they have gone nuts in the UK too - 'Brain Gym'

[donsu]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/

Exercise the brain without this transparent nonsense

Nothing prepared me for the outpouring of jaw-dropping stupidity that vomited forth from teachers when I wrote about Brain Gym last week. To recap: Brain Gym is an incredibly popular technique, in at least hundreds of British state schools, promoted all over government websites, and with a scientific explanatory framework that is barkingly out to lunch.

They teach that there is no water in processed food. They teach that rubbing your ribcage will stimulate the carotid arteries beneath and increase blood to the brain and "activate the brain for an increased flow of electromagnetic energy". But let's not leave it with a recap. They promote strange physical origami exercises called "hook-ups" where you press your fingers against each other in odd patterns, because these "connect the electrical circuits in the body, containing and thus focusing both attention and disorganised energy", as they say in the Brain Gym teaching manual.

They teach a funny way of wiggling your ears with your fingers that "stimulates the reticular formation of the brain to tune out distracting, irrelevant sounds and tune into language". They teach that rocking your head back and forth will get more blood to your frontal lobes "for greater comprehension and rational thinking". This stuff is bonkers.

I could go on. In fact, I will, because so many teachers have written in to defend it. They teach that a special theatrical yawn will lead to "increased oxidation for efficient relaxed functioning". Oxidation is what causes rusting. It is not the same as oxygenation, which I suppose is what they're getting at, and even if they are talking about oxygenation, you don't need to do a funny yawn to get oxygen into your blood: like most other animals children have a perfectly adequate and utterly fascinating physiological system in place to regulate their blood oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, and I'm sure many children would rather be taught about that, and indeed about the role of electricity in the body, or any of the other things Brain Gym confusedly jumbles up, than this transparent pseudoscientific nonsense.
-snip-
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does two and two still make four?

please someone tell me that it's just america and the UK that has gone nuts!

are the rest of you countries out there still sane?

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. I tried this a couple years ago

I had read the books. A teacher friend of mine had moved to England and wrote me about it. I thought it sounded crazy but decided not to judge its effectiveness without doing my own action research.

After 6 weeks of starting every day with the exercises, I saw no impact other than lost instructional time. The gym teacher also enjoyed watching us exercise.

But yeah, I thought it was crap.

[EST]

2. "Barkingly out to lunch"--

An apt description of the whole neocorn, fundie religious monstrosity going on all around us that I shall remember forever...

I am still in a bit of shock and not totally accepting of the new reality, although it is becoming more familiar. From time to time I still am possessed by a feeling that I shall wake up soon and this dreadful simulation will be over.
Seems we have a bit more subjective evidence for the infinite multiple worlds hypothesis.

[AngryAmish]

3. I read this the other day

People swear by chiropractors, etc. People are prone to listening to well-meaning nonsense.

[donsu]

5. this is in over 100 PUBLIC schools

nt

[ocd liberal]

4. oh!

My son is in Kindergarten in Monterey, CA. I was just given a "Brain Gym" handout as my son spends about 45 minutes a week with an occupational therapit as a "buddy" with another kid who actually has a diagnosis qualifying him for occupational therapy. (My son is just smaller than most other Kindergartners, but he reads at a 2nd grade level.)h My son has no diagnosis for anything, but the teacher says he has trouble focusing and staying on task. (Can you say, "sounds like a regular little boy to me!") I sat in on one of the sessions to try to understand it, seems like it's basically an attempt to get the left and right side of the brain to work together. After seeing the session, I feel the exercises could easily be replicated at home by me and my son doing Tae-Bo together or playing handclapping games. It seems harmless enough, but I certainly haven't seen all the stuff you have presented above!

I hate to say this, but any extra help my kid gets (whether he REALLY needs it or not) from the public school system that I don't have to pay for, I truly appreciate. They owe me, as far as I am concerned!