 I had been teaching conflict resolution in an elementary school here in DC for about five years when one day, I suddenly realized I was doing it all wrong. Now, some of my students were using their conflict resolution skills in their real lives, but a lot of them weren't. Sometimes, kids would go straight from my classroom where we were practicing conflict resolution. They'd go out to recess and get into fights. I couldn't understand it. One day, after a particularly heated recess conflict, some kids were sent to my classroom to work it out. We sat down and we shared what had happened, and when they were finished, I said, so why didn't you use your conflict resolution skills? And they all looked at me like I was crazy. Miss Ridon, I was too angry. I couldn't think. Miss Ridon, I was so mad. I couldn't remember anything you said. I was shocked. How could kids know how to work out conflicts one minute and not know the next? I decided there had to be something wrong with the way I was teaching, so I decided to read more books and more curricula about conflict resolution to see, because I thought somebody must have solved this problem by now. But everything I read pretty much said the same thing. Step one, calm down. Step two, and there was nothing under step one. How do you calm down? And how do you teach kids how to calm down? I didn't know, so I decided to do some research on that. And what I discovered led me to two things that profoundly changed my teaching and my life. Those two things were neuroscience and mindfulness. Now, I know very little about neuroscience, but here's something I do know. There's a part of your brain called the amygdala, and the amygdala's job is to keep you safe and protect you from harm. When the amygdala senses that you're under attack, it takes over your brain. It shuts down the part of your brain that thinks. It shuts down the part of your brain that remembers. It puts your brain into fight or flight mode, and in fight or flight mode, you can't think, you can't remember, all you can do is react. So when I read that, I remembered those students in my classroom telling me, Ms. Ridon, I was so angry I couldn't think. Ms. Ridon, I was so angry I couldn't remember. I realized they were describing exactly what was happening in their brains. So that was the answer to my question, but then I wondered, well, what do you do about that? How do you calm the amygdala so that you can use your thinking and remembering parts of your brain? It turned out the best answer was mindfulness. Simple calming breathing strategies were the best way to calm the amygdala so that your brain can think and you can respond wisely. So great, I had my answers. Now I had a bigger problem. How do you teach mindfulness? I didn't know, I wasn't a meditator then, and I didn't know much about mindfulness, and what I did know made me think that it wasn't for me. It seemed a little weird, it seemed like something I couldn't do. But I became so convinced that this was what was missing from what I was teaching, that this was what my students needed. So I decided to find out more. I spent a summer taking a course, reading books, and most importantly, starting my own mindfulness practice. And it turned out I actually really liked it. It wasn't so weird and it was really helping me. So I was really excited to share it with my students. So when school started up, I was ready. I had some simple lessons and a little bell, and I was ready to teach mindfulness. Now my colleagues thought I was crazy. This was several years ago before mindfulness had become kind of a buzzword, and so I was doing something that was a little weird. But I was used to that. I was the peace teacher, so I decided to do it anyway. And much to my delight, my students loved mindfulness. They took to it right away. I would teach them simple practices, like take five breathing. Take five breathing, you just trace your hand, and when you trace up, you breathe in, and when you trace down, you breathe out. In, and out, and in, and out. And out, and by the time you've finished tracing your hand, you've taken five deep breaths, you've probably calmed your amygdala, and you're ready to respond wisely to whatever's happening. We started noticing kids using take five breathing and some of the other mindfulness strategies on the playground. I saw kids use it during tests. I've seen kids use it during Little League baseball games. They really took to these practices, and they teach them to their parents. Knowing the little bit that I know about neuroscience and mindfulness really changed the way I was teaching conflict resolution. Now, instead of focusing on how to de-escalate a conflict, now we focus on how to prevent a conflict from escalating in the first place. The kids are learning how to recognize their angry feelings when they're small. And then they understand what's happening in their brains, and they have tools, mindfulness tools, to help them to calm their amygdala. Then they can use their conflict resolution skills. So what I've learned about mindfulness has really changed everything at my school. After a few months, we were able to close down our refocus room. This was the place where kids got sent when they got in trouble at recess, because nobody was going there anymore. After a year or two, what I had started as a little experiment in my class became a school-wide program. Now, all 900 of our students in pre-K through fifth grade take a weekly 45-minute peace class. And in peace class, they learn mindfulness, conflict resolution, and other social and emotional skills. All of our teachers now are leading daily mindful moments. We even have fifth graders who are mindful mentors who go into classrooms and lead mindful moments with the younger students. We even changed our school rules. Now our school rules are speak mindfully, act mindfully, and move mindfully. The school culture changed dramatically, all because of these little tools. People started to hear about what we were doing at Lafayette Elementary, and people would come and visit and ask me, well, how can I do what you're doing? So with the help of some wonderful partners, Cheryl Dodwell and Jillian Diesner, we wrote a curriculum. And now that curriculum is being used in eight different public schools here in DC and in schools all around the country. Educators and parents and administrators are really starting to see what we've seen at Lafayette, what my principal, Dr. Kerry Brokard, has seen at Lafayette, that we have to take care of our children's hearts as much as their minds. In the world that we're living in right now, that's more important than ever. I think that the most important thing that we're teaching in peace class is kindness. And I believe that kindness is a skill that can be taught. It's a habit that can be developed. And mindfulness is a wonderful way to help children to increase their capacity for compassion and empathy. We do this through simple but powerful compassion practices. We call this heartfulness. These practices where we think about somebody that we care about, we think about ourselves, we think about people that we're in conflict with, and we think kind of thoughts about them. Now it might sound silly to you. It might sound like somebody said to me the other day, it's a little too kumbaya. But I've seen the power of these practices with my students and they're backed up by research. There's a lot of scientific research showing that people who regularly participate in compassion practices are happier and much more likely to be kind. So in today's world, what could be more important than teaching kids to be calm and peaceful and kind? So I'd like to close with a compassion practice. And if you're willing, I'd like you to join me. Don't freak out. I can't tell what's happening in your mind. So I don't know if you're doing it or not. So you're good. But if you are willing to try it, just sit up a little straighter in your chair, close your eyes or just look down into your lap. And if you really wanna go for it, you can put your hands over your heart and just think of a child. It could be your own child, one of your students, a child who's made a difference in your life. And just hold that child in your heart and in your mind. And I'm gonna say some words out loud. And if you want to, you can think them in your mind. May you be safe, may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you live in peace. And now let's just extend some kindness to ourselves. Just take a moment to remember why you're here today, to think of the important work that you're doing every day for our children. May I be safe, may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I live in peace. Finally, let's extend some kindness to all children, all of the children in our public schools, all of the children around the world who are not lucky enough to have public schools. Let's hold all children in our hearts. May all children be safe, may all children be happy, may all children be healthy, may all children live in peace. Thank you.