(For the first part of this series, please click here)

Part II

So, why would meditation be such a big positive for a student’s development?

First of all, we are not discussing something that is merely immaterial; meditation physically changes the brain, strengthening it with an effect like strengthening any other muscle through exertion.

Mediation enhances the brain’s executive functioning.

What does this look like in real terms?

Enhanced attention and cognitive presentness: a greater capacity to focus for longer periods of time and remain present while undertaking work and activities generally.

We all remember how our minds would wander throughout lessons, particularly when subjected to a teacher who rambled on and on with a monotonous drone about things that, despite our best intentions, could not have been any less interesting to us.

We also remember the times when doing homework we would suddenly return to ourselves and realise that we’d spent half an hour far away and hadn’t done anything -at all!

At times our mind would have a mind of its own and drift off into fantasies, introspective contemplations and pure thoughtlessness.

Imagine all the time you would have had to actually enjoy yourself if you had just been able to get through that blasted homework more quickly!

Enhanced working memory: The ability to retain, retrieve and reinvolve what has been previously learnt into the ongoing evolution of thought and understanding of academic material.

Who at one time or another reached a conclusion with utter conviction only to find it pointed out by the teacher – perhaps with a sneering or disappointed tone – that it was incompatible and contradicted everything that had been taught up to that point?

And even today, from time to time us ‘grown ups’ complete some or another piece of work and later lament, ‘Dang it! I didn’t remember or consider X,Y and Z.’

The expansion of active thinking to include consideration of a greater span of ingested information is, for obvious reasons, invaluable both within and beyond schooling.

A significant aspect of cognitively evolving into adulthood is the capacity for a greater range of actively involved information in our immediate thinking.

Increased adaptability: The ability for a student to change how they conceive and engage with assignments, to adjust their approach to them.

That young people may be stubborn and inflexible is not an altogether unprecedented phenomenon.

Actually, whether youthful or fully matured, being unable to modify how we approach a challenge can be unbelievably frustrating and prevent us from moving forward.

And again, it is not unusual for a teacher to find that no matter how they present the learning a pupil keeps doing the same thing over and over again.

So, with regards to meditation it at least could make their lives easier – if you’re a teacher reading this, know that there is hope!

Written by: Aaron Levvy, Social Worker, Cherwell School Oxford.