I see so many children whose behaviours are out of control.

When we look at society today, we find we are often too busy to stop and help each other. We are so busy working to earn money to buy the biggest and best of the newest product on the market. It appears we are ‘stressing ourselves out’ by chasing happiness, yet the lust for the elusive moment of happiness is exactly what is causing us stress. We have forgotten our true selves. In the lives of many children there is pain and sorrow, and for their parents and their parents, the same. The cycle continues. How do we break it?

I feel the answer is to find peace, peace within the self. Once we find this peaceful place, we also tune in to our own eternal identity and find self worth. This feeling is a very powerful personal resource, enabling us to live our lives more harmoniously. It allows us to interact with others in a lighter way, without taking things to heart. Then we are able to radiate this soulful peace to others, both in our personal lives and the classroom. 

The method for finding this natural resource is meditation. Learn this and you will relax and rediscover a wealth of treasure deep within. Practice this meditation and you will have a natural resource to call upon when the going gets tough, as no doubt it will in the drama of life. Teach children this and they will love you for it. Once there is appreciation and love in the classroom there is a natural respect that flows from this and a natural discipline that follows.

This discipline comes from internal motivation that is intrinsic. The word 'discipline' is often confused with punishment. Derived from Latin, discipline means to teach. So to discipline why not teach ourselves and the children to meditate and give the classroom a foundation of peace in which we can all interact more positively and co-operatively.

In writing this book, I hope to give a more spiritual approach to teaching in the mainstream. Perhaps a new awakening or a rekindling, a slight shift in attitude or maybe we simply be a union of like minded souls who believe in upliftment of our children and our world.

The focus of this book is twofold. The primary reason is for the self and the second is for others. Once we look after ourselves, the rest of the world is served naturally as a consequence. Ideally, the reason is for peace, both inner peace and world peace and all that there is in between. The audience I intend it for is for teachers. New ‘out’ teachers who are both excited and yet daunted about the world of teaching and classroom management. May this give you the strength and courage to relax in the classroom and use your natural abilities to enhance the teaching relationships you will enter into. Also for the experienced teachers who are looking for a new alternative to managing children in an ever challenging and changing world, may this give new light and energy.  

As a teacher, we can transform a classroom, but only by transforming ourselves first, not by force, being forceful creates fear. Instead of trying to change others, being an example of how we would like children to be is the respectful way to teach. As teachers, we serve children, our community and the world, but before serving others we must serve ourselves first, otherwise how will we have the energy to do it. 

I hope by sharing my own personal journey with meditation that it may inspire you to contemplate your own soul. Knowing my spiritual identity, I am able to bring this into all areas of my life, enabling me to have a lighter easier way of looking at life. This enables me to have richer and happier relationships with others on a personal or professional level.

I would like to offer some practical advice for classroom meditation. Once all the souls in the classroom are meditating, the vibrations of peace will spread into their thoughts, words and actions. This in turn creates a more peaceful and calm classroom where relationships are more co-operative and time on task is increased. It is also about giving children a tool to mange their stress in today’s world.

As well as sharing my own experiences I will share the findings of other teachers who took part in an action research project I facilitated with them, where they and their students weaved meditation into their lives over an eight-week period. The results were inspiring and positive. May this sharing be a new door opening in your life for you to explore, may it be just the beginning.

Overall, don’t expect anything. There is and will be magical moments on the journey only when you truly surrender to what is and accept what is.

Background

Going back into the classroom for prac, it had been over twenty years since I had stepped into a primary school classroom and I was amazed at the differences. My childhood days of primary school teaching were quite teacher centred, chalk and talk. We entered the classroom in the morning and that’s where we stayed. Today’s teaching is so different. There’s physical movement as children are moving off to other classrooms to take part in special programs, group work, peer groups and buddy work. Tables are in groups, children’s voices are heard, and they are empowered and making choices and decisions. The creativity in classrooms today is inspiring to say the least.

I had a wide range of practicum experiences, placements in quintessential nice easy schools, multicultural schools and low socio-economic schools. All experiences were wonderful learning opportunities and I do suggest that when choosing your ‘pracs’ you ask to see the variables or ‘real world’ when selecting schools.

The biggest learning was in my final prac. Not just because I was growing as a student but from what I was faced with as a student, a mother and a humanitarian. The school I was at had many problems with children’s behaviours as a result of the problems in the lives of the children and their families. I could see and feel so much aggression in this school and yet it was nobodies fault. It was simply the way things were. It certainly wasn’t the children’s fault that they were reacting from the situations that they were living in. It wasn’t the teachers’ fault as they were burned out trying to help and teach these children. And the parents were doing the best they could given their own situations, which history seemed to be repeating through generations. It appeared that situations were at times out of control.

To use the old cliché ‘the children are our future’ is true. If you are worried about the way children are behaving today, you should be even more worried about the future. As a society, what are we teaching them? What are we modelling to them? Children won’t be independent in learning ‘who they are’ until we learn for ourselves ‘who we are’ and show them the way.

In today’s world, we are consumed by the external, our possessions and our roles in life. We need to turn inwards to remember who we are. We have simply forgotten who we really are in a spiritual sense of our real identity. Once we can remember, not just as teachers, parents and human beings but as souls, then we can we start to help and nurture children. How can we know others when we don’t know ourselves? We have to start at the very essence of ourselves, our very real and true nature. Once we rediscover our own souls, we can then look at children and truly connect with them, remove the often rough and tough exterior and find the pearls and diamonds. These jewels are – peace, love and purity – we all have them. We need to know this for ourselves and help children realise it for themselves. Then we can truly teach children and help them to fly!

My observations of children and their families in low socio­economic schools have been my inspiration. The inspiration actually comes from a sense of compassion for children and humanity. If you haven’t worked in a low socio-economic school let me tell you of some of the encounters just to set the scene. The Principals tend to be amazing souls combining a professional leadership and administrative position with a vast array of welfare skills. Most of their day is spent in welfare issues, with an assortment of situations arising unexpectedly such as children physically running away from school or assaulting others, interviews with parents regarding family problems, appointments with DOCS (Department of Community Services) and counsellors, police, and debriefing of staff on a daily basis about the incidences that arise. When you sign in for a days work, and beside the sign in book is a another book to report any physical assaults made to you by students, you know you are going to need your wits about you. Not to mention, often seeing children whose basic needs are not met in the way of basic food, clothing, hygiene and medical care. 

We need a reservoir of peace, love and compassion to be able to deal with these situations. This comes from the soul not the ego, the ego simply blames and wants to force control.

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