Brain Gym

Ben Goldacre criticises Britain’s schools for peddling pseudoscience. No, not Intelligent Design: Brain Gym.

While all the proper grown up public intellectuals like Rod Liddle were getting a bee in their bonnet about Creationism being taught in a handful of British schools, I’ve accidentally stumbled upon a vast empire of pseudoscience being peddled in hundreds of everyday state schools up and down the country.

I’ll lower you in gently. It’s called Brain Gym, and it’s a string of very complicated exercises for kids to do which “enhance the experience of whole brain learning”. Firstly, they’re very keen on water. “Drink a glass of water before Brain Gym activities. As it is a major component of blood, water is vital for transporting oxygen to the brain.” Heaven forbid that your blood should dry out.

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What’s really worrying is the number of commenters – including education professionals – who defend Brain Gym by arguing that having the kids engage in some exercise between desk-bound sessions does help keep them alert. Which is fine and very likely true, but doesn’t address Goldacre’s point: his objection is to the “scientific” jargon used to justify the practice.

It’s rather worrying that some people involved in educating children were apparently lacking the reading comprehension skills required to understand that basic point.