Yoga in Schools

Yoga teachers, parents, and educators team up to bring yoga to elementary schoolchildren.

By Jodi Mardesich

Although kids' yoga has been catching on in studios over the past few years, not all families have the means to send their children to classes at $15-$20 a pop. Another venue is growing, however: More and more public and private schools are welcoming yoga and integrating it into the curriculum.

"Most kids don't have nannies, or parents who aren't working, who can drive them to yoga class after school," says Leah Kalish, director of Yoga Ed., a Los Angeles-based yoga-education training company. "When it's offered at school, it's a huge relief, even for people of resource. Let it be part of their basic education."

Yoga isn't becoming part of the national elementary school curriculum any time soon. But it is showing up in physical education programs, recess and break-period activities, and even classrooms, integrated into topics including mathematics, art, and science.

Three organizations—YogaKids, of Long Beach, Indiana; Yoga Ed., of Los Angeles; and Yoga'd Up, of London—have launched training programs that educate yoga teachers and school teachers in the U.S. and the U.K. on how to adapt their teaching to appeal to the short attention spans and special needs of young children. These programs also help yoga teachers get established in school systems, get funding for their programs, and, in some cases, go on to become educators who train the teachers who will ultimately integrate yoga into the classroom.

Yoga as a Learning Tool

All three programs use movement as an integrative method for learning. "When you give [kids] yoga poses, use visualization, and allow them to move their bodies, their whole learning ability goes up several notches," says Marsha Wenig, founder of YogaKids. Yoga Ed.'s Kalish agrees that children learn best by doing. "When you teach kids, it's not about telling them—it's about creating experiences for them where they connect the dots, and create new dots."

"The YogaKids program helps children learn how to control their energy so that they can focus and concentrate better," adds Amy Haysman, coordinator of the program. "It teaches breathing techniques and poses that help them think more clearly." For example, bunny breath, short inhalations through the nose and a long exhale through the mouth, can energize kids who need to get focused in order to take a test. Haysman has been hired by schools in Georgia to incorporate yoga into academic classes and physical education programs. In one program, called "Reading Comes Alive with Yoga," teachers take a book, picture, or story and practice yoga poses associated with animals or objects in the story. "It helps the kids feel like they're not passively listening. It's interactive," Haysman says.

The Opportunity: Marketing to School Teachers

The market for teaching yoga to children is largely untapped. As yoga has caught on with adults, the number of yoga teachers has mushroomed. According to Yoga Alliance, there were a few more than 2,000 registered yoga teachers in the U.S. five years ago. Today there are more than 14,000. By contrast, relatively few are trained to teach children's yoga in schools.

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