Thinking about 'mindfulness'

"Mindfulness" is all the rage on college campuses, writes Christopher L. Schilling on the Martin Center blog. Moving "beyond weekend retreats and self-help courses," mindfulness programs have emerged as an academic field that "encourages students to calm what ought to be active minds and to think as little as possible."

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Lesley University offers both an M.A. and a graduate certificate in mindfulness studies, he writes. Atlantic University markets an M.A. in mindfulness.

At Brown's School of Public Health, students can earn a master's in public health specializing in mindfulness or a certificate in mindfulness-based stress-reduction teacher training. Yet, across campus from the Mindfulness Center, Brown's clinical and affective neuroscience laboratory has researched the adverse effects of mindfulness meditation, which include loss of emotion, motivation or joy.

Some universities claim their courses are rooted in Buddhist philosophy, offering a "thin, romanticized" version of Buddhism "as an academic veneer for spa treatments," writes Schilling.

Universities in the U.K. and Australia also offer mindfulness master's degree, he writes. At the University of the West of Scotland, students can earn a master of science in mindfulness and compassion.

Mindfulness practice "can make students calmer but also less inclined to think hard, plan ahead, or engage in demanding work," writes Schilling, citing a study.

Universal mental health screenings in school are a bad idea, argues Carolyn Gorman in a Manhattan Institute brief. Screening all students do not improve students' mental health or academic outcomes, she writes. Instead, they produce "overwhelmingly high rates of false positives."

Questionnaires about students' emotions and behaviors typically identify a few students who are obviously troubled -- and who need treatment schools can't provide -- and lots of students with minor anxieties who don't require treatment.