May 10, 2023
Massapequa ,Long Island makes sure its high school students know that mindfulness is important. High School English teacher, Lisa Davi proves in all she does that mindfulness matters. Lisa has developed and implemented a high school English elective course, to help students learn to love themselves and go your own way.
What’s up everyone? Welcome to episode two hundred four of Above Ground Podcast. This week we talk mindfulness, Don Miquel Ruiz and The Four Agreements, High School English and how we can learn to connect and stay connected to ourselves.
Lisa’s inspired idea sprouted when she started to notice a shift in students levels of anxiety, overwhelm and loneliness. Inspired by Tim O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried, Lisa proposed the question to her tenth grade pre -AP class of what do you carry everyday? Then the second day she asked what do you carry mentally and emotionally?
This assignment was issued for three years and Lisa was noticing a difficult trend to ignore, our teens were hurting. It was being exacerbated every year by culture, social media and our unwillingness to change the way educate our adolescents. In a world that is on hyper speed and it’s harder to compete on every level, we as parents have an important role to play. We have to acknowledge and fix our shit. We owe it to our children and the world.
The foundation of Lisa’s Mindfulness Matters class is The Four Agreements by Don Miquel Ruiz. The district even goes as far as providing the students who enroll in this class their own copy. In turn, they take it out and spread it to parent, grand-parent, caregiver and society.
Into the Magic Shop written by Dr. James R. Doty, Rhonda Byrnes book The Secret, which is about the Law of Attraction, and Ruiz’s sequel, The Fifth Agreement round out the reading list for her English elective. An elective that not only is making the school district notice. CBS 2 Long Island News recently spotlighted the class on a broadcast and is bringing attention to this young but hopeful and needed program to be picked up District wide.
Lisa Davi is a true change agent exemplifying Gandhi’s words of, be the change you wish to see. Above Ground Podcast is grateful to be able to bring you these important InnerViews with mental health agents of change all over the globe. Please support and Buy AGP a Coffee. One or ten coffees, whatever you can do, we appreciate it.
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Thank you for listening to episode two hundred four of Above Ground Podcast. Thank you for supporting Nippertown and all our guests. Without them we’d be way less dynamic and cool. Until next week get well, be safe, stay ABOVE.