Encouraging Wellness

Through the Wellness Program, students receive instruction to promote making healthy choices.
This instruction focuses on the benefits of good nutritional choices, healthy habits, exercise, and fitness.

The NTSD Wellness Program also includes Transcendental Meditation (TM). The rest technique is offered to students in grades five through eight to promote deep rest which promotes alertness and attention to studies. Students meditate during homeroom for ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes at the end of the day in the school gym.

TM is a physical technique—there are no beliefs associated with the program. Parental approval is required for TM instruction. The Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse of Detroit’s TM program began in 1996 and in past years has been funded by Daimler Chrysler, General Motors, and the Liebler Foundation. Over the past five years, it has been funded by the David Lynch Foundation.
The University of Michigan Alternative Medicine Department used NTSD students practicing TM in a recent study on children and stress . The school’s TM program has been featured on the Today Show and in Time Magazine in 2003. NTSD has served as a model for TM programs that have recently been initiated in many of the suburban and urban schools on the nation’s east and west coasts.