GED ACT

Active Concentration Training for GED Students

This is pilot program conducted jointing between the Uptown Meditation Center and The Harlem Youth Education Center. 

Overview

The purpose of the program is to increase scores on and participation in GED exams using 10 inner city students in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Participants will be selected from students enrolled in the GED program at the Harlem Youth Education Center.   Using Zen meditation and concentration exercises teachers from the Uptown Meditation Center will teach students to increase their concentration and focus.  The student is also taught to recognize and neutralize internal negative programming concerning learning.  Finally we use directed meditation techniques to reduce the student’s anxiety concerning the test environment and experience.  The program is initiated six weeks prior to the GED and operates twice a week for 90 minutes.

Methodology

ACT – Attention Control Training.

The students will be taught two of the meditation techniques used in the basic mediation workshops, breath counting and gazing.  They will be taught to slow and control their thoughts.  The student will set up a practice at home and their progress will be charted.  This is similar to the regular basic meditation workshops however the students will be doing the exercises with a specific goal in mind – the passing of the GED.  It is anticipated that many of the students will continue to practice meditation.  One of the outcomes that we measure is the number of participants that maintain their meditation practice.  Zazen’s recording of Canyon’s of Light will be used as background to the exercises.  Dr. Lenz’s book, Insights, will provide a context for the mediation experiences.

Reducing negative programming

Using the metaphor of people as bio computers, we teach the students about the effect of words on their experience of themselves and the world.  Using the insights made available by the meditation practice the students bring to consciousness and discuss the negative programming they experienced in school settings.  Often a bad teacher will cause a student to lose confidence in their ability to master a subject.  As an example, it is not unusual to find someone who believes that they are bad in math because of an experience with a bad grade school math teacher.  A self-fulfilling prophecy is created and ‘being bad in math’ becomes part of the student’s identity. We work with the students to become aware of and neutralize this negative conditioning. 

Reducing test site tension

For various reasons GED students often have especial fear of tests and test environments.  We will use directed meditation techniques and visualizations to reduce the discomfort with the test taking experience.

Outcomes

We will measure the following outcomes using averages from the Harlem Youth Education Center:

Test scores

Drop out rate

Continuation in the program if the student fails the exam

Continuation of meditation practice

Budget:   $4,000 / $400 per student

The pilot program would need the following resources for a ten-student workshop.  These resources will be provided by the Uptown Meditation Center and The Harlem Youth Education Center.