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Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
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 Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 7:01 am Post subject: In the Classroom, a New Focus on Quieting the Mind |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/us/16mindful.html?em&ex=1182225600&en=e2ac74333942e9c4&ei=5087%0A
Another trend, quite similar to "visualization" techniques which were the vogue in the late 70's... 
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Dr. Amy Saltzman, a physician in Palo Alto, Calif., who started the Association for Mindfulness in Education three years ago, thinks of mindfulness education as �talk yoga.� Practitioners tend to use sticky-mat buzzwords like �being present� and �cultivating compassion,� while avoiding anything spiritual.
Dr. Saltzman, co-director of the mindfulness study at Stanford, said the initial findings showed increased control of attention and �less negative internal chatter � what one girl described as �the gossip inside my head: I�m stupid, I�m fat or I�m going to fail math,� � Dr. Saltzman said. |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 1:58 am Post subject: |
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I think this could actually be helpful for some kids. I've used it myself during university (and, of course, in martial arts). It's always helped. Of course, I wasn't a hyperactive twelve year old who couldn't even sit through a seven minute cartoon without freaking out at the time.
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Yolanda Steel, a second-grade teacher at Piedmont, said she was hopeful that the training would help an attention-deficit generation better manage a barrage of stimuli, including PlayStations and text messages. �American children are overstimulated,� Ms. Steel said. �Some have difficulty even closing their eyes.�
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I agree with this. It's the same as in Japan, where meditation is commonly used starting in junior higth school (elementary schools don't seem to do this, nor do they discipline the kids, so by junior high school, the behaviour of many of the boys is horrendous- but then in junior high, they are mostly teaching the kids to bottle up negative instincts rather than helping them see why they are wrong). It's used as a solution to poor behaviour ("if they meditate, they will get to a natural state that is well behaved, because that is the natural state for Japanese people". This type of thinking has led to all kinds of articles wondering why today's Japanese youth seem so badly behaved), which translates into "punishment" to the kids, though. |
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Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
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| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 2:45 am Post subject: |
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| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
| I think this could actually be helpful for some kids. I've used it myself during university (and, of course, in martial arts). It's always helped. Of course, I wasn't a hyperactive twelve year old who couldn't even sit through a seven minute cartoon without freaking out at the time. |
While working with "troubled youth" (adolescents) back in USAnia I would often bring the students outside for a bit of physical activity before class. It seemed to work well for us...afterwards they would plod back to the classroom and sink into the chair physically exhausted, ready to work quietly for the period.
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