What Are the Benefits?
Mindfulness provides the school culture with a unique kind of safety. A
consistent ideology and framework is applied to every situation, issue, and
problem. All decisions are based on good thinking and a shared under-
standing that mindfulness is the goal. Everybody’s feelings are respected,
and everyone participates in the process of education using mindfulness
as a primary tool. This in turn produces consistent policies and conse-
quences. The resulting security provides a concrete sense of safety—an
essential component in the students’ self-esteem and a contributor to their
willingness to take risks as part of the learning process.
Mindfulness creates a spirit of equality that benefits the entire school
culture as well. Students (as well as faculty, staff, and administrators) are
clear about what is expected of them (mindfulness). They feel secure that
they will always be listened to with empathy, and all attempts will be made
to understand their perspective on an issue, even if they are in the wrong.
In a sense, no one gets “everything they want” at the mindful school, but
everyonegets someof what they want. Cooperative learning, peer mentor-
ing, and peer mediation reinforce this daily at the Waikiki School.
Mindfulness also provides a learning environment in which students
know that their diversity will be respected, acknowledged, and celebrated.
This attitude benefits the students and their families by supporting self-
esteem and cultural identity. The community benefits from diverse cul-
tural exchange, and a sense of pride promotes community involvement
and responsibility.
Mindfulness promotes good communication. Its very nature is diplo-
matic. Flexibility and a willingness to consider options open up many
possibilities for interesting connections, alternative scheduling, and the
necessary pruning to weed out practices that just aren’t working within
the school. The school benefits from a flowing process that is constantly
self-assessing and striving to improve itself. If it needs to change, it can.
Everyone who encounters the mindful school is empowered by it,
because mindfulness creates standards of behavior and expectations that
nurture growth. At the Waikiki School, there is peace on the playground.
Student work covers the colorful bulletin boards that line the halls. The
campus is clean and attractive. And students and staff at Waikiki School
358 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind