We are teaching children the four Rs: reading, ’riting, ’rithmetic and research. Why is it that we are not telling them about attention, self-control, mindfulness, motivation and brain function?
With so many adults burdened with chronic mental problems that took root back when they were children, why can’t we not start addressing such problems at an early stage, that is, during childhood? Yes, when children are in school—from preschool through high school, by teaching them simple mental activities that
research, done by a cognitive psychologist, has shown to improve brain function and reduce school failure?
One such brain activity is “mindfulness training,” which has a large scientific support that it helps reduce stress-related diseases in adults. And this is now being done in Renfew Elementary School in Vancouver, Canada, a school with the so-called “MindUP curriculum.” Children in this school are taught to do breathing exercises to enhance their brains’ ability to learn. In this classroom, the brain’s anatomy and its functions, including positive psychology training in optimism, are part of the teaching curriculum.
Forward-thinking educators are now addressing the issue of child stress—whether in family or school—which contributes to poor learning and other negative behaviors. And they have caught up with the research findings of brain scientists.
One landmark study was done back in 1960 by psychologist Walter Michel, then at Stanford University. His team offered preschoolers attending the Bing Nursery School a choice: They could pick a marshmallow and eat it now; or if they waited for several more minutes, they would get two instead of one.
The children were tracked till high school. The four-year-old kids who waited longer and got the two marshmallows had higher SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) scores and, on average, 210 points separated the students who waited 15 minutes longer from those who didn’t. The patient preschoolers were also better in attention span when they reached their teen years and less likely tended to develop behavioral problems at school and home, and to become drug addicts in their 30s.
An almost similar study, done by Duke University psychologist Terrie Moffitt among 1,000 children living in Dunedin, New Zealand, showed a strong relationship between self-control and success. In this study, parents and teachers evaluated every other year each child between the ages of three and 11 on their levels of hyperactivity, impulsivity, aggression, lack of persistence and inattention. A score for each child was given.
The boys and girls who got lower scores had worse health problems when they reached the age of 32 and were more likely to commit a crime than those with higher ratings. A poor score was also a better predictor of their financial troubles than IQ or social class. Even in a shared family background, in a set of 500 sibling pairs, the Moffitt team found that the siblings with lower self-control were more likely to struggle in school, smoke and develop antisocial behaviors.
Given this strong evidence, it makes more sense for educators and parents to engage their children in programs like breathing exercises, mindfulness, self-control, mind-talk and brain anatomy as early as in the elementary grades.
If you are to visit one of the schools using MindUP, it is common to hear children doing breathing exercises and learning about brain function.
“What does breathing do?” A teacher asks her class. “It calms your amygdala down,” a student replies. “It makes your prefrontal cortex so much smarter,” another joins in.
These children have become like superjunior med students studying the critical parts of the brain—e.g., the hippocampus, the memory center; amygdala, the emotional czar; and the prefrontal cortex just behind the forehead, the brain CEO. These three brain centers are interconnected with each other. When there is stress in the family, the amygdala is negatively affected which then influence the hippocampus to lose some memory power.
Needless to say, with the breathing exercises, the capacity of the children’s memory cells are boosted, and by focusing on their breathing the children learn to pay attention to moment-to-moment events without thinking too much about them, and how to control their mind and behavior and reduce anxiety. One teacher from Sir William Van Horne Elementary School in Vancouver commented, “It helps me as a teacher because I have a calmer class and I’m calmer.”
MindUP curriculum was started by celebrity Goldie Hawn in Vancouver. The school board of that city supported it, and since then it has been adopted in 260 cities—175 in Canada, 75 in the United States, seven in the United Kingdom, two in Australia, and one in Venezuela.
In medicine, physicians have been using the “Evidence-Based Treatment” for the past two decades. It is time for educators to follow their physicians and use “Evidence-Based Teaching” methods.
Dr. Leonardo L. Leonidas (nonieleonidas68@ gmail.com) is a 1968 graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. He retired in 2008 as assistant clinical professor in pediatrics from Boston’s Tufts University School of Medicine, where he was recognized with a Distinguished
Career Teaching Award in 2009. He now spends part of his time in the province of Aklan.