Teachers, classrooms and meditation

As an educator and a visual artist, I find that meditation and the Shambhala Path are terrific and increasingly essential supports. This is why I was eager to work with the Columbus Shambhala sangha to bring together middle school educators and Shambhala practitioners Michelle King (Pittsburgh) and Acharya Noel McLellan (Halifax) to Columbus to lead a workshop called Nurturing the Inner Teacher: Wisdom and Mindfulness in the Classroom. The session was designed for all kinds of educators. Noel and Michelle teamed up to bring humor, meditation instruction, thoughtful tools, and important relevant discussion points to a group of around 30 area educators from pre-school specialists to museum educators to high school teachers to yoga instructors to university professors.

Teachers and mentors have a critical presence in all of our lives, all along the way. Adult teachers were important to us when we were children, and they play a crucial, ongoing role as we move from childhood learning to life-long learning. We discover, over time, that to teach and to learn are flip sides of the same coin. This is a key service element to my personal practice. Opening myself to new information, ways, people, places and experiences is a significant part of my path and dovetails perfectly with the Shambhala traditions, which support a deepening in mindfulness-awareness and contemplation practices that can inform our everyday lives and relationships. Jean Pitman