I've had the pleasure of watching the documentary "Tuning the Student Mind" (2015) after film director Chelsea Richer, upon my request, granted me a private screening of the film.
The documentary follows students at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, who are enrolled in professor of sociology Molly Beauregard's class "Consciousness, Creativity and Identity". This class was first put to use in 2011, and was at that point unique of its kind.
To sum up what this course is all about, simply explained, you can describe it as a journey of self-discovery to find out your true self, the authentic you.
In today's society, this proves sometimes to be a difficult task, of finding this part of yourself that contains the values and desires that are your very own. With all the external noise going on, Molly's class gives her students a great opportunity to start incorporating silence in their daily activities, get a better view of themselves, increasing their intuition, by using the tools of meditation, reflection and self-enquiry.
Regarding the meditation, there are several well-known meditation techniques that are widely practiced, but in this particular class, students practice the mantra based meditation technique called Transcendental Meditation, which was brought to the West in the 50's by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
As the documentary unfolds, we see the students becoming more and more secure and self-confident. Upon graduation, the students graduate a bit more grounded, well-prepared to walk out into the world. This shows what a positive and dramatic shift this type of education can make.
As a result of this successful class, Molly together with Chelsea, founded the Tuning the Student Mind Foundation in an effort to assist colleges and universities around the country to do the same and begin to offer consciousness-based education. A truly worthy goal since we with silence, respect and love, can come a long way.