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Students are deciding: 'Don't drop out! drop in—into my Self!' Now a new solution is dissolving the restlessness of high school students and replacing the desire to drop out with focused, enjoyable study and achievement. Now Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation Technique and Consciousness-Based Education are boosting school enthusiasm, academic achievement, and most important, inner happiness. Looking at what students who dropped out of high school say, it becomes apparent that the majority were not happy while in school and they are not any happier after dropping out. Leaving school clearly was not the solution. A better cure for the school blues is to increase inner happiness, enjoyment, and receptivity to school; increase intelligence and creativity. When a student unfolds his or her full inner potential, school no longer is boring, and fear of failure is no longer a problem. According to a survey of high school dropouts*, most students who drop out of high school say they do so because: School was boring. Interestingly, 74 % of these students later regret dropping out. They say that if they could do it over, they would stay in school. They realize finishing high school is necessary for success. Dropping out is an unfulfilling way to deal with lack of interest or failure in school. Fortunately, there is another better solution: make school more interesting and improve the student's own receptivity and enthusiasm for his or her classes. Don't drop out; instead drop in. In other words, go inside and fathom the ocean of unbounded bliss, creativity, and intelligence within. Allow your attention to go inside and increase inner happiness, intelligence, and energy, through the Transcendental Meditation Technique. There is an old saying, 'the world is as you are.' When students increase their mental potential, inner contentment, and receptivity to school, they no longer want to drop out. They begin to enjoy school and do well. Let's look more closely at how Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation Technique makes school more interesting. First and foremost, it improves the wakefulness of the student. It has been verified by scientific research that during Transcendental Meditation, students gain a state of deep rest and inner peace—deeper than deep sleep. Afterwards, they feel more awake and can appreciate what the teacher is teaching. Students feel more connected to school because they are more awake to participate in class discussions and in learning. In other words, Transcendental Meditation expands the student's mental potential, his consciousness, or wakefulness. Increased alertness brings increased receptivity. Suddenly what the teacher is saying is interesting. Students also begin to feel connected to the subjects they are learning because, during Transcendental Meditation, they are actually fathoming, within their Self, the unified basis of all the disciplines of modern education—the Unified Field of Consciousness. If students also are given a class on the Science of Creative Intelligence or Maharishi's Vedic Science, they begin to understand more clearly the deep connection between all things and all knowledge in their own Self, the Self of all beings. Even without this intellectual knowledge, students who practise Transcendental Meditation naturally begin to feel at home with their school subjects and with their teachers and fellow students. Unity and harmony naturally grow and differences and discord fall away. Tension in the school environment dissolves and a peaceful, orderly atmosphere for learning begins to emerge, very spontaneously. Students who practise Transcendental Meditation also have increased self-confidence and reduced anxiety and stress. If a situation at home or with friends is causing stress and inability to focus, practising Transcendental Meditation dissolves the stress. Students then can focus on their lessons. If there are health problems, causing absenteeism, the deep rest which Transcendental Meditation brings, helps restore good health. Brain wave changes during the practice of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation Technique are of great interest. Researchers find that only during the practice of Transcendental Meditation and an advanced programme, the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi programme, including Yogic Flying, is the entire brain enlivened. This total brain functioning is unique to Transcendental Meditation. Total brain functioning allows the student to use his full mental potential. Students who practise the Transcendental Meditation Technique are connecting every day, twice a day, to a field of inner happiness and freedom. When they find freedom and bliss inside, they do not need to look for it outside. Use of drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes falls away. Students enjoy expanded awareness along with increased ability to focus attention. They feel better from within and they perform better naturally at school, sports, and work. A number of inner city schools and problem-schools around the world have now introduced Transcendental Meditation into their schools with excellent results. These include schools in inner city Washington DC and Detroit, USA, and in Colombia, SA (see articles in archives at Global Good News). The practice of the Transcendental Meditation Technique is showing that every student has the potential of inner genius within. It is only necessary to culture the right training and habit to look inside rather than outside for solutions. Useful links: • Association for Stress Free Schools: www.stressfreeschools.org • David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace:
*(March 2006 report by Civic Enterprises in association with Peter D. Hart Research Associates for the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, entitled, The Silent Epidemic, written by John M. Bridgeland, John J. Dilulio, Jr., and Karen Burke Morison, available at: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/UnitedStates/Education/) © Copyright 2008 Global Good News®
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