Goldie Hawn, guest host

While she didn't mention the program by name, Goldie Hawn has established the Goldie Hawn Institute, "a vibrant center for the exploration,development and practice of sustainable mindfulness education for all children of the world."

Goldie has worked with a group of people to develop a curriculum to help kids turn their lives around. They have implemented the 12 week curriculum in 15 schools in British Columbia.

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GH: These kids who were the worst kids in the class literally stopped seeing the principle at lunch.

She goes on: The program in mindfulness is you learn to breathe, you learn to center, there are centering strategies, these are focus awareness. So when you teach them to sit, you teach them to breathe what happens is, which is interesting, this is absolutely not, this is not secular, this is something that has to do with science- it changes neuropathways to the brain. It thickens the prefrontal cortex and the prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that actually thinks- the executive part. So when a kid literally gets to watch their thoughts instead of be their thoughts then they can sit there and breathe and feel some wonderful sense of well-being. Ready the mind for learning; correct inter-personal relationships, monitor, self-monitor their emotions, their anger. All of this happens when you just get them seated down

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Hold on! Does she think if we just make kids sit down and breathe, all the troubles will just fall away! Wow! This won’t even cost money- deep breathing is a totally free activity. Maybe we should demand that in school across the U.S. require kids to sit and breathe before every class. Anything that might work would be worth a try.

Additionally, I was confused, or maybe she is confused, about this not being a secular program. I think it must be secular. Religion doesn’t seem to have anything to do with her curriculum. I don’t know if she understands the term secular or if she misspoke. Her muddled comments about this not being secular and being about science and impacting on the brain development were really disorganized.

One might think she would have a prepared shpiel to offer about this program.

The women went on:

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Elisabeth: And do you think this will kind of counter the world that we’re in now where kids are on medications earlier and earlier now in schools
GH: No question-I think kids are put on medication- do you know the kids at risk, the most kids at risk are the kids the children of affluence
Joy: Why is that?
GH: The only supposition, which is you can figure I don’t know the answer completely except that I would imagine that you’ve got two parents that are basically going to work. You have both of them that are stretching. They are not paying enough attention to the children. The focus is that I have enough money so I have somebody to take care of the kids so I don’t have to come home. And then the kids feel hopeless because they’re not going make the same kind of money- there’s a hopeless sense about them
Joy: But poor kids have parents who both have to work also
GH: But what’s interesting is they have chores so they have resiliency
Rosie: And you learn lessons through hardships.

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I have a different theory: Kids know when their parents have to work. They may not like it, but they understand it. Poor and middle class kids whose parents work don’t have to figure out why their parents aren’t with them. Those parents often don’t have a choice and most kids are smart enough to understand that.

Kids raised in affluence often have a totally different experience. Their parents no longer have to work- they choose to go to work instead of be with their kids. For those affluent families who have the luxury of not having both parents work, the kids are often left with a nanny. Some of these children spend almost all of their waking hours outside of school with a nanny while their parents may be off traveling, playing tennis or golf at some overly expensive country club or doing whatever else really wealthy people do to get out of the house.

If only these parents could begin to understand that every time they go on a two week vacation without their kids, they send a message to those kids about their relationship. Every time those parents choose to spend an entire weekend day golfing without their kids, they send a message to their kids about where their priorities lie. This doesn’t mean that parents can’t leave their children. It does mean that parents should at least consider spending less time away from their kids and more time without a nanny.

Kids want their parents to put them first. When kids realize they aren’t at the top of their parent’s list, their sense of importance is diminished.

No set of chores will help a wealthy kid feel valued by their parents.

They went on to discuss how great it was that Hawn and her family moved to Vancouver to help her son Wyatt play hockey. Vancouver is apparently wonderful- people there live an alternative lifestyle, they are normal, they’re not into the fake- it’s fabulous. These sorts of comments always interest me.

If Hawn had moved to International Falls, MN she would also find that people aren’t into all that Hollywood whatever it is. The same holds true in Grand Forks, ND and almost every other city on America. If people in Hollywood don’t like the phoniness of that culture, leave and commute to work. People do not have to move to Canada to find wonderful people in wonderful communities.