Sitting still is important for children. Restricting movement builds will power through strengthening the pre-frontal cortex.
That doesn't mean there shouldn't be regular activity or exercise, just that sitting still is very important.
That doesn't mean there shouldn't be regular activity or exercise, just that sitting still is very important.
I would really love to see reference for that, no sarcasm
The prefrontal cortex has been linked extensively to executive functions and inhibition of motor pathways. For example inhibiting a movement in progress. Children with less developed PFCs, mainly those with ADHD have huge problems sitting still and concentrating. Even beyond ADHD, PFC development is associated with academic performance, willpower and not being aggressive.
In Zen Buddhism, sitting still, "just sitting" is the primary means of training the practitioner's brain.
And believe me, meditation often feels coercive, even if nobody on the "outside" is forcing me. I'm forcing myself. Which is will power on a slightly larger scale than the one to restrict movement.
Disclaimer: I hated sitting still in class. At least in elementary, in the Gymnasium (~high school) teachers occasionally complained that I was too passive.
> Sitting still is bad for the back
OK. More information on sitting still, it isn't surprising that any action has both benefits and drawbacks - I couldn't find much quantitative information for any more meaningful comparisons.
> How is doing something that you don't want to do strengthening your will power
willpower: control exerted to do something or restrain impulses [2]
If willpower benefits from practice (which I believe it does) then it would be through using willpower to retrain the impulses to not sit still.
> teachers occasionally complained that I was too passive.
Passivity is quite distinct from willpower, likely they were referring to a lack of charisma or independence.
In his school, the classroom is a kind of free style and although he has assigned desk he can choose other places to work on his task, which seems to help him a lot. (It's Montessori, so most of the time each kid works independently according to his/her own study plan.)
Managing ADHD seems to be (from my non-medical non-professional perspective) all about training and using that capacity to focus.
Even for ADHD children, sitting still trains the brain, it's just that they can't stand it for very long, and there seems to be no benefit in forcing them much beyond what they feel comfortable with.
In the ADHD case, it seems about the way of processing stimuli. They (or at least my kid) need a sort of synchronization stimulus (or, outside distrubance, in the way that disturbance suppresses the divergence of hypersensitive systems) to keep his mind on rail. If no such stream of stimuli is provided, he must create one by his own. I try to make him find and build his own toolset to work with. (One of the activities, for example, is tapping along metronome while doing other tasks.)
[Edit] I see your comment in other thread that you refer to Zen meditation. I've learned meditation and I agree on its benefits, but it can't be applied to the current discussion of school setting---"sitting still listening lectures" and "sitting still meditating" are very different activities. The latter would certainly develop the ability of the former, but I'm dubious about just forcing the former.
I don't think so.
And maybe, through developing better ways to develop a strong PFC, which is crucial to a non-violent society. I do believe that compulsory schooling, and increasing rates of schooling, lowered the rates of violence somewhat. I don't have proof for that idea, unfortunately, but it is plausible just from the idea that school builds discipline or strengthens the attention network in the brain, and that this kind of strengthening has been linked to better self control and less aggression.
Got some source for that one? Any scholarly publications or anything?