Mindfulness isn't preparing children for the real world

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Are they teaching these children to only be mindful and not real world skills as well? To me that would be the only problem. If children learn both then there shouldn't be a problem. Mindfullness is but one of many tools that people should be armed with. Focus too much on any one tool and of course the others will suffer, but keep them all in balance and everything should be okay.

Honestly this sounds more like a religious leader watching his followers find something else and trying desperately to keep them by telling them that what they've found won't work than someone who actually see's a problem with the children.

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I might have taken his comments more seriously if he hadn't said this. I'm not looking to undermine Gospel values but he clearly doesn't understand the utility of mindfulness techniques if he thinks they 'only' apply to life as a teenager.

For anyone interested here is a study from researchers at Oxford University regarding the efficacy of online mindfulness courses:
http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/11/e003498.full

Clearly there is much more to a rounded education - so that argument is sound in my opinion, but to suggest that mindfulness doesn't help in adult life is not supported by research - or my personal experience!

Maybe I'm still a teenager . . . aged 39

I am pretty new to mindfulness techniques, and don't have a lot of practice, so I could be wrong, but so far my understanding has led me to believe that it is meant to allow you to observe your thoughts and feelings in a given moment without judging them for being right or wrong. To me this sounds like either I or some of the people making this argument have a misunderstanding, since it doesn't sound like mindfulness promotes "escaping into a state of blank mental oblivion."

If anything, it sounds to me like it promotes objectivity when looking at life's situations, and being able to make better decisions and take a better course of action. Meditation sometimes calms me when I'm anxious, nervous, or stressed, but without being able to look at my life and see what's causing that, and fixing it, the stress will never truly go away. The program I have been using to learn doesn't tell me to clear all my thoughts and have a "blank mind", but to observe the thoughts and let them go by. I think that eventually one can see objectively what thoughts are weighing on their mind, and why.

From this interpretation, it doesn't seem like mindfulness alone would solve anybody's problems, but it seems like a wonderful way to begin to.

It seems to me to be unfair to claim mindfulness doesn't prepare children for the real world because all it does is to help them be calm in the face of pressure.

Geometry only helps us understand and manage physical shapes. Biology only helps us understand how living systems function. Learning to speak German only helps us to communicate with others who also know the language. The Gospel, for those who find inspiration and solace in it, only helps develop a relationship with Deity. None of these, alone, can help us drive a car, recover from trauma, or make a tuna casserole, but that doesn't mean they will not have value over a lifetime. Just because teens often acquire these skills doesn't mean they are only useful for teenagers.

The same could be said of mindfulness.

so its clear that the headmaster isnt very familiar with mindfulness meditation - neither was the oxford critic sited towards the end, who referred to it as a state of "blank mental oblivion"

overall i consider this a shoddy bit of "journalism"

actually i dont think it is journalism at all

i would like to know the exact conversation and context of these comments

the headmaster makes some excellent points of his own, and i think that he spoke as he did here simply because he is not familiar with what mindfulness meditation actually is

this piece seems like it wants to stir up controversy where there isnt any - or shouldnt be

from the title to the content this is all a very shallow presentation


im not sure what the point of this article was but it obviously wasnt to really enhance anyones understanding of mindfulness or education or how to prepare students for anything

Mindfulness alone is not enough. In Buddhism, there's this concept of the "three trainings." They are morality, concentration, and insight. Mindfulness alone can help develop concentration and can lead to some insight but it's kind of like a three-legged stool that falls down without the third leg.

There's a good article on it here: The Threefold Training

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If you take something out of context you can use it to support what ever you want or what ever your agenda is.

This seems relevant to this conversation: Mindfulness has lost its Buddhist roots, and it may not be doing you good

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For me mindfulness is not about cutting off perception, its about cutting off the process of continued thought constructs. Variations of tuning out into a void, or removing stimulus to quieten the mind seem to be more about preparatory practises to learn the skills for mindfulness training - and not the actual mindfulness training. Sort of the other end of how we might see the concept of focus; instead of targetted and framed sharp focus creating a narrow depth, mindfulness to me is a more about open and unframed sharp focus over a larger area but more shallow. I cannot call it non-focus, as for me clarity is important in both.

I think it would be healthy for kids to develop the preparatory skills, but best partnered with other mental training to allow more mental 'play', like day dreaming etc, since as kids they are usually afforded some protection (by family, schools etc) to act more openly to assist the learning process by being protected to some extent.

I'm not sure about the actual mindfulness though, as one of the sources of insight in this practise is that the calm abiding present in the mindfulness allows the subconscious to day dream in the details informed by the mindfulness - and these can respond faster to the tools of perception we have at our disposal. Accessing the subconscious powers might empower emotions a bit too much in some kids. IMO taking a Buddhist approach where things like this are directly addressed might work if it could be partnered with education in some synergism, otherwise I think our experiences as adults informs are capacity to generate insight as used in my understanding of the Buddhist context - something kids might not have developed.