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Improved test scores, lower absenteeism, higher graduation rate: Winnebago school benefits from Transcendental Meditation
by Global Good News staff writer

Global Good News    Translate This Article
14 October 2009

For three years students at the Winnebago school in Nebraska, USA have been practising the Transcendental Meditation Programme. The school has found remarkable results with these students, including reduced absenteeism, improved test scores, and a higher graduation rate.

John Boncheff, PhD, a Teacher of the Transcendental Meditation Programme for over 37 years, discussed the programme at a press conference* hosted by Ho-Chunk elders at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, USA.**

Dr Boncheff explained that the children practise Transcendental Meditation for about 15 minutes twice a day. It is not a religion and requires no change in lifestyle, he emphasized. It is just a simple technique which allows the mind to experience deep silence and peace while the body gains deep rest.

Extensive scientific research on Transcendental Meditation shows that the brain functions more holistically and effectively; academic performance improves; stress, anxiety, and tension dissolve; and negative behavior automatically changes for the better.

Of the nearly 300 students who've learned the Transcendental Meditation Programme at the Winnebago school, the initial group to begin the technique were students that the teachers felt most needed it—those who were absent most often, and had lower test scores and more disciplinary problems. Now the meditating group has 25% less absenteeism, Dr Boncheff said.

The meditating group—which was scoring well below average on a Nebraska standardized mathematics test—is now scoring above average on this test. The same is true for reading.

Graduation rates have also significantly risen, compared with other schools in the area of similar demographics.

This technology of consciousness has been proven throughout the world for decades, and it has now been validated again on three different Indian reservations, Dr Boncheff concluded. 'We're very excited and very proud of what's been going on in the Winnebago school, under the direction of the Ho-Chunk elders.'

* A replay of the press conference was featured on the 1 October 2009 Maharishi Global Family Chat, broadcast daily via Internet webcast on the Maharishi Channel, Channel 3. Podcasts of the daily Global Family Chat (audio track) are also now available for automatic download, via an RSS feed.

** at the start of a historic three-day symposium presenting solutions to the pressing problems confronting American Indians and native peoples around the globe

Replays of the press conference and first evening session of the symposium are also available at AmericanIndianSustainableConference.org.

© Copyright 2009 Global Good News®

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