Fourth Annual CUNY General Education Conference

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Fourth Annual CUNY General Education
Conference

• Gen Ed Making It Work and Making It Matter

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Opening the Circle Building a Community of
Contemplative Educators across CUNY

• Geraldine Deluca, Ph.D.
• English Department
• Brooklyn College
• Helene Dunkelblau, Ph.D.
• Department of Basic Educational Skills
• Queensborough Community College

• Rick Repetti, Ph.D.
• Department of History, Philosophy Political
  Science
• Kingsborough Community College
• Alexandra Tarasko, R.N., M.A., C.S.
• Department of Nursing
• Queensborough Community College

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Opening breath meditation
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Agenda

• 1. Brief overview of contemplative practices
  benefits
• 2. The presenters will discuss
• What they do in their classes
• What is happening on their campuses
• 3. Practicum
• Experience a sample of contemplative practices
• 4. Brief QA
• 5. Planning session aimed at CUNY-wide network
• 6. Brief closing meditation

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Types of contemplative practices

• Why?
• The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a
  wandering attention, over and over again, is the
  very root of judgment, character, and will... An
  education which should improve this faculty would
  be the education par excellence. But it is easier
  to define this ideal than to give practical
  directions for bringing it about.
• - William James, Principles of
  Psychology
• Meditation the paradigm case
• One-pointedness (candle flame, image, mandala,
  etc.)

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Other forms of meditation

• Mindfulness (non-judgmental observing)
• Thoughts, breath, bodily sensations, walking,
  etc.
• Visualization and guided imagery
• Breathing exercises
• Mantra
• Informal Reflective dwelling, reverie, or free
  associating on a topic, image, word, idea,
  variations
• Ram Dass Undigested experiences

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Sample Mandala
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Other forms

• Close reading of a passage
• Lectio divina
• 1. Visual reading aloud
• 2. Mental reading, silently
• 3. Receptive listening, creative opening
• Writing
• Focused, reflective, journaling, free writing,
  etc.

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Effects of contemplative practices

• Mindfulness, heightened awareness
• Clarity of mind
• Focused attention
• Inner calm
• Presence (cf. art studio atmosphere)
• Sense of connectedness to others and the work
• Broadening of perspective
• Metacognitive processes
• Intrinsic curiosity

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Geri Delucas class

• Practices used
• 1. Meditation and body scan
• 2. Lectio divina
• 3. Close listening and saying back what you hear
• 4. Reading texts with a spiritual orientation
• considering the connection between great
  literature and a deep sense of values

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Helene Dunkelblaus class

• Practices used
• 1. Reflective writing
• Reader response journals in conjunction with The
  Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (spiritual content)
• 2. Guided imagery
• Stimulus for essay writing
• 3. Breath meditation
• Before high-stakes tests

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Rick Repettis philosophy classes

• Calming breath, mindfulness, lectio divina
• Post-meditation free-writing, post-reading
  journaling
• Content-related meditations
• Sample 1 Identity
• What if? Imagine a different childhood,
  career
• All things considered Who am I? What am I?
• Sample 2 What would it be like to be a brain
  in a vat?
• Sample 3 If in an experience machine, why be
  moral?
• Sociology teacher uses calming breath before exams

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Alex Taraskos class

• Practices used
• 1. Loving-kindness meditation
• to develop empathy in nursing students
• 2. Story telling and active listening
• as therapeutic interventions with patients facing
  losses
• 3. Focused breathing meditation
• to help students diminish their distractive
  thoughts at beginning of lecture
• as stress reduction prior to an exam

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At Brooklyn College

• Weekly meditations open to faculty, staff,
  students
• Formerly Monthly meetings of the involved
  faculty
• Periodic (1/semester) meetings with KCC/QCC
  faculty

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At Queensborough CC

• Monthly meetings of the faculty from
  Queensborough and from Queens College
• Periodic (1/semester) meetings with BC KCC
  faculty
• Presentations at conferences

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At Kingsborough CC

• FIGs weekly meditations for faculty/staff, 1
  release hour
• Periodic (1/semester) meetings with BCs QCCs
  faculty
• Presentations at conferences on teaching
• PSC-CUNY grant to research use of meditation in
  my classes
• Also
• Contemplative classes at Vassar College summer
  program

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Practicum Hands-on

• Techniques
• Lectio divina followed by
• Reflective free-writing
• Cf. 3 levels of the bell ring
• 1. actual sound
• 2. mental repetition of sound (cf. after-image)
• 3. silent, receptive, listening, opening
  (creative effects)

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Lectio divina Passage

• Youre sitting here with us, but youre also
  out walking
• in a field at dawn. You are yourself
• the animal we hunt when you come with us on
  the hunt.
• Youre in your body like a plant is solid on
  the ground,
• yet youre wind. Youre the divers clothes
• lying empty on the beach. Youre the fish.
• In the ocean are many bright strands
• and many dark strands like veins that are
  seen
• when a wing is lifted up.
• Your hidden self is blood in those, those
  veins
• that are lute strings that make ocean music,
• not the sad edge of surf, but the sound of no
  shore.
• - Rumi
• (Born in Afghanistan, 1207, fled to Turkey to
  escape Mongol invasion, became a scholar, mystic,
  died 1279.)

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Reflective Free-writing

• 5 minutes, non-stop writing. Uncensored,
  unedited. Stream of consciousness. Whatever
  comes up. Or whatever came up.

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QA and Planning Stage

• Q A?
• Questions to address
• What would a CUNY-wide network look like?
• What sorts of events would we plan?
• How would we connect and organize activities?
• http//cunycontemplatives.pbwiki.com
• Sign our email list, and youll get an e-vite to
  the wiki
• What would we read?
• What kinds of funding could we seek?
• Other questions, comments?

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Closing meditation
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Thank you!

• http//cunycontemplatives.pbwiki.com
• Geri Deluca (BC)
• Gerdlu_at_aol.com
• Helene Dunkelblau (QCC)
• HDunkelblau_at_qcc.cuny.edu
• Rick Repetti (KCC)
• RRepetti_at_kingsborough.edu
• Alexandra Tarasko (QCC)
• atarasko_at_qcc.cuny.edu