In June 2023 New York Mayor Eric Adams announced a new policy that would go into effect that fall. Every morning every public school student would engage in two to five minutes of mindful breathing unless they chose to opt out. At a time when the youth mental health crisis was a major news story, this seemed like a win. Research had suggested that mindfulness could have a beneficial impact on adolescent anxiety and depression. Now the more than one million students in NYC public schools would be getting a daily dose of it.
Yet to those in the mindfulness world, the reaction was nuanced. While mindfulness can be a powerful tool, it is one that is typically taught by experienced practitioners. Asking overwhelmed teachers to add another lesson to their plate on a topic they might not have familiarity with had the potential to backfire. Programming that is implemented by burnt out educators going through the motions with bored students is not usually a recipe for success.
Asking overwhelmed teachers to add another lesson to their plate on a topic they might not have familiarity with had the potential to backfire.
Weighing Positives and Negatives
As a PE teacher and Mindfulness Director at a PK-8 school in Massachusetts, I had my concerns from afar. I’m well aware of my own skills and limitations. If, for example, research revealed the benefits of singing, and there were a mandate to practice if for a few minutes at the start of every class, my lack of expertise would result in some seriously out of tune kiddos. There is a reason people are encouraged to teach to their strengths.
Kimberly Daniels, a School Counselor and Mindfulness Director at The Greenwich Village School in Manhattan, saw the mandate as a positive step at first. Both Daniels and I worked with WholeSchool Mindfulness to integrate the position of Mindfulness Director at our respective schools. I wanted to get her take as someone who understands the benefits of bringing mindfulness to schools and as an expert on the thoughtful, research-backed implementation of these practices.
“Initially, I was like, that’s actually really good,” said Daniels. “It’s being seen as something all schools should be doing. It’s a strange thing to mandate, but if it’s bringing awareness to all New York City public schools, that could be a good thing.”
Asking More of Already-Overwhelmed Teachers
The reaction among teachers, however, was more of a mixed bag. “I think a lot of teachers were rolling their eyes because it was one more thing they were being mandated to do,” said Daniels.
Once the program got underway, Daniels was able to be a thought partner with teachers at her school and provide resources and ideas. “When it first rolled out, I talked about it at a professional development session at my school,” recalled Daniels. “We were able to come up with different things that teachers could do in the classroom. A lot of teachers really loved the idea of mindful coloring.” However, her position is a rarity in the public school system, and other schools lacked the support of an educator trained in the discipline.
Is There Needed Support?
The other major issue was the overall lack of accountability and support from the Department of Education. It is one thing to announce a mandate and then provide training, resources, and professional development on the subject, as might happen with the introduction of a new math curriculum. It is quite another to issue a mandate without any plan for following through and supporting teachers.
Such a mandate may serve more as a form of wellness washing: allowing the powers-that-be to gain positive press and check a box without actually creating effectual change. Is it a coincidence that Mayor Adams’ federal corruption investigation came to light only a few months after this announcement? In the end, this kind of empty mandate only serves to promote the interests of the administrators and politicians who can claim such initiatives as feathers in their cap while a generation of students becomes alienated by half-hearted wellness measures.
Such a mandate may serve more as a form of wellness washing: allowing the powers-that-be to gain positive press and check a box without actually creating effectual change.
Additionally, unsupported initiatives like these don’t take into account the potential pitfalls of mindfulness practice in environments not suited to it, such as unintended trauma responses. There is evidence that mindfulness practices can trigger trauma, and a classroom teacher who is forced to teach it might not have the requisite training or experience to recognize and respond to students who are in distress because of practice.
In addition, if a teacher is not bought into mindfulness programming but has to introduce it anyways, they might do so in a way that stokes apathy in the practice rather than interest. As a basketball coach, I certainly wouldn’t want people who don’t have a passion for the game to be tasked with introducing to students, but that is precisely the case with mindfulness. Students who first encounter practice in a classroom setting where it is being rolled out without enthusiasm or knowledge might sour on it pretty quickly.
What Now?
So what would be a better approach? Daniels believes a much more lasting impact would come from the adoption of an Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum with a focus on mindfulness. An SEL curriculum includes programs and lessons designed to help students develop “soft” skills that are actually essential for healthy functioning in relationships and in the world—things like managing emotions, setting goals, showing empathy, building positive relationships, and making responsible decisions.
“If you don’t have your own mindfulness practice and it’s not something you’ve ever been interested in, I think it can be daunting for teachers,” said Daniels. “But if it were an actual curriculum that you’re properly trained in, that would have way more of an impact than than two to five minutes of mindfulness per day.”
Mindfulness is an incredible tool for stoking awareness. Yet it can’t be just a means of wellness washing, and requires the same pedagogical mastery as any other discipline, whether it be art, chemistry, or social studies. All of those disciplines are taught by educators trained in a specific philosophy or curriculum.
Despite the potential benefits of mindfulness being more accessible and widely disseminated, the reach may not be worth the risk without follow up, support, and training for teachers. In the end, to be most effective, mindfulness practice must be implemented thoughtfully by those with experience in the discipline. In other words, we need to be mindful about mindfulness programming.
