New York City Mayor Eric Adams faced severe criticism for his latest educational proposal, which mandates the implementation of “mindful breathing” exercises in public schools. Critics argue that this move comes at a time when students are grappling with academic challenges caused by COVID-related learning loss.
During a press conference, Mayor Adams announced that public schools across the city would be required to incorporate two to five-minute breathing exercises into the daily routine of students from Kindergarten through 12th grade. The aim is to equip them with coping mechanisms to handle the stress of their daily lives.
“Two to five minutes. Think about that… We’re not talking about hours. Two to five minutes is a game changer,” Mayor Adams emphasized.
However, the announcement comes on the heels of a discouraging national report card that revealed a decline in reading and math scores among 13-year-olds, reaching their lowest rates in decades. The Nation’s Report Card, released by the National Center for Education Statistics, indicated that math scores were at their lowest since 1990, while reading scores hit their lowest point since 2004. This downward trend has persisted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
According to the data, the average scores for students tested were 256 out of 500 in reading and 271 out of 500 in math. Comparatively, just three years prior, the scores were 260 in reading and 280 in math.
The New York Post published an article criticizing Mayor Adams for his proposed “mindful breathing” initiative and urging him to address what they considered a “real crisis” in the city’s public schools—chronic absenteeism. The report highlighted the escalating absenteeism rates since the pandemic, emphasizing that New York City’s numbers have consistently been worse than the national average since school closures due to COVID-19.
Furthermore, the article underscored the disproportionate impact of absenteeism on minority communities and its profound consequences on academic progress.
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8 Responses
This proposal is stupid. What do you expect?
When did ywn declare mayor Adams public enemy number 1?
Interesting the Post criticized the mayor on this matter.
They would benefit if the country is on a third grade level, since their Publishing is catered for third grade level.
There’s nothing wrong with mindful breathing, if only adult’s would do it too, they won’t do childish stuff while in a heated moment.
chronic absenteeism is the symptom, not the problem.
they’re too busy criticizing chassidishise and yeshiva schools to focus on the real problem – family decay
Mayor adams is not the smartest out there, but I’ll give him credit for his interesting initiative based on true facts. Our kids are working very hard in school plus the never ending homework. The stress a kid has today growing up is very high. The academic demands and the grades demanded from our kids are very high and tough. His point to take a break to relax the mind gets a lot of credit. Halevai our heimishe schools would do something about it. Our kids don’t have time to destress and then we winder why so many issues.
No! G-d forbid to actually teach any skills that can help children to relax and deal with life in general. Let’s just keep drugging them, after all the psychiatrist need to make a living.
if what they have been trying until now has been failing then maybe trying something new would be a good idea ? hey who wudda thunk!