Meditation in the ClassroomKen Chawkin, The Edge, Aug 1, 2004 Article about the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Fairfield, IA: Dr. Charles Matthews, chairman and former professor of science education at Florida State University, was amazed at what he saw when he visited the classrooms at MSAE. “The students of Maharishi School, from kindergarten to upper grades, have the longest attention span of any I have seen in the 30 years of teaching and educational research in public and private schools. I found that the students were on-task more than 95 percent of the time. Usually I find that students attend to their lessons less than half of the time they are in class.” Julia Herbert, Ed.S., a reading consultant in the Washington, D.C., area schools, also was impressed. “As a reading consultant, I have visited many public and private schools, and I have never felt such a calm and silent atmosphere in a school of bright, lively, alert children as was evident at Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment.” Jill Olsen-Virlee, Iowa Teacher of the Year for 1996 from Marion High School, in Marion, Iowa, came away inspired. “Your school was truly an inspiration. The inner peace, the concern for one another, the respect and thirst for wisdom and a holistic approach to children are awesome.”