Lasting Solution to School Violence Through Consciousness-Based Education
Overview
The Consciousness-Based education program provides a practical, proven approach to prevent anti-social behavior and other educational problems by developing the creative intelligence and inner happiness of every student.
Although born with unlimited potential for happiness, harmony, and command of life, students are not receiving the education that will actualize this potential in a systematic way. This problem is compounded in today’s society through situations and influences that increase stress, including divorce, disorderly and violent neighborhoods and schools, negative influences from other students, and violence in the media.
Stress is not normal; accumulated stress leads to problems and mistakes, to apathy and alienation, and sometimes to internal pressures that students are unable to withstand. When stress builds up in an individual or society, it can violently erupt, as witnessed in schools of the United States and other countries. The crises and conflicts in every nation attest to the inadequacy of education to bring life out of problems.
Unless education provides the systematic means for developing the innate capacity for mastery and happiness that every human being possesses, students will remain frustrated, disappointed, and stressed, which in every case will prevent them from fully actualizing their professional and personal desires, and in some cases will build to an intolerable level and explode in violence.
It is time for bold and innovative action, not superficial responses
Establishing complicated discipline and security measures, or organizing student discussions about their difficulties are superficial approaches. A real solution is needed to the problems in schools everywhere, one that will eliminate students’ mental and physical stress and develop inner strength; a solution that will increase their ability to meet daily challenges with clarity, creativity, and calm; a solution that will unfold their latent intelligence and joy, so that they become increasingly responsible in their behavior, and fulfilled in daily life.
The Consciousness-Based education program—scientifically validated approach to develop inner potential and dissolve stress
The Consciousness-Based education program was founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the world authority on the science of consciousness. This program has proven its practicality and success with many thousands of students in schools around the world for over 35 years. Offered as a course in the school, the essential component of this program is the Transcendental Meditation® program, practiced for a few minutes twice daily. Over six million people of all cultures, religions, and educational backgrounds have learned this technique which gives the students the effortless experience of the most silent, peaceful, wide-awake level of one’s own awareness—Transcendental Consciousness—the full potential of the mind.
The experience of Transcendental Consciousness has been established by scientific research to be distinctly different from waking, dreaming, or sleeping states of consciousness. In the understanding provided by the science of consciousness, Transcendental Consciousness is the fourth state of consciousness, the basis for developing the full potential of the mind in higher states of consciousness. The regular experience of Transcendental Consciousness is necessary if education is to truly achieve its goal of unfolding the full creative potential of its students.
The Consciousness-Based education program eliminates violence and other anti-social behavior at its source
The Consciousness-Based education program brings a proven and lasting solution to negative social behavior with one simple approach: It systematically unfolds the latent potential of the students while reducing stress and awakening inner happiness; and thereby eliminates the source of negative social behavior.
The reliability of this program is verified by hundreds of research studies and over 35 years of experience in schools worldwide. It is equally effective in the inner city or suburb, with results experienced immediately. Students feel more relaxed, more comfortable with themselves, less angry. Within weeks they notice they get along with other students and their parents more easily; are more increasingly focused on their class subjects; they feel better about themselves and are more confident, and on that basis become more tolerant and appreciative of others.
Improving school climate—making our schools centers of coherence for the community
Improving school climate has become a priority for many school administrators; yet the means to transform the school climate has eluded them. If the entire student body is participating in the Consciousness-Based education program, positive effects in the entire school are noticed within a few days—less conflicts, less anger and aggressive behavior, more harmony and positivity, more peace, producing an atmosphere that is conducive to learning.
Decades of research and experience confirm that any school or social organization that implements the Consciousness-Based education program will experience immediate benefits.
Within a few weeks of implementation, research and experience have shown:
- Greater cooperation from students
- Less violence and disorder in classrooms and halls
- More focused classroom environment
- More harmonious school climate
- Decreased anxiety
Within a few months, educational measurement has shown:
- Increased ability to focus and broad comprehension
- Increased intelligence
- Improved memory
- Increased tolerance
- Increased self-confidence
- Reduced absenteeism and tardiness
Within a year, educational measurement has shown:
- Improved scores on standardized tests of basic skills
- Increased creativity
- Improved moral reasoning
- Reduced substance abuse
When a school adopts the Consciousness-Based education program for all its students, the school becomes not only an extraordinarily effective center of learning in the community, but also a center of coherence for the whole community, radiating a steady influence of harmony and peace.
Almost 50 studies (see following section) document improved quality of life and significant reductions in negative trends of society, including decreased violence and crime rate. Using this technology of consciousness, schools can rise to become centers of harmony and coherence for the whole society.
Scientific validation of educational benefits
More than 600 scientific research studies, conducted in over 200 universities and research institutes in 30 countries, verify the wide range of benefits of the Transcendental Meditation program for mental development, health, social behavior, and the social environment.
This research also shows that group practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi® program creates a measurable influence of orderliness and harmony in the entire society, affecting the neighborhood, the community, and if the group is large enough, the whole nation. When the entire student body is participating in the Consciousness-Based education program, both individual and collective stress in dissolved, thereby eliminating the ongoing source of tension in the school. This non-violent, non-aggressive approach to eliminating violence and anti-social behavior has been proven to be more effective than any other approach. At the same time, the same program unfolds the intelligence and beautiful qualities of citizenship desired by every educational system.