Transcendental Meditation in education (also known as Consciousness-Based Education) is the application of the Transcendental Meditation technique in an educational setting or institution. These educational programs and institutions have been founded in the US, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Africa and Japan. The Transcendental Meditation technique became popular with students in the 1960s and by the early 1970s centers for the Students International Meditation Society were established at a thousand campuses in the US with similar growth occurring in Germany, Canada and Britain.Bainbridge, William Sims (1997 Routledge, The Sociology of Religious Movements, page 188 The Maharishi International University was established in 1973 in the US and began offering accredited, degree programs. In 1977 courses in Transcendental Meditation and the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) were legally prohibited from New Jersey (USA) public high schools on religious grounds by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. This "dismantled" the TM program's use of government funding in U.S. public schools "but did not constitute a negative evaluation of the program itself". Since 1979, schools that incorporate the Transcendental Meditation technique using private, non-governmental funding have been reported in the US, South America, Southeast Asia, Northern Ireland, South Africa and Israel.Ehud Zion Waldoks, "School crisis? Send the kids to the corner – to count to 10 cross their legs and hum..." The Jerusalem Post November 22, 2007

A number of educational institutions have been founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Transcendental Meditation movement and its supporters. These institutions include several schools offering public and private secondary education in the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment (USA),Buckley, Stephen (March 19, 1993) Meditating Students, This School Offers Readin', 'Ritin' and Mantras, The Washington Post Maharishi School (England) the Maharishi International School (Switzerland), Maharishi School, (Australia),Unknown Author Official web site, Maharishi School, Retrieved July 2011Smith, Birdie (Jan 28, 2008) School Year to Start on a Meditative Note The Age, Retrieved July 2011 South Africa (Maharishi Invincibility School of Management),MSIM official web site and a network of Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools (India). Likewise, Maharishi colleges and universities have been established including Maharishi European Research University (Netherlands), Maharishi Institute of Management (India), Maharishi University of Management and Technology (India), Maharishi Institute (South Africa)Unknown author Maharishi Institutel Educating Africa, Retrieved Dec 30, 2012Unknown author Maharishi Institute Official Web Site, accessed Dec 30, 2012 and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic University (India). In the US, critics have called Transcendental Meditation a revised form of Eastern, religious philosophy and opposed its use in public schoolsWilliamson (2010) p. 89 while a member of the Pacific Justice Institute says practicing Transcendental Meditation in public schools with private funding is constitutional.

History of school programs

1965 to 1979 The Students' International Meditation Society (SIMS) incorporated in 1965/1966 and focused on offering the TM technique to students and faculty at schools and universities. The UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) chapter had 1,000 members and was co-founded by researcher and physiologist, Robert Keith Wallace, the first president of Maharishi International University. By 1974, 14 states had encouraged local schools to teach TM in the classroom, and it was taught at 50 universities. Among the public school systems where TM was taught were Shawnee Mission, Kansas,Hendel v World Plan Executive Council, 124 WLR 957 (January 2, 1996); affd 705 A.2d 656, 667 (DC, 1997) Maplewood, Paterson, Union Hill and West New York, New Jersey, Eastchester, New York and Toronto, Ontario. The organization was described as a "phenomenal success"(Feb 7, 2008) Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, The Times, London and continues to function in some countries including the U.S.A.SIMS New Zealand A 33-lesson video course called the Science of Creative Intelligence was offered at universities such as Stanford, Yale, the University of Colorado, the University of Wisconsin, and Oregon State University.

In 1979, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the 1977 decision of the US District Court of New Jersey that a course in Transcendental Meditation and the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) was religious activity within the meaning of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and that the government funded teaching of SCI/TM in the New Jersey public high schools was prohibited. The court ruled that, although SCI/TM is not a theistic religion, it deals with issues of ultimate concern, truth, and other ideas analogous to those in well-recognized religions. The court found that the religious nature of the course was clear from careful examination of the textbook, the expert testimony elicited, and the uncontested facts concerning the puja ceremony, which it found involved "offerings to deities as part of a regularly scheduled course in the schools' educational programs".The TM puja ceremony is described in the opinion of the US District Court in Malnak v Yogi, including the Sanskrit chant and the English translation thereof from the book "The Holy Tradition", written by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. State action was involved because the SCI/TM course and activities involved the teaching of a religion, without an objective secular purpose. According to religious scholar Cynthia Ann Humes the Malnak decision "dismantled" the TM program's use of government funding to incorporate Transcendental Meditation into public schools. However, according to religious scholars Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley this "judicial rebuff" of the New Jersey school project did not render "a negative evaluation of the program itself" and those who oppose the practice in public schools are said to be mainly conservative Christians and civil libertarians who seek to preserve church-state separation.

