Global Good News: Excellence in Action

Dr Ashley Deans, long-time principal of Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Fairfield, Iowa, USA, says that 'his school works because it adds the missing element to education.' That missing element is what he calls 'knowledge of the knower'.

Dr Deans explains: 'Education today is fact based—the primary emphasis is on how much information we can cram into a child's head in how short a time, with much less emphasis on how we deliver the knowledge. And when we do consider knowledge delivery, we look only to the student–teacher ratio, the number of computers, the up-to-date textbooks, etc. These are all important factors, of course, but zero emphasis is placed on the 'knower'—the student who is doing the learning.'

Consciousness-Based Education—making education complete
He goes on to explain the importance of the knower by using an analogy. 'If I have ten gallons of information I need to pour into a child's head during a class period, and he or she is stressed or tired or depressed and only able to absorb one quart of information, then only one quart is going to get in—no matter how hard I try. The container of knowledge—the student's mind—has reached its limit. So for education to be successful, we need to expand the container of knowledge.'

The school does this by utilizing Consciousness-Based Education, whose cornerstone is the practice of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation Technique. 'Dr Deans says when students start each school day with Transcendental Meditation, then their ability to absorb knowledge expands, and they are alert and eager to learn.'

That the education of the Maharishi School does just that is verified by the words of eleventh grader, Wes, a meditator of seven years. Wes says: 'I'm in a class of kids who all practise Transcendental Meditation, and they're always raising their hands and participating in class—we just like to learn. I've talked to a lot of friends in other schools, and when I tell them I actually like school they look at me like I'm crazy. My parents tell me how they don't remember anything they learnt in high school. I hope that with Transcendental Meditation my generation can look back at their student years and really feel like they actually got something out of it.'

The purpose of education, Dr Deans believes, extends beyond its ability to 'prepare a child for a job.' It must also develop the student's full potential. The principal elaborates, 'Education cannot just be employment based. It has to be consciousness based, enlightenment based. The problems we confront in society today are human problems, caused in large part by the under-utilization of our most precious resource, which is our human resource. Hundreds of scientific studies on Transcendental Meditation and more than 30 years of classroom experience should be enough to convince anyone that Consciousness-Based Education can make education complete and can help transform our problem-ridden society into one that is healthy, harmonious, and productive.'

Senior, Nelina, a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation for 10 years, tells her experience. 'TM is chilling out in the best way possible. It is easy, simple, and the results are endless. My nerves relax, my body calms down, and my stress dissolves. This is not to say I'm not faced with pressures every single day—I am a senior in high school, and sometimes it can seem like the end of the world with parents, school, college plans, friends, homework, sports. TM doesn't make problems disappear—it just makes me stronger and gives me the ability to solve them.'

Wes also relates the 'life benefits' of Transcendental Meditation. 'I've seen how quickly TM can affect someone else's life. Recently a friend from another high school learnt the technique. The next day I saw him he was bright, happy, and calm, as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. It is inspiring to see how a few simple minutes can have such a powerful, positive effect in someone's life.'

The Maharishi School's record of excellence
Dr Deans has documented the achievements of Maharishi School in a book entitiled, A Record of Excellence. He chronicles just what happens when everyone—students, teachers, and staff—meditates. And for a school with no entrance exams and an open enrolment, the successes of the students are remarkable—but also typical, Dr Deans hastens to add, of other Consciousness-Based schools in the US and around the world. Just a few of the achievements which he presents in his book are:

    * Over 95% of Maharishi School graduates are accepted at 4-year colleges and universities.
   * During the past five years, Maharishi School has achieved ten times the national average for National Merit Scholar Finalists, and grades 9-12 have consistently scored in the top one per cent in the nation—and in Iowa—on the Iowa Tests of Educational Development.
   * Students have won the State Science Fair 11 times, placed first in the American High School Math Exam four years in a row, and won more top awards at the Iowa High School Large Group Speech Competition than any other school in the state. The boys' tennis team has become a legend, winning 17 state tennis titles since the programme began 15 years ago, more than any other school in Iowa. And students participating in Odyssey of the Mind and Destination Imagination competitions have more top-ten finishes at world finals than any other school in the world.

These achievements have been recognized by educators, both in Iowa and nationally. 'Patrick Bassett, President of the National Association of Independent Schools in Washington, DC, describes Maharishi School as 'a world-renowned independent school of the highest caliber academically.' And Jill Olsen-Virlee, the Iowa Teacher of the Year, expresses her observation that Maharishi School cultures more than academic skills. She calls the school 'truly an inspiration—the inner peace, the concern for one another, the respect and thirst for wisdom, and a holistic approach to children are awesome'.

Editor's note: The content and quotations used in this article are from the Abramson Family foundation web site, www.abramsonfamilyfountation.net, and have been used with permission from the Abramson Family Foundation. The Abramson Family Foundation provides funding for research on Transcendental Meditation and makes scholarships available for students to learn the technique.

"The potential of every student is infinite. The time of student life should serve to unfold that infinite potential so that every individual becomes a vibrant centre of Total Knowledge."—Maharishi