Meet the Team: Interview with Mindfulness Teacher & Program Coordinator, Cassandra Moore

This month we are delighted to highlight one of our amazing team members, Cassandra Moore. Cassandra is a Mindfulness Teacher & Program Coordinator, offering our Mindful Studies course in two high schools in Portland. They are also a frequent contributor to our blog (you can read some of their previous pieces here and here!)

When did you begin your mindfulness practice?

I practiced mindfulness informally for years. As a teenager, I intuitively realized that I could direct my attention to sound and that it was an anchor and a resource: that I could listen to the sound of the wind, or the leaves blowing, or my hand moving through grass, and that it brought me out of my thinking mind, which was overwhelming. I started reading a lot about mindfulness in 2011 and began a formal meditation practice in 2014.

What is unique about the Peace and School’s approach in the classroom?

Our focus on presence is so unique. We believe that our presence is what matters more than anything: that our loving being-ness creates wellbeing for students. So we focus on connection, rather than an outcome—even though we have a very complex lesson we're teaching most days, connecting with students through relationship is our North Star. For example, we try to greet every student as they arrive, to be available, present, and caring as a regulated nervous system for students to connect with and co-regulate with. We also model vulnerability and skillful self-disclosure—we reveal our own struggles to our students in skillful ways that allow them to understand we are practicing alongside them: we try to dismantle the teacher-student hierarchy in ways that I think are radical.

What has teaching taught you?

It teaches me about love. It has taught me to be gentle with myself. To notice where I have conditioned expectations for myself to be perfect. It has taught me to give grace to myself when I have a bad day, or class doesn't go the way I'd hoped. It has taught me to be in relationship to my negative self-talk and to practice coming back to a place of love, rather than criticism of myself or students. Teaching always re-affirms my knowing that what I teach matters so much less than the quality of presence and acceptance that I bring. Teaching also teaches me that many of our standardized education practices fail students in really big, meaningful, heartbreaking ways.

Favorite moment with a student?

The mother of one of my students actually shared with me how what their student was learning in my Mindful Studies class was impacting their whole family. She shared that the student would pause during dinnertime to practice mindful eating, and the whole family started doing it. The student would slow down and tune into their five senses as they ate, and would also consider where the food came from and how the air and the water contributed to the food growing, and consider also other aspects of interconnection—like, Who picked this food and where does it come from and what's the impact on the earth? It is beautiful to me to think about the ripple effect of our class—all the people who are impacted as a result of one student learning these tools.