Yoga in school

Tara Guber has created a unique program to help students focus. Some teachers claim the program not only accomplishes that goal, but also helps calm students and may even reduce childhood obesity. Others claim it helps prevents discipline problems and improve grades.

Researchers at California State University studied the program and concluded there was a positive correlation between the practice of this program and better behavior and grades. They also discovered students involved were more physically fit.

Their study, conducted during the 2002-2003 academic year, documented the improvement in student fitness, self-esteem and behavior. When comparing the scores on the state physical fitness exam to other schools in the school district, students using the program performed significantly better on nearly all fitness tasks, and overall, outshone the rest of the district. 89% of the fifth-graders in the program passed the fitness exam, compared to only 66% of the district, and among the seventh-graders, 91% of those in the program passed, whereas only 63% of other seventh-graders passed. The study also noted significant correlations between student participation in the program and fewer discipline referrals, increases in student self-esteem after a year of instruction, and even an improvement in grades.

Sound too good to be true?

More than 100 schools in 26 states have adopted Tara Gruber's "Yoga Ed." and many are lining up to applaud it. The federal government may even provide a grant to physical education teachers who complete a teacher training course in it.

In 2002 Tara Gruber thought it would be a good idea to teach yoga to her students. Her proposal brought a hailstorm of protest. Yoga was seen as an extension of the Hindu religion and did not seem an appropriate activity for public school students. So Gruber "stripped every piece of anything that anyone could vaguely construe as spiritual or religious out of the program." The result is "Yoga Ed."

The program develops a health/wellness curriculum that uses the physiological, emotional and educational benefits of yoga and creative play, and distributes them to children, teachers and parents through schools and communities nationwide.

The cornerstone is a belief that physical, mental and emotional health is directly correlated with academic success and fulfillment in life.

Yoga Ed. models and teaches yoga education that develops what the medical profession has determined are the two key contributors to lifetime health and wellness:

• Self-awareness
• Self-management and self-care

1. Yoga Ed. K-8 Curriculum for students as Physical Education
2. Tools for Teachers Program for classroom teachers to enhance health and learning

• Yoga is non-competitive
• Yoga requires staying present
• Yoga is practical, low cost preventative medicine
• Yoga serves as the counter pose to the challenges of modern life
• Yoga promotes physical, mental and emotional health
• Yoga expands and enriches awareness and sense of self
• Yoga brings inner harmony through experience and connection