Dwight’s International Baccalaureate Curriculum is academically rigorous, though not constrictive. There is room for serious transdisciplinary experimentation, and that happens across our curriculum, from PYP to MYP to the DP, and in different ways every year. One remarkable instance of that happening this year took place in the World Languages Department, as German B students polished up their language skills through the lens of the meditative and mindfulness practices of Tibetan Buddhism.

Through a partnership with the Rubin Museum internally led by German B Teacher Undine Groeger, students learned stress-reduction techniques through a series of workshops led by Jacqueline Smith, the Rubin Museum’s Senior Manager of Curriculum Development and Education. These workshops are part of the museum’s “Mandala Lab in Your Classroom" program, which utilizes Social, Emotional, and Ethical Learning (SEE Learning®) methodology. SEE Learning® is an education program developed by Emory University in collaboration with His Holiness the Dalai Lama that goes beyond social emotional learning to include the development of compassion, interpersonal awareness, and the ethical discernment of the child into education.

Mandala Lab in Your Classroom aims to cultivate emotional awareness and compassion in the classroom through Himalayan art and its insights. The lessons, which are inspired by the teachings from a particular mandala from the Rubin’s collection, not only improved our students’ wellness, but their grasp of the German language, as they relearned the techniques with German vocabulary and used them on each other. 

Ms. Groeger, who also specializes in mindfulness and healing through the arts, reinforced their learnings with a customized IB curriculum adapted to each grade level with a focus on health and wellbeing. She noted that this partnership was important for Dwight students, saying, "We must take into account the emotions our students are experiencing and create opportunities for them to express these feelings in ways that enhance belonging and learning.”

Students not only created art projects to synthesize what they had learned (and felt), but Ms. Groeger also incorporated breathwork, singing bowls, and the exploration of sound frequencies — along with how they connect to and symbolize our actions and their effects in our lives. For instance, students studied how a singing bowl symbolizes the effect of their actions by filling one with water and observing the water ripples when the bowl is played.

In reflections, the students took notice of how beneficial the partnership was. Marin G ’29 stated, “The Mandala Lab collaboration in the German classroom helped me express my feelings through nonverbal art and crafts. Writing my affirmations in English and German helped me practice my German in an extremely fun and creative way.”

Frank K ’29 added, “This unit helped me to understand German on a deeper level because it incorporated art, so I could express myself, and it helped me learn German [more easily] because I could correlate emotions in German to the Mandala Lab.”

In addition, the partnership allowed Chancellor Stephen H. Spahn to engage with the German B students on how the ideas from the workshop come to life through the Tibetan artwork found at the school — the very same artwork for which the Rubin Museum is known (Chancellor Spahn is also a former Rubin Museum Board member). He spoke of the mandala as the source of all energy to which every student is connected, in a way that echoed the Spark of Genius ethos.

Eight students solidified what they had learned in the workshops through a guided tour of Dwight School’s Tibetan art given by Chancellor Spahn himself, as well as a visit to the now-closed Rubin Museum galleries downtown, where they participated in hands-on activities, engaging the five senses to explore how to cool their anger, check their pride, let go of attachment, and act without envy.

Twenty-five schools are currently taking part in the Rubin Museum’s “Mandala Lab in Your Classroom” initiative, but many collaborations happen with social studies or world religion curriculum units. Dwight’s entry to the initiative through a world language unit is something that stood out to Ms. Smith. She also noted the curiosity of our Dwight students, saying, “ I really appreciated the participation of the Dwight students throughout, how curious they were, how receptive they were to learning about a culture that they may have been unfamiliar with previously. So I think because of the ethos of the school, it creates students who are very open-minded, who seek out knowledge and inspiration and a very expanded horizon.”

In the end, it was a beautiful partnership that highlighted the best of Dwight: not only creating a truly interdisciplinary IB experience that meaningfully combined German, SEE Learning®, and global perspectives, but highlighting the philosophy of its Chancellor, supported by our three pillars of Personalized Learning, Community, and Global Vision.