Tuning the Student Mind: A Journey in Consciousness-Centered Education

Description

Explores the effectiveness and value of meditation in a college classroom. How can we rethink teaching practices to include and engage the whole student? What would student experience look like if we integrated silence and feeling with empirical analysis? Tuning the Student Mind is the story of one teacher’s attempt to answer these questions by creating an innovative college course that marries the spiritual and the theoretical, integrating meditation and self-reflection with more conventional academic curriculum. The book follows Molly Beauregard and her students on their intellectual and spiritual journey over the course of a semester in her class, “Consciousness, Creativity, and Identity.” Interweaving personal stories, student writing, and Beauregard’s responses, along with recommendations for further reading and a research appendix, it makes the case for the transformative power of consciousness-centered education. Written in a warm, engaging voice that reflects Beauregard’s teaching style, Tuning the Student Mind provides an accessible, step-by-step template for other educators, while inviting readers more broadly to reconnect with the joy of learning in and beyond the classroom. Contents Acknowledgments Note on the Text Introduction An Angel Museum First Week Why Do You Believe What You Believe about Yourself? Taking Off the Velcro Suit and Shock Collar Reality Is Socially Constructed From Apathy to Engagement Student Paper: Becky—“Mental Illness and Me” Second Week What Types of Knowledge Do We Value? Forgetting to Breathe Remembering to Feel The Exploration of Consciousness in My Classroom Awakening to Wonder Student Paper: Samantha—An Instantaneous Connection to the Entire Universe Third Week What Does the American Dream Look Like Today? Too Many Shades of Blue American Individualism The Fashionable Nun Student Paper: Kiara—Becoming a Social Justice Superhero Fourth Week How Do We Know Ourselves? The Age of the Selfie Stick Where I End and You Begin “A Dangerous Move Away from Academic Standards!” Student Paper: Tyler—Up and Out of the Rabbit Hole Fifth Week How Does the World around Us Inform Our Sense of Self? Swimming through the Blue Pool The Sociological Imagination The Legacy of Knitting Student Paper: Kelly—Part of the “Bitch Clique” Sixth Week Who Is Responsible? The Burn Unit The Connections between Individual and Cultural Failures Voting to Volunteering Student Paper: Gabriela—A Survivor and an Artist Seventh Week What Do We Really Learn in School? Kindergarten as Academic Boot Camp Reprimand as Assault A Different Type of Classroom Two Student Paper Responses: Different Students Have Different Needs Ashley—The Most Frustrating Type of Student Liz—Teeter-Totter Confidence Eighth Week How Do We Know What We Know? Some Questions You Might Ask What Is It Like to Be a Bat? The Danger of Answers Evidence of the Underpinnings of the Invisible Student Paper: Olivia—Analysis Paralysis Ninth Week What Roles Do You Play? We’re Off to See the … Scarecrow? All the World’s a Stage Getting Off My Notes Student Paper: Bill—I Wanted to Be a Jedi Knight Tenth Week How Do Labels Define Us—and Confine Us? Pepe le Chat Craft Arts Majors Are Potheads The Mother of a Disabled Child Student Paper: Ethan—A Life Worth Acceptance Eleventh Week How Does Place Define Our Sense of Self? Professor’s Office or Prison Cell? Layered Locations Revitalizing Detroit Student Paper: Alexis—Home Is a Place of Limitless Potential Twelve Week What Does It Mean to Be a Consumer? Clearly, You Need Eyedrops Dare to Be Different To Be Seen Student Paper: Madison—Caught without a Sequential Occupation Strategy Thirteenth Week What Does It Mean to Be an Artist? A Pie-in-the-Sky Health Clinic Creativity Is Intimacy Onto the Silver Screen Student E-mail: Noah—What I’m Struggling to Find within Myself Fourteenth Week How Do We Create a More Compassionate World? A Tragedy Averted Stories for Change The Empowerment Plan Student Paper: SOC 322—The Remix When I asked my mother if she could think of any defining moments in my life, she replied, “Oh, God, Henry! Your whole life has been a defining moment!” Conclusion Letter to the Reader Appendix Introduction Methods Phase I Phase II Phase III Results Phase I Phase II Peace Difficulties Meaning and Purpose Diligence Goals Comfort and Harmony Phase III Student Emotion and Feelings Impact of Meditation Group versus Solo Meditation Discussion Key Findings Limitations Recommendations Recommendations for Further Reading Bibliography