Mindful Schools is the newest initiative of Park Day School’s Outreach Program.
Park Day School is a non-profit Oakland school with the primary mission since it’s inception in 1976
to help a racially, culturally and socio-economically diverse group of 270 children in grades K-8
develop a lifetime love of learning.
This is accomplished through hands-on projects, integrated curriculum, service learning, and progressive
education. Park teaches its students to think for themselves, cooperate, make decisions, respect
differences, and resolve conflict. This simultaneously builds their academic skills and leadership
abilities. A driving force behind each program is the idea that the social and emotional growth of
the students is equal in importance to their academic achievement.
The Community Outreach Program was established in 1993 to share these progressive, successful
educational programs and to create student and teacher collaborations with local public schools.
Through a variety of projects including book drives, teacher workshops, student partnership,
service learning programs, and now mindfulness, Park Day School’s Community Outreach Program serves
several thousand low-income public school students off its campus every year – that is 10 times
the number of its own.
The idea for the Mindful Schools was sparked in Spring 2007 when a visiting therapist commented to
Laurie Grossman, Park’s Outreach Coordinator, that the students at the public school were in tremendous
turmoil. Laurie’s spontaneous response was that the children might benefit from mindfulness.
Soon after, two 5-week pilots were implemented at two of Park’s partner schools. The response from
students, principals, and teachers resulted in Park Day School establishing Mindful Schools as a major
project of the Outreach Program.