What do yoga and learning have in common?

"The effects of yoga on students is still being studied, but it has been shown to reduce stress, improve focus and school performance, foster creativity, and improve self-esteem and body image. All outcomes that create healthy students eager to do well in school,” the Seventy-Four said.

As a result, more and more schools across the country are increasingly investing in learning programs that bring yoga into the classroom under the belief that it will help create healthier students.

According to Northside Charter School teacher Marissa Lipovsky, since the school began using Bent on Learning to teach yoga, suspensions and expulsions have decreased.

"Yoga was introduced to the school in the 2014-15 school year, and she sees it helping her students’ minds as well as their bodies,” she told the Seventy-Four.

"Lipovsky’s aim with her students is to exercise both in her yoga class, discussing emotional qualities such as empathy and forgiveness, and how the different poses can facilitate them. And it’s working.”

Teenagers who talked to the Seventy-Four said they appreciate having the option to participate in yoga because it helps them relieve stress. One teenager said it was crucial in helping her transition to high school.

And it has the potential to be especially helpful for students with mental health needs.

"In Litchfield, Minnesota, one teacher uses yoga techniques to calm and focus her students who are primarily classified with emotional behavior disorder,” the article said.

Indeed, Bent on Learning is a non-profit that was founded post-911 to help students in the schools surrounding Ground Zero "manage post-traumatic stress following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”

15 years later, the program has expanded from the original 10 schools it was designed for to having a waitlist of over 40 schools.

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

2/4/2016