Meditation In School Transforms Kids

One morning, the kids of Visitacion Valley Middle School found three dead bodies dumped in their schoolyard. Sadly, these kids were used to violence and murder. In 2006 alone, there were 38 murders in the neighborhood. Crime and violence surrounded this San Francisco school. The kids were anxiety-ridden and stressed, and their neighborhood was terrifying. At school, this translated to physical fights, frequent absences, and a lot of time spent in detention.

Desperate for a way to help the children deal with stress, the school decided to try mandatory meditation. Perhaps in an attempt to make something foreign sound more palatable, they called it “Quiet Time.” During “Quiet Time” the kids learned Transcendental Meditation ™. Transcendental Meditation is a technique for focusing the mind that is non-religious. Practicing TM is simple. It involves sitting for 15 to 20 minutes with eyes closed, silently repeating a mantra.

Teachers at Visitacion Valley Middle School doubted that adding a simple meditation would help much. They were shocked when they realized that “Quiet Time” was, in fact, changing their school in big ways and for the better.

Just a month after the students began the twice a day meditation, teachers noticed that students seemed happier. They paid more attention and worked harder. Suspensions decreased by 45 percent while attendance rose to over 98 percent. Best of all, California’s education department found that the students at Visitacion Valley Middle School were the happiest kids in all of San Francisco.

For fifteen minutes, twice a day the kids sit with their eyes closed. They repeat their own personal mantra in their head. In that silence space, they find peace.
It turns out, according to research, TM can help adults too. One study found that TM lowered blood pressure, reduced the risk of heart attack, and slowed biological aging.

The next time your environment seems too stressful to cope with, think about closing your eyes and taking some “quiet time.” You just might find that no matter what happens outside, you can always find peace inside.

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from Blog – Deep English http://deepenglish.com/2016/11/meditation-in-school-transforms-kids/

Boy Wakes Up And Can’t Speak A Lick Of English

Reuben is a gifted soccer player and fearless goalie. He was playing for an elite youth soccer team in Atlanta, Georgia when the unfortunate accident happened. He was kicked in the head by an opponent and went into shock. He stopped breathing multiple times and came in and out of consciousness on the soccer field. His coach said, “I thought I might lose him…”

Reuben was airlifted to a hospital where he fell into a coma for several days. Reuben’s mother is a high school teacher originally from Nigeria. When Reuben finally woke up, he said to her, ‘I’m hungry’ in Spanish. Reuben’s mother ran out of the room to get help. “A nurse asked me what language does he speak. I said, ‘I speak English. He speaks English. We’re not Spanish-based people’”

Suddenly Reuben couldn’t speak a lick of English. Instead Spanish effortlessly flowed out of his mouth. Reuben says he could only speak a few words of Spanish before the accident. He thinks he must have subconsciously picked up the language from his brother who studied abroad in Spain, and some of his teammates who are fluent Spanish speakers.

Reuben described speaking Spanish as weird, but enjoyable. However, trying to speak his native English made him have a seizure. After a few days, Reuben’s English returned. He can still speak Spanish, but it is beginning to fade.

Reuben is not the only person to have ever woken up with a mysterious language condition. In 2013, an American man woke up in a motel in California speaking Swedish. Unlike Reuben, this was a not a new language for him, but he had completely forgotten his native English and all memory of his past life. Equally as baffling is foreign accent syndrome where people develop a new accent usually after some head trauma. The first case of this dates back to 1941 when a Norwegian woman, who was injured during a bombing, suddenly began speaking in a German accent. Over the years, there have been 62 cases of this condition.

Reuben is back at home now, but he still is getting medical tests and having seizures. A gofundme.com page has been created to help his parents pay for his medical expenses. Reuben hopes to become a professional soccer player one day and can’t wait to get back on the field. His coach says when he comes back he’ll need to wear a helmet.

