article on website mentioning St James, John Scottus and TM

Discussion of the children's schools in the UK.
ConcernedMum
Posts: 93
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:58 pm
Location: Ireland

article on website mentioning St James, John Scottus and TM

Postby ConcernedMum » Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:56 pm

Hi there
There's an article on meditation in schools at www.mindfuleducation.org/documents/GL.doc which mentions transcendental meditation being taught in st James and John Scottus. It names the particular form of meditation being taught in the schools and doesn't make any editorial comment on the schools involved, though in the context of the article in favour of meditation being taught in schools it could be regarded as a favourable mention. The mindfuleducation.org people seem to include most of the big buddhist groups in america - zen and insight mediation - well known names. Just wish to draw attention to it. I'm thinking of emailing them with a link to this site - but not sure whether to do it or not as the content in the article is limited and is to my knowledge, truthful, but the lack of the full context could give a mistaken impression.
Whaddyiz think?
CM.

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bonsai
Posts: 322
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 12:08 am
Location: London

Postby bonsai » Thu Apr 26, 2007 2:21 pm

Hi CM,

Thanks for posting the link. An interesting read. I have only speed read it and I would draw the conclusion that this is a biased account promoting the benefits of meditation. There are no sections of the report that indicate any negative effects of the meditation or any guidance offered in implementing safeguards to ensure children's welfare when introducing new practises to schools. The paper essentially suggests that meditation should be introduced with the help of a experienced practitioner. Given the prevelance of meditation techniques unregulated religious cults it is difficult to assess what actually constitutes an suitably skilled practitioner.

At St James (during my time there) the pressure brought to bear on pupils to partake both in meditation and accept the underlying philosophy is not insignificant and in my view is unreasonable. The way it is done exploits both a pupil's naivety and peer pressure. I think the quote of Paul Moss about younger pupils willingness to accept is quite damning.

Presenting the Case for Meditation in Primary and Secondary Schools by Gina Levete wrote:'Younger children naturally accept meditation because they don't come with so much baggage. By sixteen they tend to analyse and question the practice.'
Paul Moss, St James Independent School


Sadly I don't think it is baggage that a younger child doesn't have; it's the power of critical thinking that is not yet developed.

Analysing, questioning are all healthy parts of discrimination and reasoning.

Bonsai


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