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. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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