SF's Toughest Public Schools Calmed — By Meditation

A San Francisco middle school is seeing improved grades, better attendance, and a drop in violence.

And it's all thanks to Quiet Time -- another term for transcendental meditation, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

David L. Kirp, a public policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, says that suspensions dipped 45 percent, attendance rates improved to 98 percent and about 20 percent of students at Visitacion Valley Middle School began getting accepted to San Francisco's elite Lowell High School ever since Quiet Time was instituted in 2007.

With Quiet Time, students close their eyes and empty their minds to the sound of a gong, which goes off twice a day, the newspaper reported.

Three other schools in the San Francisco Unified School District have instituted Quiet Time, with similar results, the newspaper reported.

The program has some big-name backers: film director David Lynch, former Giants pitcher Barry Zito and actor-comedian Russell Brand were on hand to promote Quiet Time at a San Francisco high school this spring.