Schonert-Reichel 20) extolling the virtues of MINDUP curriculum have now come in for heavy criticism, challenging the validity of the findings. An early warning was issued by British Columbia teacher Tina Olesen in November of 2012 on the Scientific American Blog. Her concerns about the potentially harmful effects of Hawn’s MINDUP program were prophetic. What could possibly be wrong with making Student Well Being a system-wide priority? It sounded harmless enough until you bore down into what it actually entails and begin to examine the promotional videos and classroom resources generated by the initiative. Judging from Ontario Ministry of Education and school board conferences held in 2016-18, the provincial school system was totally enamoured with an approach that promised salvation and relief from stress, anxiety, depression, bullying, and today’s frenetic school life. Growing concerns among leading researchers in the United States, the U.K., and the Netherlands about the widespread adoption of positive psychology, the implementation of the Goldie Hawn Foundation’s MINDUP program, and the mindfulness and happiness movement. Few Ontario educators, it seemed, were troubled by the initiative and parents were, as usual with curriculum initiatives, presented with a fait accompli. That may explain why the whole provincial strategy sailed through the normal process of review and was immediately embraced by educators, particularly in elementary schools. Promoting “Student Well Being” sounds like the educational equivalent of motherhood, so it has, to date, attracted little close scrutiny. While labelled an “engagement paper,” the educators and the public were invited to “provide your insights and considerations on how best to promote and support student well-being throughout Ontario’s education system.” Jean Clinton, a McMaster University clinical psychiatrist, and Dr Stuart Shanker, a York University psychologist who doubles as the CEO of the MEHRIT Centre, a Peterborough-based organization holding a patent on the term “Self-Reg” and marketing “self-regulation’ in schools. “Student Well Being” has acquired something of an exalted status in Ontario schools ever since the appearance of a fascinating November 2016 policy paper,’ entitled “Well Being in Our Schools, Strength in Our Society.’ The whole concept of Student Well Being was rationalized using a popular narrative promoted by its leading Ontario advocates, Dr. The recent change in government presents a rare opportunity to critically examine the whole initiative, its assumptions, research base, and actual impact upon schoolchildren. Under the former Liberal Government of Kathleen Wynne, the heavily promoted “ Student Well Being Strategy’ attempted to integrate ‘mindfulness’ through what is known as the MINDUP curriculum. Two provinces, Ontarioand British Columbia, are hotbeds for promoting “ student well being” through broad application of ‘ mindfulness training’ and its step-child ‘self-regulation ‘ beginning in the earliest grades. Mindfulness has enjoyed a tremendous boom in the past decade and has recently begun to spring up in Canadian school systems.
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