MindUp curriculum

[Number 2 Pencil]

A friend of mine that is a teacher posted on facebook this morning about a new curriculum she is excited about. It is called MindUp and it is from the Hawn Foundation. I don't know much about it, but she mentioned it in the same sentence as "The Secret" which threw up red flags all over the place for me.

I skimmed a study about MindUp, and it seemed a little weak, but I didn't understand the journal too well as it has a lot of jargon. Nonetheless, it seems verging on psuedo-scientific

Has anyone had anyone here heard of or worked with this educational supplement? It would be sad if another new agey type program intruded itself into our schools' curricula.

[Complexity]

Anything associated with 'The Secret' is instantly discredited.

If it is popular, it is probably pretty worthless.

[Jeff Corey]

Link sausage: http://www.thehawnfoundation.org/curriculum
Sock it to me, it's Goldie Hawn.

[Turgor]

Anything associated with 'The Secret' is instantly discredited.

If it is popular, it is probably pretty worthless.

And if it's an actual secret, it probably won't be in any curriculum. Unless it is a secret in the same way the Illuminati hide their influence by leaving "clues" all over the place.

[Number 2 Pencil]

Yep, it's Goldie Hawn, but that alone shouldn't discredit this thing (though it seems a little unusual).

The comparison to 'the secret' was made by my friend. And even though she meant that as a positive comparison, to me it wasn't positive at all. She might as well have compared it to my cat's litter box.

[Professor Yaffle]

Seems to be basically a mindfulness programme. Mindfulness training can be helpful in some situations (eg stress reduction, prevention of depression recurrence) , but I have no idea whether it is any use in an educational setting.