More on TM in schools

Further reports (Marin IJ and NBC) have clarified that the Transcendental Meditation program is being offered through a school club and not as part of the curriculum. In that case I have fewer reservations than I expressed earlier.

Religious activity as part of school clubs rather than as part of the curriculum is a normal part of school life.

Sure, the TM organization has every appearance of being a cult designed to make large amounts of money. And sure, the representatives of the organization misled parents at the school meeting by implying they have no connection with Hinduism, but many other religions are involved in school clubs and even mainstream religions such as Catholicism can have strong cultish elements, and I can’t imagine that a school (or its parents) would get away with banning a Catholic students club because, for example, the church has a history of covering up child sexual abuse or because its leader makes inflammatory statements about other religions.

Heck, even Buddhist organizations can act like cults. So can secular organizations. Cultish behavior (obediance to authority, the needs of the organization outweighing the needs of individuals, criticism of out-groups, the process of “group-think” where people accept things as true without thinking them through) is just part of the way human beings are when they get together in groups.

It would be problematic for a school to allow the formation of clubs by some religions and not others. Who makes the value judgements about whether some religions are suitable for school clubs and not others? If there’s a safety issue (for example if a religion was promoting violence against other students) then there would be a clear-cut case for denying access to schools. But to argue that a particular religious tradition is a “cult” doesn’t really say anything more than saying “it’s not the same cult I belong to.”

I’m glad that some of the parents at Terra Linda High School are concerned about the possible impact on the welfare of their children if they attend classes run by the TM people, but the best thing they can do is simply to prevent their children from attending.

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