1980 to 1999

Since 1979, schools and universities in the U.S. and abroad have introduced the Transcendental Meditation technique using private, non-governmental funding. The technique has been introduced on a voluntary basis, with parental consent, and teachers and parents are taught the meditation before the students learn. Often referred to as the Quiet Time Program, the students and teachers meditate for 10 to 20 minutes twice per day. Indiana Daily Student, Meditation in Schools, Paige Henry, April 28, 2011, Retrieved April 29, 2011TM News The program consists of TM instruction and follow-up, as well as training of school faculty and staff to supervise the TM sessions offered at the school.

The Fletcher Johnson Educational Center, a charter school with 1,500 students in Washington, D.C., introduced the TM program for schools in 1994.Pathways, Taking Care of the Student, Winter 2009, Cynthia E. Johnson, Its principal, George H. Rutherford, is a member of the DLF's Board of Advisors. The Ideal Academy Public Charter School began its program with the approval of the Washington, D.C. Board of Education in 1997. The 2005–2006 pilot project at Ideal Academy was conducted along with research to document the effects of the program. The Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse] in Detroit began using the program for students in the fifth through eighth grade in 1996 and was featured on the Today Show in 2003. The school has since been classified by the Skillman Foundation as a "High-Performing Middle School". Over the years, the program at Nitaki Talibah has been funded by various foundations including General Motors, Daimler Chrysler, the Liebler Foundation and the DLF. The program at the school has been researched by Rita Benn of the University of Michigan's Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Center.

2000 to present The Chelsea School, a private school in of Silver Spring, Maryland, offers the program to its fifth through twelfth graders who have attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders (ADHD). The program was part of a three-month pilot study conducted by William R. Stixrud, a clinical neuropsychologist and health advisor for the TM's Committee for Stress-Free Schools. "At Chelsea School in Silver Spring, 10 students with ADHD are trying Transcendental Meditation. The school is part of a 3-month study to see if meditation can help the children overcome the stresses of their disorder." The New York Times reported in 2005 that American University, in Washington D.C., was set to begin offering Transcendental Meditation classes as part of a research project to measure its potential effect on "grades, IQ's and mental health". Later, the practice of the technique by 250 students at American University, Georgetown University and Howard University in the Washington D.C. area was monitored as part of a research study conducted by American University and Maharishi University of Management.

In 2004, the New York Committee for Stress-Free Schools held a press conference in New York City. The conference included testimony from students, educators and scientists who support the use of TM in the school setting. The following year the TM technique was taught to "more than 100 administrators, teachers and students" and over the next five years, 300 additional high school students learned the technique.Pember, Mary Annette (February 1, 2012) http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/02/01/transcendental-meditation-combating-diabetes-in-indian-country-95133#ixzz1pVM3w4vp TM combating diabetes in Indian country Indian Country Today, retrieved March 18, 2012 According to the DLF web site, the TM program was introduced to the Arts and Technology Academy at Weaver High School in Hartford CT in 2006. Four hundred and fifty students as well as principals and administrators are reported to have been instructed in the technique.David Lynch Foundation web site "In the fall of 2006 we embarked on the most fulfilling adventure of our lives. The David Lynch Foundation had approved funding to implement the TM/Quiet Time Program for 450 students in the Arts and Technology Academy at Weaver High School in Hartford CT. We began by teaching all of the principals and administrators for the four academies at Weaver." Retrieved 10/3/10 A voluntary program at the Kingsbury School, a Washington D.C. private school "for students with learning disorders" in grades K-12, was featured on the PBS program, To The Contrary in 2007. According to the school director, about 10 percent of the teachers, parents and students declined to participate because they found it be religious and cult-ish. Conferences sponsored by the New England Committee for Stress-Free Schools were held in Providence, Rhode Island; Fairfield, Connecticut; and Boston, Massachusetts in 2005. The Boston conference was attended by 100 teachers and featured testimony from school principals who have experience with the TM program in schools.The Boston Globe, Conference Promotes Meditation in School, Cristina Silva, May 6, 2006 In the mid-2000s the TM technique was incorporated into the educational program at the Daburiya High School in Israel.Forem, Jack (2012) Hay House, Transcendental Meditation: The Essential Teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, pp 181-182

The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace (DLF) was founded in 2004 and has provided funding for Transcendental Meditation instruction in many educational settings.(October 29, 2004)The Spokesman-Review According to the DLF, it has funded school programs in New York City, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Vietnam, Nepal, Northern Ireland, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Israel.