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from Blog – Deep English http://deepenglish.com/2016/10/boy-wakes-cant-speak-lick-english/

Pro Football Player Called Un-American

U.S. professional football player, Colin Kaepernick, has recently caused a controversy by refusing to stand for the American national anthem. Kaepernick is an African-American. He is protesting racial oppression in the U.S., especially the many killings of young black men by white policeman in recent years.

At the beginning of each game, he kneels on one knee during the singing of the anthem. Public reaction has been heated. Some call him un-American. They say he is being disrespectful to members of the military who have given their lives to defend America’s freedom. These people believe that patriotism means showing heartfelt respect for the U.S. anthem and flag.

On the other hand, Kaepernick has been praised by supporters. They believe it’s important to start an open discussion about racial prejudice in the U.S. These voices say that Kaepernick, like all Americans, has freedom of speech. Those who support Kaepernick do not agree that having a black president makes racial prejudice a thing of the past. They say that black Americans are still second-class citizens.

This issue of how people should express patriotism is not limited to America. One courageous individual in Japan has made a similar protest for decades. Kimiko Nezu, a retired school teacher, refused to stand each morning when Japan’s national anthem was played at her school. She felt the words of the song expressed support for Japanese militarism, which was responsible for the loss of many lives during WWII. Nezu believes it is her responsibility as a teacher to educate the young not to make the same mistakes again.

In a society where citizens are expected to follow the group, Ms. Nezu paid dearly for her protest. She was shunned by her colleagues and friends, her pay was reduced many times, and she faced many suspensions. Despite these problems, she says she loves her country and is proud to be Japanese. However, she believes that forcing children and teachers to sing the Japanese national anthem is a misguided form of patriotism.

The refusals of Colin Kaepernick and Kimiko Nezu to show respect for their national anthems has raised many questions. Are symbols such as flags and anthems sacred? Is showing respect for these symbols more important than protesting social injustice?

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from Blog – Deep English http://deepenglish.com/2016/10/pro-football-player-called-un-american/

Things To Do Before You Die

‘Kick the bucket’ is a very old English expression, which means to die. A ‘bucket list‘ is a list of things that you want to do before you die. It’s now a common English expression, but it’s very new.

In 2007, the movie Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, popularized the idiom. It’s about two older men who are dying and go on a road trip to do all the things on their bucket list. Their list included sky diving, visiting the Taj Mahal, and riding motorcycles along the Great Wall of China. The movie got mixed reviews, but the expression struck a chord with people. Even people who have never seen the movie now know and use this idiom.

Bucketlist.org is a website where real people share and track their bucket lists. According to the site, some of the most popular bucket list items are swimming with dolphins, learning another language, and seeing the Aurora Borealis.

102-year-old Edie Simms’ unusual bucket list goal of getting arrested is probably not on this site. Edie enjoys sewing, playing bingo and doing community service, so it’s unclear how getting nabbed by the cops became one of her life long goals. Nevertheless, the local Missouri police department was happy to help. She was recently handcuffed and put in the back of a police car, but she didn’t do hard time. Instead, they released her at a local senior center where she was donating clothes and bags that she had made by hand.

Similar to the movie, ninety-one-year-old Norma Jean Bauerschmidt went on a real life bucket list adventure after being diagnosed with cancer last year. Her doctors told her surgery, chemotherapy and radiation were her options, and her chances didn’t look good. She said, “I’m 90-years-old, I’m hitting the road.” Over the next 12 months, Norma and her family drove over 13,000 miles around the country in an RV. In that time she crossed off as many bucket list items as she could. She rode a horse, flew in a hot air balloon and did little things like trying fried green tomatoes for the first time.

While Norma Jean’s bucket list allowed her to enjoy every moment of her final days, bucket lists aren’t just for the terminally ill. It’s never too early to start doing the things you’ve always wanted to do. What’s on your bucket list?

