Graduate Faculty Member Publish Book on Mindful Teaching

Lauren Alderfer, an international educator and faculty member at Marlboro College Graduate and Professional Studies, celebrated the publication of her new book, Teaching from the Heart of Mindfulness, on May 29 at Everyone’s Books, in Brattleboro, Vermont. Teaching from the Heart of Mindfulness approaches education as a laboratory for practicing mindfulness as a way of being. This approach is exemplified in ten real-life classroom vignettes, part of a Mindful Teacher Lesson Design that can be adapted to any subject, curriculum, or school setting.

“In this book, Teaching from the Heart of Mindfulness, Lauren Alderfer explains how it is possible to cultivate warm-heartedness through the practice of mindfulness,” said His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who wrote the forward.

An international educator for over 30 years, Alderfer has written several other books on mindfulness for both teachers and children, including some inspired by her collaboration with the Tibetan refugee community in India. Her books, such as the popular Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda, aim to preserve Tibetan oral genre while communicating Tibet’s cultural values of compassion and mindfulness. After living in India for more than a decade, she now divides her time between the subcontinent and the Americas. Alderfer has worked in international schools and has been an adjunct professor in several graduate programs in the US. She is currently on the faculty for Marlboro College’s MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program.

“At a time when many in education are losing heart, this book will help teachers take heart, reclaiming the inward source from which all good teaching flows,” said Parker J. Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach.