![]() When Kuminga saved the day, it was easy to scorn Kerr for not playing him in the first half. On any given game, a player or four are likely to play fewer minutes than they should, and hindsight analysis will always make it easy to find someone to blame. But as it pertains to the minutes issue, Kerr is, perhaps, being unfairly maligned. And while I don’t necessarily want to defend Kerr right now - the team has a losing record, a jarring lack of composure, and has been the definition of average on both ends of the court, and the coaching staff absolutely deserves blame for that. It should come as no surprise that Kerr has gotten a lot of flack. Steve Kerr himself - on the same night that he removed Kuminga from the rotation, only to have the third-year forward bail the Dubs out when inserted out of desperation - admitted that the Dubs might move to a fluid starting rotation, changing the opening look depending on the opponent and how each player has been faring. It’s a topic that’s been brewing all season, as veteran All-Stars Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins have struggled, while youngsters like Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga, and Brandin Podziemski have shown prolonged glimpses of excellence. Editor’s note: The following is a critique of a social and emotional learning program called MindUP that I have covered in other blogs (see list below) and in a feature in Scientific American Mind (visit “ Schools Add Workouts for Attention, Grit and Emotional Control”).There’s been no hotter topic with the Golden State Warriors lately than the allocation of minutes. Please also read a response to this critique, posted separately, from MindUP’s Rebecca Calos. I hope this debate provides food for thought about how to best encourage healthy social and emotional development in our children. “Self-regulation” is the latest buzz word in education, and the MindUP curriculum for schools, conceived by actor Goldie Hawn, capitalizes on it. MindUP is marketed to teachers as a means of helping children to develop self-regulation, which is another way of saying “self-control.” The program’s “core practice” involves teaching children focused breathing techniques while they also practice non-judgmental awareness of their thoughts, which is supposed to help them calm down and be less anxious. Hawn’s curriculum is also supposed to make children feel happier and more optimistic. This is all purported to help them to be better able to learn. The truth is that MindUP can interfere with a child’s innate self-regulator, the conscience, impeding his moral development and thus his ability to learn. Rather than help him develop self-control, it trains him to manipulate his mind and manipulate others to get pleasurable feelings for himself. The “core practice” taught in MindUP is akin to certain forms of Buddhist-style mindfulness meditation including Anapanasati and Samadhi. In MindUP, the teacher strikes a Zenergy chime, and students are generally asked to sit cross legged, palms up and eyes closed. ![]() They are to direct their attention to the sound of the chime and focus intently on their breathing. The chime can gradually evoke a conditioned response in the children, as similar tools do in Buddhist monks. Teachers are encouraged to use this core practice several times a day. ![]() Mindfulness meditation such as this can be a way of bringing the mind into an altered state of consciousness. Many people who practice meditation have encountered unexpected negative side effects such as a sensation of being disconnected from one’s body or from reality, among other frightening reactions. Teachers of MindUP are exposing children to these potential dangers.
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