Congressman Appropriates 1 Million Taxpayer Dollars To Teach Children His Raisin Meditation Techniques

Even though teachers are facing layoffs in his district, one U.S. Congressman still thought it was a worthwhile pursuit to secure an almost $1 million earmark, using your tax dollars, to promote his own new-age book - which teaches, among other things, how to meditate by staring at a raisin - to Ohio's elementary and middle school students.

According to Breitbart.com, shortly after it became known that he was seriously exploring a run for Governor, Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) introduced voters to his new age book, A Mindful Nation - which discusses his affinity for the concept of“mindfulness” and it’s applications to day to day life - in a most unusual way.

A Cleveland Plain Dealer write-up goes into much more detail, but the concept of gazing at a raisin hails from one of the primary meditative activities mentioned at the beginning of Ryan's book. As Ryan explains it, a student gazes at a raisin and presses it to his or her mouth without ingesting it. The student is then asked to press the raisin to listen to its sound. Once the student actually consumes the raisin, He or she should suddenly reach a heightened awareness of the many sensory impulses it generates. Evidently recognition, understanding and awareness are the concepts to be derived from the exercise. Spending 1 million dollars to teach students to meditate on raisin awareness doesn't seem to be a worthwhile pursuit in any context. Moreover, the fact that the book was written by the member of Congress who helped secure the federal funds to promote it in the public schools approaches insanity, even by Washington standards. But the plot thickens. According to an article recently published in The Youngstown Vindicator, teachers in Ryan's district were recently advised to begin searching for new employment right away, due to the fact most will end up laid off over the summer. Are we to understand that Ryan, instead of discovering ways for Youngstown to economize, devoted his efforts to obtaining a $982,000 government earmark for educating Ohio's youth on his favored model of thinking? Breitbart.com clearly implies the answer is yes when it comes to Ryan's role in securing a $982,000 grant in 2009, intended for primary schools in Youngstown and Warren, to instruct students on his very own principles of "social and emotional learning." Ryan defends seeking the grant by pointing out that students who employ mindfulness methods are able to focus, reduce potential distractions, and better deal with their inner thoughts; thereby reducing classroom disturbances and enabling students to concentrate. Perhaps Ryan is right. Perhaps his new age techniques are good for students... then again, maybe it's all just a load of baloney. But it doesn't really matter. In the face of runaway federal spending, Ryan's self-promoting dicta is just one small example of the insanity that is crippling Washington.