Transcendental Meditation in education
In 1977 courses in Transcendental Meditation and the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) were legally prohibited from New Jersey (USA) public high schools on religious grounds by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
[28][33] In 1979, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the 1977 decision of the US District Court of New Jersey that a course in Transcendental Meditation and the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) was religious activity within the meaning of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and that the government funded teaching of SCI/TM in the New Jersey public high schools was prohibited.
[4] According to religious scholar Cynthia Ann Humes the Malnak decision "dismantled" the TM program's use of government funding to incorporate Transcendental Meditation into public schools.
[38] The Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse] in Detroit began using the program for students in the fifth through eighth grade in 1996 and was featured on the Today Show in 2003.
The program was part of a three-month pilot study conducted by William R. Stixrud, a clinical neuropsychologist and health advisor for the TM's Committee for Stress-Free Schools.
[41][44][45] The New York Times reported in 2005 that American University, in Washington D.C., was set to begin offering Transcendental Meditation classes as part of a research project to measure its potential effect on "grades, IQ's and mental health".
[50] According to the DLF web site, the TM program was introduced to the Arts and Technology Academy at Weaver High School in Hartford CT in 2006.
[20][52] Conferences sponsored by the New England Committee for Stress-Free Schools were held in Providence, Rhode Island; Fairfield, Connecticut; and Boston, Massachusetts in 2005.
[57][58] According to the DLF, it has funded school programs in New York City, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Vietnam, Nepal, Northern Ireland, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Israel.
[40][59] In 2006, the Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, California canceled plans for Transcendental Meditation classes due to concerns of parents that it would be promoting religion.
[65][66] As of 2008, the David Lynch Foundation had funded TM instruction for "more than 2,000 students, teachers and parents" at "21 U.S. schools and universities", in addition to substantially higher numbers of instruction at schools outside the U.S.[20] Programs have been conducted in Washington D.C., Hartford CT, San Francisco CA, Detroit MI, Steamboat Springs CO, Tucson AZ, Los Angeles CA and Chicago IL.
[69][70] In 2011 music mogul Russell Simmons announced plans to provide financial support to the David Lynch Foundation to teach TM at Hillhouse High School in New Haven, Connecticut.
[76] The university is not-for-profit,[77] is accredited through the Ph.D. level by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and offers a Consciousness-Based Education approach that includes the practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique.
[81] According to its website, the school was originally chartered in New York in 1996, then set up its campus in North Carolina in 1998, before finally moving to Iowa in 2001 where it received state accreditation in 2003.
[84] In 2007 the GCWP announced a plan to build a Maharishi Central University campus at "the geographical center of the Lower 48 states" in Kansas.
[87] In 2009 an all boys, boarding school, called the Maharishi Academy of Total Knowledge, was founded in Antrim, New Hampshire with "just a handful of students".
[88] University of South Carolina sociologist Barry Markovsky described the TM technique in schools as "stealth religion",[89] and Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says Transcendental Meditation is rooted in Hinduism and crosses the same constitutional line as in the Malnak case and decision of 1979.
"[22] According to a 2008 Newsweek article, there is a "growing movement to bring Transcendental Meditation... into more U.S. schools as a stress-buster for America's overwhelmed kids".
[58] At the same time, critics say that Transcendental Meditation is a revised form of Eastern, religious philosophy, and they oppose its use in public schools.
[20] Some parents and critics view it as an overstepping of boundaries that could lead to "lifelong personal and financial servitude to a corporation run by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi".
[21] At the same time, many parents feel the meditation has created "profound results" for their children, and that they "hardly view TM as exclusively, or even overtly, religious," and advocates describe it is a physiological technique that calms the mind, improves grades and attention span, while reducing disruptive behavior.
[20] A 2011 research review said their "findings provide good support for the use of TM to enhance several forms of information processing in students".
Notable alumni include Bevan Morris, Ashley Deans, Mike Tompkins, and a few sources say John Gray was a MERU graduate.
[105][106] Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools include 148 branches in 118 cities with a total of 90,000 to 100,000 students and 5,500 teaching and support staff.
[17][119] It aims at creating economically self-sufficient institutions that provide large scale, affordable education for students from Grades 11 through the master's degree level.
[121] Its goal is to provide disadvantaged students with an "accelerated holistic education" that includes employment at "an in-house call centre" and other university positions during their course of study.
