Anthea Cannon: Every teacher’s quest for a calm and focused class may be more than a dream, with meditation scoring results with some of Maribyrnong’s junior students.

In the first study into the effects of Buddhist education, Victoria University PhD graduate Sue Smith found grade 3 to 6 students were happier, had improved concentration, coped with anxieties and felt greater kindness toward themselves and others.

Dr Smith said the study of 12 schools showed Buddhist-inspired meditation had an important place in education without being religious.

“Consistently the children were marking themselves in the positive category after…

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Examiner: My previous articles on TM have generated a lot of comments and, no doubt this one will too. But I hope some of the comments will be from local people who are students or teachers and parents of students who practice TM in schools.

I spoke recently with Denice Gerace, a TM teacher in Tucson, who teaches TM to students at schools in the Tucson Unified School District, about her program.

Q. How much do the schools have to pay for the program?

A. Nothing, because it was funded by a grant from the David Lynch Foundation.

Q. But still the cost per student is $800, about half the cost of the regular initiation fee. Do you think the cost will be lowered …