Meditation for High School Students
I’ve long been interested in the prospect of teaching meditation to high school students, so I especially appreciate that Marshall forwarded this article:
A study by the Medical College of Georgia found that two 15-minute meditation sessions each day - once at home, the other at school - helped teenage students lower their blood pressure over four months. Their blood pressure even continued to drop for four months after the meditation sessions ended, researchers said Friday.
One high school senior who benefited from the study was Nick Fitts. Fitts had a lot on his mind going into the research - two jobs, no car and rocky relations with his mother.
The stress raised his blood pressure enough to put him at risk for developing hypertension, even though he kept active with track, band and junior ROTC.
When college officials asked Fitts to join a study of whether meditation could lower blood pressure, he thought they were out of their minds. But getting into his mind was the key.
Fitts says the program helped him.
“The meditation calms me down and makes me think better about things,” said Fitts, now a nursing student at the University of South Carolina at Aiken.
Researchers screened 5,000 students and found 156 had blood pressure similar to Fitts. Half of that group received the meditation sessions and the other half, a control group, were placed in health education classes. All students wore blood pressure monitors 24 hours a day.
The control group did not have any reduction in blood pressure, according to the study in the American Journal of Hypertension.
And:
Besides reducing their blood pressure, students who meditated also had lower rates of absenteeism, school rule violations and suspensions than those in the control group, Barnes said.
“It’s noteworthy for educators - meditation might be included in the school day as a program for reducing stress in the schools,” Barnes said.
Fitts said he now meditates 45 minutes each morning.
“I make peace with me,” he said.
Amen to that.
This article is great!!! I am actually looking for more information just like this. I am giving a persuasive speech on how public education should include meditation into the school day, or at least allow students to take meditation as an elective class in middle and/or high school. I really believe in the topic, but I am not sure where to look for convincing statistics or results like above. Please let me know if you have any more information.
Thank you,
Suzie
Suzie,
Jon Kabat-Zinn (whose work you’re probably familiar with) tells the story of a woman who teaches mindfulness meditation in a Utah school in his essay “Indra’s Net at Work” in the book “The Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Science, and Our Day-to-Day Lives” edited by Gay Watson, Stephen Batchelor, and Guy Claxton.
(This is an excellent book for anyone interested in mindfulness and science, by the way.)
I also spoke with a friend of someone at Spirit Rock meditation center who used to teach meditation in a high school. But some of the parents objected to the teaching of “religion” (!) in school. Sad but true.
If you send me a copy of your speech, after you write it, I would love to read it and find out what you’ve learned. This is a topic that interests me, too, of course, and your findings might influence the research we’re doing in the psychology department here at University of New Mexico. So please keep me posted!
Best wishes,
Joshua
Okay...we know it is a necessary thing to bring to high schools...let’s do it. Where do we begin? I will be teaching high school health soon and want to get this going in my classroom? Who’s doing it? Please contact me with info.
eager and waiting!
Joyce
I am a clinical social worker in Orlando. I came across your site while doing research for a program I am developing to teach meditation to at-risk students at local alternative schools. I will be doing this as a volunteer and luckily had the good fortune of finding a principle who engages in daily meditation in her office (-;
I am so pleased that this is taking off. It is very important to have a brief Q/A for parents, “Is this religious in any way?” “No, it is not. It is not religious, it is not “new age”, it is simply GUIDED RELAXATION.”
In fact, this is the term utilized by many whose programs may may otherwise have been thwarted by religious zealots who cannot comprehend that searching for inner peace is not thought crime. (-:
It would amazing if meditation was implemented in the high schools. I’m an 30 year old, high energy, Italian/Ukrainian born Buddhist. I ‘m interested in teaching guided relaxation technique in an assemble form for teens. I would address the challenges that our youth are facing, so they’re able to relate and understand why meditation would be useful tool in their daily lives.
If you have any literature or contacts that would be beneficial can you please forward them.
thank you,
sonia Toronto. ontario