The people pushing this practice and teaching it in schools are clearly not qualified to do so. The terms "meditation" and "mindfulness" are too vague and tied

The people pushing this practice and teaching it in schools are clearly not qualified to do so. The terms "meditation" and "mindfulness" are too vague and tied to pop-psychology / spiritual overtones to be useful. These practices are one thing, concentration practice. That's it. It's not about feelings or anxiety or any of the crap that seems to be peddled along side this practice. You sit, focus on something that's always there (the breath) and then try to maintain that focus/awareness in the face of constant distractors. Concentration practice strengthens concentration. You may or may not employ that concentration, you may or may not use it to be aware of distractors in daily life, you may or may not be able to use that awareness to avoid fixating on stressful thoughts. That's all secondary. If you do arm curls you will strengthen your biceps which are useful in many motions, but don't pretend that arm curls are "defense practice" or "box lifting practice." Don't confuse the potential applications with the specific effect of the practice. Concentration practice builds the circuits that allow for broad inhibition of activity throughout the brain mediated by the prefrontal cortex. Concentration practice is hugely valuable IMO and, for me, can take what would be a stressful unproductive day and make it productive and stable. I fully support having concentration practice as part of a curriculum but it sounds like the way it's being taught is harmful.