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Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness

nytimes.com

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Re: Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness

#91

Post by rsynnott »

yoz-y wrote: post #12
fiala__ wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Children have no problems with happiness or well-being. Have you ever met a child IRL?

I don't think that children who have problems with happiness or well-being will be helped by teaching them mindfulness. I was a lucky kid, but those around me who had problems had them because they were excluded from groups, got parents divorced, were bullied or were simply spoiled by their parents and were unhappy if anything didn't go their way. Telling them to be mindful is straight out of Voltaire's Candide.

The major application of mindfulness for which there is actually evidence is stress/anxiety reduction. This would obviously be useful for kids who are bullied and/or have bad home environments.

Re: Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness

#92

Post by altras »

Awesome!

disclaimer: I've been involved in https://www.rulerapproach.org/ (as part of the development team from www.camplight.net)

It's interesting that the news release from gov.uk[1] focuses that they are doing one of the largest studies in the world with 370 schools... Looking today at our RULER statistics we now have almost ~900 enlisted USA schools.

Combining those will definitely become one of the largest, unless there's something similar in other parts of the world :O Have anybody heard something like this in other countries?

I hope all these initiatives lead to less bullying and aggressive behavior :))

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/one-of-the-largest-mental...

Re: Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness

#93

Post by mapcars »

DanBC wrote: post #66
mapcars wrote: post #2

>“Children will start to be introduced gradually to issues around mental health, well-being and happiness right from the start of primary school,” he added. Why wouldn't adults just solve their mental problems instead of introducing them to children? Children have no problems with happiness or well-being. It's us who should learn from them. big facepalm

> Children have no problems with happiness or well-being How about children who are repeatedly raped by their parent? Are they happy? How about children who's parent has died? Are they happy? What about the children who are grappling with gender indentity or sexuality (and maybe with parents who are not supportive)? Are they happy? What about children living with disability and who are being bullied because of it? Ar…

The problems you mentioned, while being a completely different matter, will not (and should not) be solved by mindfulness anyway.

You are exactly approving my point that it's the adults who need to solve their problems (on different levels) first.

Re: Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness

#94

Post by LunaSea »

wawhal wrote: post #44

About time for mindfulness to actually be a thing. Waiting for a time where people are at least exposed to the idea of mindfulness, whether they continue to practice it, is their choice. A subject in school is the best way to achieve this. For adults, if one thinks that they are already super happy and self-realised, it still makes sense to try out the techniques of mindfulness just with a consideration that they "co…

Making it a subject removes that "choice" you talk about and makes it mandatory.

Re: Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness

#95

Post by geggam »

anextomp wrote: post #72
bencollier49 wrote: post #33

My five year-old son now talks about his mind in the third person as a result of this. I'm having to retrain him with responsibility for his own actions. Lovely idea and all but having untrained people teaching psychological practices to reception-grade children seems rather foolhardy to me.

That seems like a fairly healthy thing to learn, no? Sometimes we need to acknowledge that our brain can cause us to do things we don't want to, and not beat ourselves up for it. Obviously that can go too far, and you need to anticipate the consequences of your actions, owning your conscious decisions.

Teaching someone to act socially mature without understanding why is like teaching someone to pass a test without understanding the material.

Seems like schools are becoming experts at creating fakes.

Re: Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness

#96

Post by sridca »

weavie wrote: post #6

My daughters homework for each day this week is : 1. Talk about your feelings. 2. Do something you are good at. 3. Keep yourself hydrated. 4. Eat well. 5. Keep active in mind and body. 6. Take a break. 7. Stay connected to those you care about. 8. Ask for help. 9. Be proud of your very being. 10. Actively care for others. She has a chart she needs to tick once she has achieved each item. I get that they are all good…

How do they teach your daughter to translate these principles to practical actions? For example how does your daugher understand "Eat well" to mean in terms of actual food she happens to crave (cookies, ice cream, plants, meat, etc.)? If they are going EAT-Lancet style on her you should probably be concerned.

Re: Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness

#97

Post by geggam »

nightcracker wrote: post #40
growlist wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But hang on - there ARE serious problems in our society, culture and economy that need solving, and wishing them away or cloaking yourself in a blanket of warm feelings isn't going to change them, is it?

It is going to solve acute problem of you personally being negatively affected by stress.

Yet evolution teaches us that humans are hardwired to learn from negative events. In fact positive events tend to create addictions... or religions.

Re: Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness

#99

Post by faceplanted »

samdoidge wrote: post #36
FrankyHollywood wrote: post #27

I'm always puzzled with the fact that people search for surrogate solutions instead of pursuing the real issue. If you don't feel well there is so much you can do. Make serious effort in making friends, join a sports club or something else you like, solve long running conflicts with other people, don't over- or under achieve on a level which doesn't fit you (school/work), be proud with the things you accomplish inste…

I agree problems need to be tackled at the source, but some self-help books may help you deal with the problem. 12 Rules for Life is one such book.

12 Rules for life is a complete mess of strangely used bible quotes, misattributed and misquoted philosophers, at one point blatant rape apology, and an obvious lack of empathy from the author throughout.

But one thing is does do well that I wish people would focus on over the obvious shortcomings of the author and why nothing has really replaced it yet is that it tells you in no uncertain terms that if you want to go anywhere or have any confidence in yourself you have to acknowledge that you live in a system that isn't always fair and try to make it work for you, paralysis will get you nowhere.

Re: Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness

#100

Post by mapcars »

afarrell wrote: post #28
mapcars wrote: post #2

>“Children will start to be introduced gradually to issues around mental health, well-being and happiness right from the start of primary school,” he added. Why wouldn't adults just solve their mental problems instead of introducing them to children? Children have no problems with happiness or well-being. It's us who should learn from them. big facepalm

> Children have no problems with happiness or well-being I'm happy for your past self, but your experience is not universal. Many people as children and teenagers have problems with these things. Its hard to take action to work on these without having a mental framework to organise your thoughts and communicate about them.

>Many people as children and teenagers have problems with these things

So there will be an experience of some "negative" states of mind and emotion, but to become a problem it needs support. Removing this support is what I'm talking about. In a form that adults should be a live example that "negative" things happen but do not grow into problems.

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