Middle Way School is an independent elementary school rooted in Buddhist wisdom and compassion, and located in upstate New York’s Hudson Valley. A conscious alternative to standardized education, the school blends child-centered academics, Dharma-based philosophy, and whole-family support with an abundance of outdoor learning and skills for inward reflection. Each student is considered a cherished part of a global community.
How do they cultivate curious and collaborative minds while nurturing a profound understanding of the world and an interconnection with all beings? Students are encouraged to think deeply and to be led by their own sense of wonder. The goal of a Middle Way School education is to empower children with the resilience of an open mind and the skills needed to flourish in a complex modern world. Here, a prospective parent interviews Sarah C. Beasley, Middle Way School’s senior director of Dharma Education, about what a child might experience while attending a Buddhist school.
Q: Is Middle Way School a religious school or a secular school? A Buddhist or non-Buddhist school?
Sarah C. Beasley: Middle Way School is based in Buddhist wisdom and compassion. We are not teaching religion or indoctrinating students; rather we are imbuing them with the felt sense that everything is sacred. This manifests when they check out or return a library book or find a pencil for their writing. When students interact with each other, or even with bugs found in the soil during recess, we model respect for life and the motivation to help others. Most of our students are not from practicing Buddhist homes, but they know the tenets of refuge, bodhicitta, lineage, and cause and effect (karma) through integrated curricular lessons they relate to in social studies and natural sciences classes.
We are infusing the relationships between students and adults, and everyone in the school community—including the plants and trees, animals and insects—with the ethos that everyone is worthy of existing and thriving. This is a spiritual, humanistic path and we incorporate the Buddhadharma in classrooms daily in practical, heartfelt ways. We teach the curriculum in tandem with the life story of the Buddha and a multitude of bodhisattvas as role models, alongside contemporary figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malala Yousafzai, Serena Williams, Autumn Peltier, Mahatma Gandhi, and so many others whose ideas engage and inspire.
Reverence versus prayer
Q: In your classrooms I see altars with buddhas and with other statues. Do the children pray to these statues?
SCB: That is such a good question! We do not teach prayer—Middle Way School is not a religious school per se. However, we offer opportunities to offer beneficial aspirations and wishes, and to meditate in a spirit of agency and free will. We model reverence for life and community, acknowledge interdependence, and working through conflict in creative and nuanced ways. Our purpose is to instill ethical and spiritual community values and offer ways of seeing and relating to the world that can inspire, uplift, and connect children with themselves and others in healthy, prosocial ways. Our methods strive to bridge differences and increase a sense of tolerance, belonging, and warmth.
When children find their own sense of inner freedom, worth, and selfhood, they become effective and loving community citizens, confident in their ability to offer their skills and strengths. A powerful path to these qualities and experiences is through meditation. Every classroom engages in short, simple meditation sessions of between one and five minutes daily, depending on their age. It offers a chance to be awake, alert, and aware, while also resting the cognitive striving mind. They experience themselves as human beings, with a momentary suspension of the demand for doing/performing/producing. This is priceless at any age!
For our community, the Buddha is a role model for meditation and embodying enlightened qualities. But true meditation is not based on an external person or a thing who is better than us. The Buddha lives within, an internal experience of loving oneself and feeling altruistic toward other beings. Through learning in every subject, we try to engage students’ inner goodness, their buddha-nature, in grounded, relatable ways. This educational model is very much about discovering their own inner goodness and not something external to them, although outer role models are also essential. It is a highly experiential model of progressive education, kept lively and attuned by highly qualified teachers.
We uplift being human and valuing empathy, compassion, and striving for wisdom in everything we do, whether it is mathematics, writing, drawing, or history studies. We emulate the humanistic values of relationship-building, debate, and conversation in ways to interrelate with a multiplicity of beings and cultures. We want to be inclusive, welcoming, and kind. We display images of diverse kinds of heroes, including buddhas and bodhisattvas, to inspire children, as if they are looking in a mirror.
Windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors
Q: That’s so interesting and beautiful! At a recent open house, I heard your librarian Robin Shornstein speak about “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors.” Could you explain this a bit more?
SCB: Ah! Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop wisely observed that we connect with the world through reading when we can “see” ourselves in other characters (mirrors) and when we can “see into” the lived experience of others (windows). The inspirational figures in the books that fill our library, as well as on our classroom altars—buddhas and bodhisattvas—allow children to see themselves in facets of these life stories. When children see themselves in role models, it is like looking in a mirror, their positive qualities light up. When introduced to new people, places, or ways of being, these are windows into new experiences, hence the window metaphor. And yes, it is magical to both learn and teach here! Curiosity, openness, and wonder abound, as well as the nitty gritty aspects of emotions, conflict, the struggles of growing up, and developing young minds, especially in our complex world at a very troubled time. The curriculum and our social activities serve as heart and mind medicine, methods for thinking, speaking, expressing, and relating—tools that are as necessary as eating and sleeping.
Connecting with our community
Q: How does the school engage with the greater community?
SCB: We have a myriad ways to connect with our local community! Seasonally, we welcome the public to our Dharma-led book fair in the fall, and our student art show in the spring. We also offer a vibrant Summer of Wonder program for children that blends outdoor adventures with inward reflection.
Throughout the year, we host a range of open events for families on the concerns of parenting and caregiving in life’s many stages, as well as intersecting topics such as the Dharma and restorative justice.
Last month, our students worked together to create a Giving Tree for our local community. The children crafted small, handmade gifts for our neighbors, infused with the intention to spread light and joy into our community and our world. This delightful project involved collaboration between our Dharma, art, and Outdoor Education teachers to encourage the students to make creations to share instead of keeping them. Materials selected focused on re-using and repurposing. Visitors of all ages were curious to see these gifts made with friendship in mind! It started great conversations and helped to open our appreciation for one another.
Currently, we’re hosting an online Dharma Art Benefit, Seeds of Awakening, to support our growing school needs. It’s so beautifully curated and filled to the brim with incredible artwork! We invite you to explore and help nurture Buddhist-based education for children.
It is our hope that all beings will benefit from our work in the world and come to know their own true nature—free from suffering and fear.
Middle Way School Dedication Verse
May our work and play be fruitful
May all beings be happy and free
May our actions bring benefit to others;
All animals, Earth, peoples, and trees.
See more
Dr Rudine Sims Bishop (Rise Up Against Racism)
Summer of Wonder (Middle Way School)
Giving Tree – Middle Way School (Instagram)
Dharma Art Benefit – Middle Way School (Instagram)
Related features from BDG
Raising Healthy Children
Dharma Drum Mountain’s Threefold Education: A Conversation with Ven. Yan He
Buddhist Education: Windows into Buddhism Announces Official Public Launch
Should Children Take Refuge?
Introducing the Buddhadharma to Non-Buddhist Parents of School-age Children
Children in Lockdown: The Need for a More Mindful Approach to Education
A Buddhist Vision for Education Reform: The Blue Lion Preschool, Inspired by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
