[W]hen administrators at Bullard Elementary School in Kennesaw, Ga., implemented yoga and other mindfulness practices in the classroom to reduce students’ stress, they probably envisioned peace and relaxation in their future. Instead, they received a flurry of complaints — from parents who felt yoga represented the encroachment of non-Christian beliefs. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bullard’s principal, Patrice Moore, sent parents an email last week announcing changes to its yoga program…. “I am truly sorry that the mindfulness/ de-stressing practices here at Bullard caused many misconceptions that in turn created a distraction in our school and community,” Moore wrote. “While we have been practicing de-stressing techniques in many classrooms for years, there have been some recent practices associated with mindfulness that are offensive to some.”
Yesterday I wrote about the success Marysville Elementary School in Portland has been experiencing in the aftermath of installing a mindfulness curriculum. Teachers are happier and students are more relaxed, focused, and connected to the concept of community. It’s been such a win-win that the curriculum is attracting attention across Portland as parents and children are expressing an interest in either coming to Marysville or creating something similar in their own school.
At the opposite end of the spectrum are the good, upstanding Christian patriots of Kennesaw, GA, who believe that anything not expressly Jesus-centric is a plot by homosexual Liberal atheists to control the minds and spiritual well-being of children- snowflakes who MUST know Jesus to have any hope of spending eternity in Heaven. They’ve managed to convince themselves despite any and all evidence to the contrary that mindfulness training and anything else not reflexively pledging total undying fealty to Jesus Christ is OF THE DEVIL and…OMIGAWD!!! WHAT ABOUT OUR POOR, IMPRESSIONABLE SNOWFLAKES??? WHAT WILL BECOME OF THEIR IMMORTAL SOUL WHEN THEY ANGER THE ALMIGHTY BY ASKING QUESTIONS INSTEAD OF BLINDLY OBEYING US HIM???
The idea that there might just be useful sources of knowledge to be found in places other than the Bible may seem a frightening prospect to some whose faith is shakier than they care to admit to themselves. When you open your mind, sometimes you might pick up a few things that may enhance your life without imperiling your immortal soul. If you reflexively fear anything not expressly mentioned in Scripture, your willingness (and perhaps even ability) to learn new life lessons is greatly diminished.
The idea Principal Moore is promoting is, as she put it, about “mindfulness/ de-stressing practices.” No one’s going to be sacrificing a virgin, or drinking goat’s blood. It’s not about turning people away from Christianity or preaching the tenets of “false idols.” In fact, the program has nothing to do with the teachings of any religion. Mindfulness training is something that anyone could benefit from, regardless of one’s faith tradition. One need only be open to examining and learning new ways of processing and coping with the stresses and challenges life tosses in one’s path.
Unless you’re a faithful servant of the One, Truly, and ONLY God…in which case mindfulness training is just another evil heathen effort by Satan to indoctrinate the impressionable against the wisdom and saving grace of Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, when one is steeped in the “If you ain’t got Jesus, you ain’t $#!&” ethos and your worldview is unfailingly strained through that filter, anything that can’t be found in or explained by Scripture is ipso facto considered to be a threat to one’s spiritual health. SUCH EVIL MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO STAND!!
Among the elements of the program that will be eliminated: the Sanskrit greeting “Namaste,” placing hands “to heart center” and coloring pages with the symbol of the Mandala (a spiritual symbol in Indian religions representing the cosmos).
Moore noted that a rumor had also spread about using or teaching “about crystals having healing powers.”
“We will ensure that nothing resembling this will be done in the future,” she said.
True…because we know that low-information sorts default to THE reflexive, ill-considered fear of anything they can’t be bothered to understand. Those who felt it necessary to complain about the godless, heathen practices advocated by Principal Moore clearly understand little to nothing about what it is they find offensive. If they could be bothered to learn about it, they might discover that there are some significant benefits to mindfulness training. They might also discover that it’s not about mind control or weird, dogmatic religious indoctrination (their Christianity already has that covered). It’s not about religion at all. It’s about trying to be better people, better citizens, better community members. It’s about trying to learn how live in the moment and more effectively deal with stress and trauma. It’s about trying to do life better, more simply, and more effectively.
And the problem with this would be…?
Then again, some folks are automatically suspicious of any concept not liberally sprinkled with the word “Jesus.”
Parents were concerned about yoga’s spiritual origins.
“No prayer in schools. Some don’t even say the pledge of allegiance,” Cobb County mother Susan Jaramillo told NBC affiliate WXIA. “Yet they’re pushing ideology on our students. Some of those things are religious practices that we don’t want our children doing in our schools.”
OMIGAWD…and they don’t even pray to Jesus!!!
As for “pushing ideology on our students,” mindfulness is not even remotely close to being an ideology…or a religion. These parents seem to have no problem with pushing their own ideology/theology on their children…which invariably means teaching children to fear anything that looks, feels, or sounds different from the narrow Christ-centric world view they’ve been force-fed from birth.
Christopher Smith, whose sons attend Bullard, shared a similar sentiment on Facebook.
“Now we can’t pray in our schools or practice Christianity but they are allowing this Far East mystical religion with crystals and chants to be practiced under the guise of stress release meditation,” he wrote. “This is very scary.”
What’s scary is that Mr. Smith probably has children, whom he’s undoubtedly teaching to be every bit as ignorant, reactionary, incurious, and intolerant as he is. By now, they’ve probably learned that “different” is “bad” and that if Jesus didn’t say it, it’s not worth knowing.
The amount of misinformation, willful ignorance, and refusal by parents to expand their thinking (Yeah, that pain you just felt in your head? It’s called a “thought.”) beyond their own exceedingly narrow view of the world is distressing. It stands in stark contrast to parents here in Portland hailing the impressive success of Marysville Elementary’s mindfulness curriculum.
Smith directed people to “google ‘mindfulness indoctrination.’”
Actually, Smith might want to “google ‘knee-jerk, fear-based ignorance.’ Or, to keep things simple, just plain “ignorance.”
The only real threat to anyone or anything in this case is ignorance, reaction, and the idea that thinking outside one’s Jesus-centric box will somehow imperil your immortal soul. If your faith or that of your precious, impressionable snowflakes is so shaky that something so benign as mindfulness training is seen as a clear and present danger to spiritual health, your problem isn’t with what’s happening in your children’s school. You’d be far better served by taking a good long look in the mirror.
You’ll see that your biggest problem and most pressing threat is staring back at you.
