Yoga Calm Fundamentals: A More Holistic Approach to Physical Education

Physical education is a crucial part of a child's overall education. It presents unlimited opportunities to instill healthy habits while supporting her cognitive growth and development.

However, ask a random group of adults what they remember from PE class and you'll probably hear more than a few horror stories. Being chosen last for team sports. Being mocked on the field or in the locker room. Every day dreading the 50 minutes spent in the gym.

Judging by the title of an article in The AtlanticIt seems like not much has changed, at least in some schools around the country: “Gym class is so bad that kids skip school to avoid it.”

A mandate does not achieve its objectives

The evidence supporting that headline came courtesy of a working paper on a physical education mandate from the state of Texas, intended to improve physical fitness, academic performance and behavior. Not only did they not see any significant improvement; “They found that the program… actually had detrimental effects, correlating with an increase in discipline and absenteeism rates.”

Bullying was a major reason for this.

Students are more likely to be bullied in high school than at any other time in their academic careers, and physical education presents a particularly ripe opportunity for abuse, whether because the class forces them to wear a locker room, where adult supervision is limited, or because it facilitates teasing of overweight or unathletic children.

Another factor? Many physical education programs take a superficial approach,

conceive of physical activity as little more than a timed run around the track, for example, or a game of kickball, and this results in worse offers. And then, when students feel forced to take these basic offerings, they may resent classes more than they otherwise would.

Movement throughout the day

what is needed, the Atlantic As the article suggests, it is a more holistic approach to physical education, where movement opportunities are woven throughout the school day so that movement is understood as intrinsic to everyday activities.

In fact, physical activity is not only essential for children's physical health and development, but also helps regulate their nervous system and mental health. This is how they develop a strong sensory system. It is also essential for establishing lifelong health habits.

What's more, we now know that our brains developed to function better while we move. The brain, as neuroscientist John Medina says teaches, craves movement as much as the body does, not just in short moments but throughout the day. In fact, it reports that our ancestors walked more than 10 miles a day.

Yoga Calm provides several tool sets to address this need, being adaptable for use in conventional physical education classes; In fact, we have a 30-page HPERD curriculum guide for that purpose (you can download a free copy). here) – as well as in the classroom, where it can be used to prepare children for cognitive learning, transitions, or even integrate it with academic lessons.

You can read more about one physical education specialist (and Minnesota High School Teacher of the Year)'s experience incorporating Yoga Calm. here.

SEL: The missing link

But Yoga Calm offers something more: a social-emotional component that addresses the types of empathy and emotional intelligence deficits that fuel the type of bullying observed by the working paper's authors.

Because bullying isn't just a problem in physical education class.

As we have pointed out before, empathy – one of the main skills that can be fostered through a comprehensive SEL curriculum – is key to curbing bullying and other negative behaviors. Mindfulness activities, community-building exercises, student leadership of yoga flows, guided relaxations, and the like help foster more positive relationships and a more supportive atmosphere, one in which bullying becomes much rarer. .

The social-emotional skills and practices they learn are also completely portable. They are resourceful children, and so are their teachers! – can turn outside of school to deal with various stresses and concerns. In fact, a Wayne State University study of the Yoga Calm program at a low-socioeconomic Detroit-area elementary school found that 72% of students reported spontaneous use of Yoga Calm techniques to deal with anger. , aggression and the need to regulate outside of class. and domestic environments.

And their social-emotional learning can also be totally combined with the physical movement they need to thrive. That's about as holistic as it gets.

Updated since the original