We are Connected

Christine Mason, CEI Founder and Senior Scholar

In the December 2024 issue of HeartMind eNews, Christine Mason conveyed some of what she experienced in a recent trip to Nepal. During that trip, Chris met with schools and yoga teachers. She also walked the ancient streets of Kathmandu and visited the nearby tourist destination of Pokhara where she began her trek into the Himalayas.

Jeff Ikler, host of Cultivating Curiosity (and also our podcast Cultivating Resilience), recently interviewed Patti Shales Lefkos, a former school principal and author of Nepal: One Day at a Time. He began that interview by asking Patti what was one thing that she was curious about. She replied: 

What will it take and when will it happen – for people to realize we are all one people and all the same?

In preparing to go to Nepal, I spent hundreds of hours reading books (actually over a few decades), including Patti’s book on trekking in Nepal at the age of 68. I also got in touch with her on Zoom, and she agreed to be on the advisory board for our Nepal project. She and her husband just returned from another trek in Nepal – her next book, Nepal it’s Never Too Late will be published in 2025. 

Read more.

Why Transformative Leadership is Needed Now

Meghan Wenzel, Co-Editor

This is the second article in our Transformative Leadership series. Check out the first article here. This article is based on Renee Owen and Christine Mason’s new book Becoming A Transformative Leader From the Inside Out (expected publication in 2025). 

The U.S. school system is facing a myriad of challenges – teacher shortages and burnout, inequitable and lack of funding, standardized testing pressure, student mental health challenges, and school safety concerns to name a few. Change is needed. Improvement is one type of change, where you advance or make progress in what is desirable. Transformation is another type, where you make significant or more foundational changes to a system or process. 

Improvement implies getting better within the same systems we already have, with the same basic methods, and the same worldview. Transformation on the other hand, “requires an examination of our underlying assumptions about education and the way we teach. It requires us to question our premise, our very foundational beliefs, even our mission” (Owen & Mason, in press).

Read more.

Rethinking Social Media and Cellphones in School

Meghan Wenzel, Co-Editor

Following advisories from the U.S. Surgeon General on the youth mental health crisis and the harmful impacts of social media use, increasingly leaders in education are pushing for social media and cellphone bans in schools (U.S. Surgeon General, 2021; 2023). They hope bans during school hours will create a more focused and supportive learning environment where students can thrive socially and academically. 

Social media has been linked to increased anxiety, cyberbullying, and negative self-comparison, which can hinder students’ mental health and well-being (Butler Hospital, 2024). And cellphones can enable cyberbullying, reduce in-person socialization, distract from learning, and hurt teacher morale (Panchal & Zitter, 2024). By removing these distractions, schools hope to encourage deeper engagement in lessons, promote healthier peer relationships, and foster critical thinking skills. However, critics raise concerns about limiting student communication and self-expression, ignoring important digital citizenship learning opportunities, and the additional burden enforcement will place on educators. 

Read more.