Culture Legos, Cocoa, and Coloring Books for Georgetown Students - At the McCourt School of Public Policy, officials are offering ‘mindfulness’ options to cope with the election. The only thing missing is a blankie.

On Wednesday, the day after the election, most of us are going to roll out of bed, have our breakfast, and get on with our day—no matter which presidential candidate wins. But students at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy—where diplomats and policymakers are molded—have another option: They can play with Legos. Seriously.

In an email to McCourt students, Jaclyn Clevenger, the school’s director of student engagement, introduced the school’s post-election “Self-Care Suite.”

“In recognition of these stressful times,” she wrote, “all McCourt community members are welcome to gather. . . in the 3rd floor Commons to take a much needed break, joining us for mindfulness activities and snacks throughout the day.”

Here’s the agenda (and no, you can’t make this up):

10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.: Tea, Cocoa, and Self-Care
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.: Legos Station
12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.: Healthy Treats and Healthy Habits
1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.: Coloring and Mindfulness Exercises
2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.: Milk and Cookies
4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.: Legos and Coloring
5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.: Snacks and Self-Guided Meditation

I wanted to ask Clevenger why college and graduate students needed milk and cookies to recover from their stress—and how being coddled in college might someday affect American diplomacy—but she didn’t respond to my calls or emails.

Of course, Georgetown is hardly the only school fearful that their students will be traumatized after the election. At Missouri State University, the counseling center has set up a post-election “self-care no phone zone space” with calm jars, coloring pages, and sensory fidgets.

And just last week, The New York Times reported that Fieldston, the elite New York City private school, was making attendance the day after Election Day optional for “students who feel too emotionally distressed.” Fieldston has also eliminated all homework requirements that day, and is even providing psychologists for “Election Day Support.”

Jerry Seinfeld told the Times that his family found such decisions so aggravating that it caused his youngest son to withdraw from Fieldston and switch to a different school in the eighth grade. “What kind of lives have these people led that makes them think that this is the right way to handle young people?” he said. “To encourage them to buckle. This is the lesson they are providing, for ungodly sums of money.”

I couldn’t agree more.

https://www.thefp.com/p/georgetown-election-safe-space-trump-kamala (Archive)

 

[Wallace]

Withdrawing into an infantile dissociative fantasy isn't mindfulness. It's the opposite. Mindfulness means being aware of your emotions, being present with them here and now, and accepting them.

We should be very, very scared. The US is so utterly fucked in 20 years or so when these fucks get into their nice bureaucrat jobs. We need total beltway death.

Nah, they're going to work for The Atlantic and a bunch of NGOs and produce nothing of value in exchange for sucking up Dem money. It's the political equivalent of welfare.

 

[the printer is outo fink]

Withdrawing into an infantile dissociative fantasy isn't mindfulness. It's the opposite. Mindfulness means being aware of your emotions, being present with them here and now, and accepting them.

I've always thought that proper mindfulness was doing something that truly absorbs your mind, allowing it to rest from your stresses. Types of crafting like crochet, where you have to keep constant count as you work, or plastering a wall, as you have to be careful and precise with your movement.