TRI In The News

Becoming One with the Earth at Prairie Ridge High School

4/29/2011

TRI IN THE NEWS: BECOMING ONE WITH THE EARTH AT PRAIRIE RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL

From The Illinois Family Institute
Original article available here.

A recent brouhaha at Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake, Illinois -- yes, the same high school in which a health teacher taught students the "Vagina Dance" -- provides a cautionary tale for parents who think they know what takes place in their children's classrooms.

According to the Trib Local, in her Freshman Honors English class, teacher Christine Wascher taught her students some form of meditative techniques in conjunction with the novel The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, a novel that's taught in many middle and high schools.

Due to length, I've divided this article into two parts. Part I will focus on Transcendental Meditation, and Part II will focus on the novel that inspired Ms. Wascher's impulse to teach Eastern mystical techniques.

The Trib reported that Superintendent Jill Hawk explained that "'What [Wascher] had them do was a mind-clearing visualization exercise that a parent felt was transcendental meditation....It was an activity to engage them in a part of the book that talks about being one with the earth.'"

The Rutherford Institute, which was contacted by a father of one of Wascher's students, reported that Wascher's students were asked to "assume the lotus position, conduct meditative chants, and lie on their backs with their palms to the floor in order to 'become one with the earth.'"

I wonder if Ms. Wascher would consider teaching students to pray the rosary in order to engage with the short stories of Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor or to have them recite a Muslim prayer facing east so as to engage with The Kite Runner.

Following IFI's posting of the Rutherford Institute's press release regarding Prairie Ridge's decision not to permit the teaching of meditative techniques, I received two emails from employees of the Transcendental Meditation organization. Below are excerpts from their emails:

(Letter 1) It seems your report contains misinformation about the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Firstly the phrase Transcendental Meditation is a trademark that references a specific meditation technique that is only taught by certified teachers. TM does not include "meditative chants" or lying down. It is practiced sitting normally, in silence, with the eyes closed. I know this because I have been a certified Transcendental Meditation teacher for 35 years. You may want to consider a correction to your story (Keith DeBoer).

(Letter 2) I am writing to correct a statement on your site that Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake was conducting transcendental meditation exercises, including the statement that students were "being directed to assume the lotus position, conduct meditative chants, and lie on their backs with their palms to the floor in order to "become one with the earth."

I would like to make it clear that whatever this was a Prairie Ridge High School, it was not Transcendental Meditation, which is a non-religious, secular mental technique for achieving measurable changes in neuro-physiological functioning and providing practitioners with deep rest.

Transcendental Meditation does not involve chanting, sitting in a particular pose or lying down and becoming one with the earth. Nor is it Buddhist in origin. I believe there must be some mistake in this article, either on the part of the author of the article or the parent of the student at the school who has reported this issue to the Rutherford Institute.

I would greatly appreciate a statement on your site to this effect (Carla Brown).

Here is my response (and my personal story):

IFI did not write the article to which you referred. We posted a press release from the Rutherford Institute. I'm not writing you in order to respond to possible inaccuracies in the Rutherford Institute's press release other than to say that it is entirely possible that the teacher in question told students that she was teaching them TM techniques.

I practiced TM for eleven years and my husband for thirteen. My husband was also a certified TM teacher. He trained with Maharishi in Spain in 1972-73. In addition, I took a number of Siddhi-prep courses in 1978.

Fortunately, after years of wasted time and money, we realized the many deceptions deeply embedded in TM and its promotional campaigns. We also came to realize that TM is ineffective.

The most significant deception is that TM is a scientific technique devoid of religious aspects. You are, of course, correct about how one meditates, but you are incorrect when you state that it is a non-religious, secular technique. That's how the organization, starting many years ago with Maharishi, promotes and sells it, but it's an astonishingly deceitful claim. All one needs to do is translate the puja (the Sanskrit ceremony that culminates in initiates receiving their mantra) to discover the troubling religious nature of Transcendental Meditation. Here is the puja translation:

To LORD NARAYANA, to lotus-born BRAHMA the Creator to...GOVINDA, ruler among the yogis...to SHANKARACHARYA the redeemer, hailed as KRISHNA and BADARAYANA, to the commentator of the BRAHMA SUTRAS I bow down. To the glory of the LORD I bow down again and again, at whose door the whole galaxy of gods pray for perfection day and night...GURU [Dev] in the glory of BRAHMA, GURU in the glory of the great LORD SHIVA, GURU in the glory of the personified transcendental fullness of BRAHMAN, to Him, to SHRI GURU DEV adorned with glory, I bow down...with Brahman ever dwelling in the lotus of my heart...to That [Brahman], in the form of Guru Dev, I bow down.

Of course, this translation is concealed from meditators in order to conceal its religious nature.

You're also correct in asserting that TM is not Buddhist in origin. It's more accurate to say it's Hindu in origin. Maharishi endlessly cited his spiritual teacher, Guru Dev, and the Bhagavad-Gita.

Regarding the efficacy and deceit of the TM organization: When the Siddhis (special powers) were first introduced over thirty years ago, we were told people would soon be flying -- not hopping -- but flying. We have a friend who became a meditator in 1971 and a teacher shortly thereafter. He has spent his entire life devoted to TM. He now meditates up to ten hours a day. Surprise, surprise, he doesn't yet fly.

For more information on Transcendental Meditation, click here and here for an excellent two-part analysis of Transcendental Meditation that first appeared in the Christian Research Journal.

This cautionary tale from Prairie Ridge High School reveals that parents have no idea what their children are exposed to in their classes. They have no idea what kinds of personal, political, and moral commentaries their teachers offer, and they have no idea what supplementary resources teachers include -- resources that they don't have to have reviewed by anyone.

Teachers are presenting resources to students that no one has reviewed. Teachers use all sorts of articles and activities that aren't listed on their websites, their syllabi, or approved by department chairs or curriculum committees.

So, is it possible for taxpayers to ensure that teachers promote shared community values and prevent activist teachers from using curricula, public funds, and their coveted autonomy to try to shape the moral and political beliefs of students? And is it possible for taxpayers to ensure that teachers choose literature for its literary value rather than whether it treats race, gender, class, homosexuality, and "spirituality" in politically correct ways?

I would argue that the politically driven, intellectually vacuous, and morally bankrupt leadership of many contemporary educators who view themselves as "agents of change" necessitate a diminution of their autonomy. Because academic ideologues have exploited their roles as public employees and lost sight of their roles as public servants, they should lose the autonomy they have arrogantly abused.

In addition to the policy recommendations coming in Part II, it would be helpful if faculties, administrations, and school boards reflected the political, intellectual, or philosophical diversity of the communities they represent, which many do not.