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from Blog – Deep English http://deepenglish.com/2016/10/things-to-do-before-you-die/

Burning Through Money

No one could spend money like Michael Jackson. His mansion in California had a personal zoo and amusement park that cost him $5 million a year just for maintenance and staff. Over the course of his life, he made 1.1 billion dollars, but he spent it all and then some. He died being hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.

While Jackson was famous for burning through money, some people have been known to actually burn money. Cocaine kingpin, Pablo Escobar, was at one time the 7th richest man in the world and was making 420 million dollars a week. Like Jackson, he was also a big spender with lavish houses and his own personal zoo. The final year of his life was spent on the run from police after escaping from prison. During this time he once burned 2 million dollars in cash to make a fire to warm his daughter.

At about the same time in the early 90s, British pop stars Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty of KLM also burned money.  KLM was a hit band in the late 1980s and 1990s. While they couldn’t hold a candle to Jackson in earning power, they made good money.

After four years, Bill and Jimmy retired from the music business to become artists. They had 1 million pounds left from their career as musicians. Their first work of art was taking that 1 million pounds and nailing it to a frame. The art world was unimpressed, so they decided to burn the money. In July of 1993, they went to Scotland, and one by one, they burned 1 million pounds worth of 50-pound notes. They actually burned about 900,000 pounds, while about 100,000 pounds blew up and out of the chimney. Villagers found partially burned notes around the island.

In an interview in 2004, Bill says that some days he thinks back and regrets it, but other days he doesn’t.

The reason why they did it is still unclear.  Bill says, “It was more for other people to take from it whatever they wanted, whether it be ‘they obviously didn’t do it’ or ‘it’s a terrible thing’ or whatever. It’s for other people to explore.”

While most people probably think they were crazy, they did have their admirers. One newspaper writer said they “may not have changed or challenged much, but they have certainly provoked thousands to question and analyze the power of money and the responsibilities of those who possess it. And what could be more artistic than that?”

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from Blog – Deep English http://deepenglish.com/2016/10/burning-through-money/

Billionaire Interested In Young People’s Blood

According to one 15th century historian, Pope Innocent the VIII fell into a coma in 1492. His doctor, trying to reverse his condition, attempted something shocking. He took the blood of three children and fed it to the pope. Both the pope and the children died. The attempt to heal him through young blood was a failure, but this medieval doctor may have been on to something.

In the late 15th century, there was no knowledge of the circulatory system, so the blood was poured into the pope’s mouth. While there is no way to verify the truth of this story, some medical historians say it was the first attempt at a blood transfusion.

By the 16th century, doctors began to understand the way in which blood circulates through the body, and the first successful transfusion of blood was in 1665. Since then, blood transfusions have been used to save people who have lost blood through injury or surgery, but recent research is again looking at the healing potential of young blood.

In 2008, researchers at Stanford University surgically joined the circulatory systems of pairs of young and old mice. Their blood mixed for a few weeks before their brains were examined. The results were shocking. The old mice had a burst of brain cell growth. The opposite happened to the young mice. The effect of the old blood had stalled their normal brain cell growth. In 2014, researchers at Harvard did similar experiments with mice and found that young blood improved the brains, hearts, and muscles of older mice.

In old Greek myths, Ambrosia is the food of the gods that gives immortality. It is also the name of a new company that is testing young blood transfusions on humans. It has started a 600-person research study funded by the participants. For $8,000, older participants, between the ages of 35 and 80, will receive transfusions from people under 25.

While the potential for anti-aging discoveries is exciting, we could be walking towards a world where only the rich have access to the fountain of youth. Billionaire co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel, has invested millions in anti-aging companies. And the Chief Medical Officer from one of his companies has recently reached out to Ambrosia. Thiel has said that his interest in this type of anti-aging treatment is purely personal, but it does raise some questions. In the future, will companies funded by billionaires be able to cure aging? And will immortality involve the rich draining the life energy of the young and poor?

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from Blog – Deep English http://deepenglish.com/2016/10/billionaire-interested-young-peoples-blood/

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