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School students excel at State history competition Nine Maharishi School seventh graders who won the district History Day competition in March competed in Des Moines, Iowa, USA in April against 370 top history students in grades 6–8 from all over Iowa. The Maharishi School students have been studying their topics and relating them to the National History Day theme for 2007, “Triumph and Tragedy in History,” since last November. The students competed in several different categories: individual performance, group performance, individual exhibit, group exhibit, and historical paper. Phoebe Carter’s performance of “A Tragedy, A Triumph, A Miracle: the Story of Helen Keller” placed in the finalist group (top six of that category). The group performance of “The Titanic: The Story of the Unsinkable Ship, and Its Survivors” given by Essa Johnson, Paris Lamoureux, Minna Mohammadi, and Jonina Thorsteinsdottir garnered a judges’ choice award for their outstanding script. Sam Arsanjani also received a judges’ choice award for his exhibit titled “Dr. Mossadegh: The Crisis of Oil and Democracy in Iran.” Pearl Sawhney and Caroline Fulcher made it to the finalist round (especially tough for group exhibits as the number of competitors is high in that category) for their project on “Mahatma Gandhi: Triumph Through Nonviolence.” And Thomas Weiss’s historical paper on “Arthur Ashe: Champion to the World” was praised for his excellent relation of the topic to this year’s theme. All of the seventh graders did National History Day projects and worked for over 12 weeks on them as part of their social studies class. After the school fair held in January, these students worked on their own time to strengthen their projects for the district competition. After the district competition, the nine winning students again put in many hours perfecting their projects in preparation for the state competition. As a result they have gone deeply into their topics and are quite knowledgeable about them. They have also gained many valuable research skills that will benefit them for the rest of their school careers and life. In the past few years the school has graduated ten times the national average of National Merit Scholar Finalists, seen 95% of graduates accepted at four-year colleges, and had grades 10–12 consistently score in the top 1% of the nation on standardized tests of educational development. For a few minutes each day the students at this school sit comfortably and practice the Maharishi Transcendental Meditation Technique to develop their total creative potential. This effortless mental procedure produces holistic brain functioning, resulting in increased intelligence, reduced stress and improved social behavior. According to Dr Ashley Deans, director of the Maharishi School, "This experience (of the practise of Transcendental Meditation) brings unprecedented benefits for students — total brain development, increased alertness, full blossoming of creative intelligence, extraordinary academic achievements, more energy and better health, growth of inner peace and happiness, harmony with fellow students and teachers, and enlightened social behavior. And now students even have the opportunity to create and sustain peace in their community, nation and world. All of these benefits have been confirmed by hundreds of scientific research studies." Visit: www.maharishischooliowa.org For more information on National History Day, go to http://www.nationalhistoryday.org. Copyright 2007, Maharishi University of Management
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