The document summarizes a pilot program at Masconomet Regional High School where Zen Center North Shore helped students and teachers cope with stress and anxiety through meditation workshops. The program had positive results, with students gaining coping skills and teachers developing tools to maintain calmness. Teachers reported cultural shifts among students and colleagues. The school is now incorporating more meditation workshops and creating a "breathing room" for students.

1. www.zencenternorthshore | info@zencenternorthshore.org
M E D I TAT I O N I N S C H O O L
Masconomet Regional High School Turns to an Age-Old Practice to Relieve Student and Teacher Stress
Contemporary academic and social pressure
coupled with today’s overscheduled lifestyle is
causing anxiety in students and educators
alike. Through a pilot program at Masconomet
Regional High School, Zen Center North Shore
helped students and staff cope. The results?
• Students gained coping skills that they can use
in high school and beyond.
• Teachers developed tools that help maintain
a sense of calm and resilience within
themselves and their classrooms.
• Teachers reported positive cultural
shifts among students and colleagues.
Teachers are stressed. In fact, they are under
even more stress than doctors and other
demanding professions reports Pennsylvania
State University.
In addition, an American Psychological Association
survey finds that since 2013 teenagers have
reported stress levels that exceed those of most
adults. Dr. Laurie Hodgdon, Principal of
Masconomet Regional High School, says she has
seen an alarming trend over the past 10 years –
increasing anxiety in both groups.
The Masconomet Regional School district is 25
miles north of Boston, Massachusetts, and serves
about 1,300 K-12 students from the towns of
Boxford, Topsfield, and Middleton. All three are
bedroom communities for successful professionals
who work in and around Boston, and most
students come from middle or upper-middle class
socio-economic backgrounds. They have busy
schedules and lofty goals. The result? Hodgdon
says, "Masconomet is a high achieving school,
and students are stressed.”
Statement from the Zen Center North Shore
“Teaching is intellectually and physically demanding. The skillful use of mindful strategies
can provide teachers and students with necessary calm and strength to meet the
challenges of the classroom in the 21st century.”
Students hold hands in a circle during a ZCNS meditation session at Masconomet Regional High School.
C A S E S T U D Y
66 lovett street | beverly, MA 01915 | (781) 718-5455

2. Teachers Are Suffering Too
Students are not the only group dealing with
anxiety. District, state, and federal initiatives on
top of classroom management, curriculum
planning, grading, and other daily demands on an
educator’s time can tip the stress scale into
overload for teachers too.
Masconomet social studies instructor Ryan
Quinn includes a world religions unit in the
curriculum. He says it helps students to see
other world views. Quinn is particularly
interested in Zen Buddhism. He says, “Teaching
is hard and if you don’t have a passion area, you
will not want to work.” When he discovered Zen
Center North Shore, he saw an opportunity to
pursue his interest in Zen and bring relief to
colleagues and students at Masconomet.
School administrators were receptive to the idea,
so Quinn invited ZCNS Guiding Teacher Joan
Amaral to work with his students. Amaral says,
“Religion in public schools is a little edgy, but if
you don’t teach about religion, kids don’t have a
context to respect it.” She is quick to point out that
there is a difference between Zen meditation and
the mindfulness movements spreading across the
academic and corporate landscape. However,
Amaral says, “Mindfulness movements are
opening doors to Zen practice.”
Positive Effects on School Culture
Amaral started by offering two workshops on Zen
meditation and relaxation to a total of 75 students
– all juniors. Hodgdon participated in one
workshop with Amaral and says she was sold.
Since then, ZCNS has visited the school on a
regular basis – at the request of the students.
Amaral and Quinn decided to focus on juniors
first, saying they are “instrumental in shifting
school culture.”
When possible, a session will take place outside,
where students can practice meditation walking,
sitting, standing, and even lying on the grass.
Case Study | Meditation In School | page 2
www.zencenternorthshore | info@zencenternorthshore.org | (781) 718-5455
Students and teachers discuss meditation and
mindfulness with Zen Center North Shore
Guiding Teacher Joan Amaral at Masconomet
Regional High School.
“I learned that a simple
meditation can change your
whole life and you don’t have
to be a monk or anyone
special to do it.”
– 11th Grade Masconomet Student
Students report that meditation makes them
feel “grateful, calm, relaxed, peaceful, and
relieved” -a welcome change from anxious
or stressed. One student says, “I learned
that a simple meditation can change your
whole life and you don’t have to be a monk
or anyone special to do it.”
Masconomet teachers soon requested their
own class, so Amaral started working with
them.

3. Students of all religions have requested more Zen
meditation workshops at Masconomet. In fact,
results have been so promising that the school is
actively incorporating ZCNS into other aspects of
the school community. For example, meditation
workshops could soon be run in conjunction with
the student support center to help students in
crisis. The school is also planning to institute a
“breathing room” as a student-led safe place.
Another idea? Scheduled Zen meditation right
before big exams. Hodgdon says, “Joan is a gift
and Masconomet is lucky to have her.”
Sometimes the workshop inspires students to
seek out ZCNS on their own. Amaral says one
student interned at the center during her senior
year because it helped with anxiety. She now
pursues her interest in Zen meditation at a Boston
university, where she recently invited Amaral to be
a guest speaker for her Buddhism in America
class.
Zen Center North Shore works with several other
Boston area schools and colleges including Salem
State University, Montserrat College of Art, North
Shore Community College, Endicott College, and
Beverly High School.
Additionally, public school educators can now earn
professional development points toward licensure
from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary
and Secondary Education when they complete a
ZCNS Meditation for Teachers workshop.
Zen Center North Shore Guiding Teacher Joan
Amaral leads Masconomet Regional High School
students in seated meditation.
Case Study | Meditation In School | page 3
www.zencenternorthshore | info@zencenternorthshore.org | (781) 718-5455
“There have been positive cultural shifts within the school.”
- Ryan Quinn, Masconomet Social Studies Teacher
Getting Results and Making
Room to Breathe
Massachusetts Endorses
Zen Center North Shore for Teachers
Zen Center North Shore Guiding Teacher Joan
Amaral and Masconomet Regional High School
Social Studies Teacher Ryan Quinn are all smiles
after another successful session with students.