Leading from the Desert
We can now begin to appreciate how to get from our “moment of silence” to an awareness of God.
First, yes it is helpful that at least some schools have begun daily meditation routines. But even before we add the context from the Bible as was done above, there are two qualities that should be present in these meditations:
1. The first is to know that leaders precede their speech with meditative silence. Even before relating specifically to Jacob, Moses, and David, the thought to convey to students in a public school setting is that focused thoughts are empowering, and that from this silence each student should then go on to become a leader. More important that helping students “deal with violence and the trauma and the stress of everyday life,” as was quoted in the San Francisco article, is the realization that thoughtful actions when preceded by silence typify a leader. 2. The second is that the best leaders are humble leaders. This was the topic of a Harvard Business Review article last May, one of many recent articles and studies about humility and leadership. Thus even before explaining the great humility of Moses, “Now this man Moses was exceedingly humble, more humble than any person on the face of the earth,” it should be emphasized that true leaders are humble leaders. While it is important to source these concepts in their origin in the Bible, for the meantime, a good beginning is to start by promoting humility and then proceed from there.
Where possible, especially for now in a parochial school setting, more of the context should be added to explain how leadership and humility relate to the “moment of silence.” And then perhaps the teachers or students will search the internet and find articles like this one which have attempted to explain some of the context. To provide a glimpse into why it is that leadership and humility relate to the moment of silence.
Contextualizing the Silence
The time when this subject can be contextualized even in a public school setting is not far away.
Susan Cain in her bestselling book, “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking,” references a number of Biblical verses, including the quote above about Moses and humility. For those interested, a few months ago I wrote an article about the TED video that Susan delivered to promote her book.
Thus the first practical suggestion that public school teachers can implement is begin by reading portions of Susan’s book to their classroom to introduce these “quiet” moments of reflection; making sure to add some of the “reference material” about Moses where possible.
{Article originally published on InwardNews.com. Republished with Permission.}