Posted on 12/30/2014 7:59:15 PM PST by PROCON
Silence isn't something people usually associate with middle school, but twice a day the halls of Visitacion Valley School in San Francisco fall quiet as the sixth, seventh and eighth grade students meditate for fifteen minutes.
And school administrators tell NBC News that the violence outside of the school, which is situated in one of San Francisco's poorest neighborhoods, was spilling into the school and affecting the students' demeanor.
"The kids see guns on a daily basis," the school's athletic director, Barry O'Driscoll said, adding, "there would be fights here three-to-five times a week."
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
What a bunch of crap; they just keep looking for inane solutions for failing public schools.
Yep. TOTAL bunch of crap!
It would seem to me that this is a violation of the principle of the separation of church and state as interpreted today. If this principle is to be applied to Christianity, it should be applied to all other religions as well, including New Age stuff.
What IS ‘meditation’, anyway?
-JT
Not prayer.
Worse than nonsense. It is a religious practice. Someone should sue.
This may be what’s considered a ‘compromise’. They made it pretty much illegal to pray in most schools, but the smarter educators see the value in prayerful behavior. This is their way of enjoying the bathwater, but without ‘the Baby’.
If it teaches better coping skills while in school, so that every little thing does not become a reason to bully, or see them selves as poor little victims, then it may have some merit. Of course, nothing replaces the fullness of actual prayer. They also need to increase opportunities
for the kids to run around and get exercise.
That’s why I expect eventually, when these kids grow older, they will be more open to prayer as we now know it. While their parents will still act afraid and suspicious of any expression of the Christian faith.
What is ‘prayer’, anyway?
-JT
It’s not meditation.
Meditation isn’t religious.
Prayer is talking.
Meditation is listening.
Thank You!
-JT
It is an altered state of consciousness where the goal is to completely empty your mind. The ultimate goal is to open yourself up to the spirit world, even to get a spirit guide to enlighten you about the “reality” that all is god and god is all — the so-called oneness of all that is.
Just watch Oprah and she will teach you with the latest New Age Religion gurus on her show.
There is another kind of meditation which is NOT the kind they are talking about. It involves a very focused mind concentrating singularly on a topic. For example, meditating on God’s Law day and night.
I’ve never really understood what ‘New Age’ is, except for a genre of music that I sometimes enjoy.
Otherwise, it seems to be an assortment of half-baked whimsies...
=JT
The meditation they are talking about is a religious practice. They do not label it as such but that does not change the facts anymore than saying prayer is not religious would change the fact that it is.
Reason it out. “Meditation is listening.” To what or to whom?
Meditation isn’t a ‘state of consciousness’; it’s an act.
People meditate all the time, whether they know it or now.
It’s simply a quieting of the outside, and a turning toward the inside.
=JT
I do not see how sitting for a total of 30 minutes with the goal of emptying your mind does anything toward educating children. It is nonsense at best. We are paying teachers for this?
Gee in about 5 minutes you have become an expert.
Kids are in school to learn. If they want to become inner space cadets they can do that at home without the high cost of public education.
>> “Meditation isn’t religious.” <<
.
What???
Chanting the name of a Hindu demon isn’t religious?
LOL!
.
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