Mindfulness meditation in schools heightens tensions

” “Mindfulness” or “attentive presence” is “an entirely secular practice whose goal is to train the capacities of attention and discernment to what is present in the moment (…) and to thus help to acquire a better inner stability “Explains in his report submitted in January 2021 to the Minister of National Education, MP Gaël Le Bohec (LREM). Under the impetus of the parliamentarian, this practice with hints of New Age was to be extended last September to 240 classes of CM2, 6th and 5th, on the model of the sessions given to the 5,000 students of La Rochelle and in various colleges where proliferate the wellness workshops » and other sessions of « body scan “.

At the same time, Initiative Mindfulness France, a think tank ” whose ” whose mission is to educate public decision-makers on the benefits that Mindfulness can bring », would have, according to its last activity report, affected 23,000 children. And these days, the scientific council of National Education must validate the establishment of ” workshops of meditation in voluntary academies.

Loss of critical thinking

What worry the League of Human Rights, teachers unions (FSU, Unsa Education, CGT Education Federation), one of the main federations of parents of students (FCPE), as well as the most important groups fight against sectarian aberrations (Undafi, Caffes). In total, fifteen organizations signed an open letter to Jean-Michel Blanquer on January 18 in order to “ put an end without delay ” at this ” experimentation “: ” The practice on minor children of a method which can lead to a conditioning with loss of critical spirit and subjugation of the individual generates significant risks which cannot be neglected. “, alarm the signatories. And their letter to emphasize that between 2018 and 2020, ” the Interministerial Mission for vigilance and the fight against sectarian aberrations (Miviludes) was the subject of twelve referrals for problems related to the MPC concerning minors “.

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What about schools? ” Even if they don’t think they’re doing anything wrong, teachers who introduce CPM in the classroom are often trained by a three-hour webinar “, notes Stéphanie de Vanssay, national adviser of Unsa, who points to ” medical contraindications, in particular depression, difficult to detect in children. ” For Marie Drilhon, president of the Association for the Defense of Families and Individual Victims of Sects (ADFI) Yvelines, ” Going to find resources in oneself to feel better, as this method requires, poses a problem for child victims of family violence: unable to improve their lot, they risk feeling guilty! »

Esotericism

Co-founder of the Union of School Principals and follower of MPC in the classroom, Christine Ibanez assures us that, on the contrary, ” the practice encourages children to express their emotions and confide “. In three years, this autodidact of meditation, trained in contact with a child psychiatrist friend ” and ” inspired » by the psychoanalyst and neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik, notes « significant progress among students “: ” Less stress, more communication », sums up the CE2 teacher, at the origin of a « zen corner ” in his class where the students ” restless are free to take a two-minute break. Initiatives that aroused the interest of Jean-Michel Blanquer, visiting his Var school.

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For the Federation of Parents’ Councils (FCPE), it is also ” the entryism into the school setting of ‘coaches’ not approved by the rectorate and likely to manipulate children which turns out to be dangerous. Last June, the LDH was already indignant in a previous press release that in ” entering public school, Mindfulness Meditation [vienne] tackling the law of separation of Church and State “. Christine Ibanez is surprised: ” I have no religion “, she specifies.

In the line of sight of antis “, the Buddhist and sometimes sulphurous roots of this technique developed since the 1960s: “ We transmit elements of esoteric belief around the energies “, denounces Stéphanie de Vanssay. In fact, the American Jon Kabat-Zinn, doctor in molecular biology from MIT and creator of the MPC mentioned on the site of the deputy Le Bohec, was for a time presented as the ” leader » from the Esalen Institute, « matrix “, according to the LDH, “ numerous psycho-sects that have flooded the planet since the 70s “.

At the expense of the subjects taught?

The scientific character of the MPC, brandished by its promoters, would thus be subject to caution: “ The meta-analysis published in 2015 by the journal Plos One, showing that it healed a lot of things was unpublished in 2019 “, warns Hugues Gascan, director of research at the CNRS in the field of health, who mentions “ totally bogus work. Converselyhe says all of the other meta-analyses show an absence of significant effects, or even deleterious effects in the medium term. »

Another recurring reproach, that of initiating a controversial practice to the detriment of real means. ” It takes nothing away from math or French “, answers Christine Ibanez, who “ dedicate ten minutes a day to meditation in class “. Within the framework of the experiment designed by the deputy Le Bohec, the teachers will nevertheless have to fill in complex evaluation grids… Will they be able to remain zen?

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