Why do public elementary schools in the UK and the US teach 'mindfulness'?

The mindfulness craze in the West is well known.
According to the Harvard Business Review published in 2015, the mindfulness industry in the United States has already surpassed $4 billion (KRW 4.76 trillion) and has been growing rapidly every year since.
Given the current situation, there are warnings about the commercialization of meditation.


In the early days, hospitals were the largest base for the spread of mindfulness in the West.
Strengthening immune function.
As mindfulness has proven to be effective in reducing pain and other issues, the use of mindfulness as an adjunct to medical care has begun to increase.
The growth in the field of psychotherapy is even more remarkable. A field called Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy (MBSR) has now become a mainstream practice.
There are even statistics showing that mindfulness currently accounts for approximately 60% of psychological treatments in the United States.


In addition to these circumstances, the expansion into various fields, not just medicine, has been noteworthy over the past decade.
Major companies like Google and Apple have adopted mindfulness to improve not only the psychological well-being of their employees but also sales, and professional sports teams and the military are increasingly adopting mindfulness based on their individual needs.


But the place where it spread most widely and effectively was ‘school.’

In mid-2010, a bill passed by Parliament in the UK mandating the introduction of mindfulness education in public schools, and it was recently reported that 4,500 teachers were being prepared to provide 'one-on-one intensive mindfulness' to one million children over the next five years.
The United States is no different.
Although there are differences from state to state, a growing number of public schools are already implementing mindfulness meditation programs.
Introducing mindfulness meditation for children and adolescents has already become a national initiative.


So why is mindfulness meditation so popular in schools?
There are numerous studies, but they generally agree that mindfulness meditation not only improves children's concentration, but is also very effective in treating children's 'mental illnesses' such as anger management disorder and ADHD, which are emerging as recent problems.
Recently, a flood of papers has been published claiming that it is also remarkably effective in fostering compassion and a sense of community.