This student from the Maharishi School, who is making a presentation at a regional science fair, deeply understands through firsthand experience the scientific method, the process of research, and the joy of discovery.

The achievements of Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Fairfield, Iowa, USA
by Global Good News staff writer
21 October 2008

Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment was founded in Fairfield in 1974 and has grown to be recognized around the world as the leading school in Consciousness-Based Education.  

First, Dr Deans spoke about a standardized test in Iowa— the Iowa Test of Basic Skill—and in the upper grades, the Iowa Tests of Educational Development. Maharishi High School scored in the 99th percentile both in America and in Iowa on this standardized test. 'What was very interesting,' said Dr Deans, 'was that they have a score called the ''Iowa grade equivalent'', which measures what level a particular grade is performing at compared to the same grades at other schools.  

'And our ninth grade, for example, scored at the level known as ''13 plus'', which means they are performing at the level of first year university students—just in 9th grade. When I looked at the performance of other private schools and state schools in Iowa, we definitely had the very best academic excellence at Maharishi School.'  

This year, one of the Maharishi School students won the State Science and Technology Fair Best Category for Engineering, and another student won the Best Category for Biochemistry. They were awarded Intel scholarships to go and attend the International Science and Engineering Fair.  

In photography, a Maharishi School student won first place in the Association of Texas Photography Instructors Photography Competition. This is a national competition with thousands of entries from all over the world.  

Another student won first place in the Texas A&M University Photography Shoot-out, another national competition, again with thousands of entries from all over the world.  

'It was also very interesting this year that one of our students won the Critics' Choice Award at the Iowa High School All-State Speech Competition, this time in the mime category,' said Dr Deans.  

'Again, it's very significant, I think that when you look at the history of this competition, which has been going now for about 40 years, our school has won more of the top awards than any other school in the history of the state. This just shows their integration in being able to do science, their integration in able to do arts, and also their creativity,' Dr Deans said. 

In this year's Destination Imagination Competition, two teams from Maharishi School won the State Championship, which, Dr Deans said, shows that this integration of brain functioning, measured by Dr Fred Travis in his laboratory at Maharishi University of Management, expresses itself as integrated behaviour  and the ability to know anything, do anything, and accomplish anything.  

Dr Deans said that there is also a great tradition in tennis at Maharishi School, which has reached the final four in the state in the team competition in 11 of the last 20 years, which we did again this year. Also the Maharishi School tennis coach, Mr Lawrence Eyre, was not only voted Iowa High School Coach of the Year, but the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Midwest Coach of the Year, for the five states including Iowa and surrounding Iowa. 

Dr Deans said, 'It's really been very gratifying that we're getting more and more students coming to Maharishi School and Maharishi University of Management from all over the world,' Dr Deans continued. 'We've just had a student at Maharishi School arrive from Argentina; we have another student arriving from Korea very soon.  

'A new parent came up to me the other day and she really didn't know anything about our school. She had heard a little and had decided she wanted a school with a holistic education, so she moved her family to Fairfield from the east coast of the United States.

'The very first week she was here, she came up to me and said, 'You know, on Saturday morning, my daughter woke up and said, "Is it a school day today?" Her mother said, "No", and she was very, very disappointed. This is the sort of reaction that the students have when they come from another school system and they enter into Consciousness-Based Education.' 

When asked further about the ninth grade students' performance, Dr Deans explained that students in 9th grade are fourteen years old, and they graduate from 9th at fifteen years old. They are about four to five years ahead of the national average—ahead of the students at Iowa Universities.

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