San Francisco's toughest schools transformed by the power of meditation

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In the first year of Quiet Time meditation, suspensions at Visitacion Valley were reduced by 45%

In 2007 a meditation programme called Quiet Time was brought in to meet some of these challenges. “When I first heard about it I thought it probably wasn’t going to work,” says O’Driscoll. “We get thrown a new thing every couple of years so I didn’t put too much faith in it.” But in April, just a month after meditation began, teachers noticed changes in behaviour. “Students seemed happy,” says O’Driscoll. “They worked harder, paid more attention, were easier to teach and the number of fights fell dramatically.”

In the first year of Quiet Time suspensions at Visitacion Valley – which has 500 students aged 11-13 – were reduced by 45% (pdf). By 2009-10, attendance rates were over 98% (some of the highest in the city), and today 20% of graduates are admitted to the highly academic Lowell high school – before it was rare for even one student to be accepted. Perhaps even more remarkable, last year’s California Healthy Kids Survey from the state’s education department found that students at Visitacion Valley middle school were the happiest in the whole of San Francisco.


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A lot has changed over this period, including three principals coming and going, but O’Driscoll puts the turnaround down to the one constant: the calming influence of the meditation programme. “It’s provided a lot of stability to our school, helping staff and kids get through the stress they have in their lives.”

The impressive results have led to more schools in the city introducing the programme. But Quiet Time took years to develop. Its origins are in the 1990s when two Silicon Valley investors – Jeff Rice and Laurent Valosek – developed a programme to teach meditation in public schools, inspired by the tragic Columbine high school massacre. “After the shooting, the usual culprits were blamed: guns, violent movies and video games,” says Rice. “But no one touched on the real problem – stress.”


Before the students learn to meditate, the Quiet Time programme requires all staff to be trained in TM. O’Driscoll was sceptical at first about mediating himself, but since giving it a try he can concentrate better and feels less stressed.

The teacher has also seen dramatic transformations in his students. Eighth grader Stacy* has been meditating since she joined the school three years ago. “She used to have trouble at home and get into fights with her family,” says O’Driscoll. “Once Quiet Time started, she mellowed out and started getting along with people.” Stacy’s academic performance has also improved – she’s in the top 5% of the class.

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/nov/24/san-franciscos-toughest-schools-transformed-meditation