WHAT WORKS IN EDUCATION The George Lucas Educational Foundation
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Infographic: Meditation in Schools Across America

As a growing body of research points to positive outcomes from meditation in schools, programs are spreading across the country.

By Edutopia Staff
As a growing body of research points to positive outcomes from meditation in schools, programs are spreading across the country.
Meditation Education. Across the Nation 92 schools are implementing meditation in 13 states. Several studies have examined the effects of meditation using controlled trials in elementary and high schools. Meditation practices studied ranged from 10 to 40 minutes, daily to bi-weekly, and lasted three to six months. High school students practicing daily focused meditation had 25% fewer class absences and 38% fewer suspension days. First to seventh grade students practicing mindfulness meditation achieved significantly improved scores on validated attention-skills tests. Fourth to seventh grade students practicing daily meditation demonstrated an 8% reduction in aggressive behavior. High school students practicing daily focused meditation committed 50% fewer rule infractions.

Infographic: Maili Holiman


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This article originally published on 2/22/2012

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Comments (2)

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Lawson English
Posted on 3/2/2012 4:21pm

all meditations not the same

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You appear to have averaged the effects of several different kinds of meditation on students. As more research is published on the effects of various kinds of meditation on students, I expect differences in effect to start to show up and this chart of average effects will become less and less accurate as time goes on.

AnnalisaM
Parent of 3
Posted on 3/1/2012 6:52am

Maharishi School in Fairfield, Iowa

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A pioneer in Consciousness-Based education, Maharishi School in Fairfield, IA, has implemented meditation for students in grades K-12 since the 70's. Despite an open-enrollment policy and demographics that would predict otherwise, the students consistently score in the top percentile on standardized tests and win awards for creativity,innovation,and excellence in athletics and academics. We moved here from Massachusetts 7 years ago so that our children could be at this unique school, practicing Transcendental Meditation with their peers. It makes a huge difference in the quality of life for the students and community and we feel so blessed to be able to have our children at the school. www.maharishischooliowa.com

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