By Candida Vassallo

For this essay, I will show how Yoga for Children will and can work in schools and how it can be included as part of the school curriculum, thereby giving our children opportunity for improved health and wellbeing, and a very valuable life tool. As it is an account of an actual Yoga program I designed and implemented, I have found it important to give a brief history of how the idea evolved, before implementation and design. This, I believe is relevant to the topic of Yoga for Children, and fits with several aspects of Yoga philosophy (ie Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Hatha Yoga and some Raja Yoga). It is this preliminary thinking and preparation, I believe, which contributes to the (Yogic) essence of the completed program and its delivery.

Yoga for Children is a topic very close to my heart and as such in early 2002 I began work on designing a program for children to be used in schools.

I called this program Heart Matters. This name, to me, is most appropriate for such a thing, as having worked in a school since 1988, I have seen many children troubled and handicapped by physical, mental and emotional problems, and at the same time, saw many teachers troubled and handicapped in those three ways, but for different reasons than the children. This is on top of the usual everyday school and life stresses which trouble children and teachers and indeed all of us. There was (and is) very much a need for children (and indeed for us all) to feel better in order to be and do better. I realized from the often-times horrors that I saw (drug overdoses, attempted suicides, self-harming as in self-cutting etc., as well as extreme behavior issues stemming from mental/emotional stresses to ADHD and other problems) that no amount of rationalization on its own, was going to penetrate the hearts and minds of these children, and so no positive change could occur. My thinking was and is, that unless one feels better (as opposed to feeling bad for whatever reason) one could not be or do better. The mental aspect was not enough to push through the dark clouds of emotional/mental stress, depression and the like, hanging over these children, to make a positive difference to their behavior, their health or their learning.

I felt strongly that I was in a position to offer a way to make this difference, given my background of study with a spiritual teacher – a Yogacharya (Yogacharya Devidasan Giri, affiliation with Gitananda Ashram, Pondicherry, India) (as of present day my study with him has spanned 12 years, mostly weekly and lately fortnightly, without a break except for 4 weeks over Christmas-times); my teaching diploma and also my deep motivation and passion to pass on my knowledge and experience, particularly in an area such as this, the educative system, with which I was so familiar.

So how does one feel better? To me the answer is clear – through the heart. So I set about to design a program that would connect with the heart of both students and teachers, and be practical for both parties as they influence each other in normal everyday school life, so for this program to work, it also needed to be a tandem effort. It would create a kind of unity within the minds and hearts of students and teachers individually and would also unite them as a group. What better way than through Yoga – the ultimate union.

What then, were the key aspects needing to be taught through this Yoga program? As I said earlier, Heart Matters evolved with the main focus being “feeling better”, in order to ‘do’ and ‘be’ better. My belief is that this can be done by teaching children the necessary skills for the enhancement of calm, mental alertness, focus, physical and emotional resilience, correct posture and general wellbeing – skills that are essential not just in the classroom, but throughout life – and that was another of my aims, to equip students with some fundamental life skills – through Yoga. Unfortunately, in this part of the world, the student is still only seen as an academic/mentally based being, and not much teaching if any, goes into the other aspects of the person, as in the emotional and spiritual. Even with the physical, often this is only looked at from a surface view as in providing physical education and sports programs without considering or integrating any other influences to physical wellbeing, as in emotional and spiritual.

From there a lot of thinking time transpired as to how I would actually implement the program, before I had even thought of the aspects of Yoga I would put in the program. I realized that for me to deliver this in classrooms would be a more than full time occupation, without even thinking of the obstacles of the Education Department accepting and employing me for this project. In 2002, as indeed I believe it is still so now, although not as strongly, there was much more thought by authority powers, given to why this sort of inclusion into the school curriculum couldn’t/shouldn’t be, rather than to why it could/should. No one really wanted to touch such a thing because it was different and new (to this part of the world), it would arouse questions by certain religious groups and parent groups (which it did, to me personally) and I believe these authority powers just didn’t have the insights or expanded vision, or courage to give such a project at least some serious consideration. Although I certainly did try to get them on board.

At the time I was working my own health business on a part-time basis and a part of that was teaching relaxation, meditation, stress management and Yoga to staff members of schools (and was also being asked to run the odd one-off 6-week program and single sessions for students). As well I was being asked to do the same for various other workplaces, from a wellbeing and occupational health perspective. So I realized that people generally were interested and open to participating in this sort of thing in this way – as they would not be held accountable in any way – only I, as the private facilitator/presenter would be. So it became clear to me that if I could offer Heart Matters out of school hours, and as part of my personal business, train teachers to present it to their students, which meant that teachers paid me and they could claim the cost and the hours as Professional Learning, that this would be my and the program’s best chance. From this perspective I would not need to get the whole of the Education Department on board, just my local school Principal and the teachers, and from there other schools would come on board – and this proved not to be too difficult, as I had been in the school system for many years, was known and thankfully trusted. So emerged Heart Matters, for which I am very grateful to the people who trusted me.

I set about designing a program of Yoga for teachers to present to students. This program would need to fit into the school curriculum both for content and duration (so as not to take up set curriculum time during the day, as this would make it unworkable for teachers to include in their day). Whilst teachers were permitted and willing to present the program, they still were not given the time for it, within the curriculum – they had to fit it in – so this narrowed the coverage down a bit as not all teachers were willing to make this effort.

The content of Heart Matters would focus on mental, emotional and physical resilience, physical strength and wellbeing.

My teacher alerted me to an excellent text, which I very gratefully used as a reference, entitled Yoga Education for Children, by Swami Satyananda Saraswati (founder of the Bihar School of Yoga). This book is written as “a guideline for teachers of Yoga to children and based on a considerable number of years of experience and takes into account requirements of children of different ages, abilities and disabilities, as well as some of the constraints imposed by the teaching environments”. It is excellent in many ways, not the least of which is that Swami had been a teacher of English in France, and used Yoga extensively in his classroom. So for me to train teachers and to be able to say my references were from a teacher, who understood classroom demands and accountability, made my job so much easier, in terms of credibility. This was a very important aspect, because if the teachers didn’t believe (and feel for themselves) what I was teaching, then they could not effectively teach it to their students. Also, most if not all schools in South Australia, have a Special Education program catering for children with physical and mental disabilities. My school had the largest of these programs in the state, and I was very keen to make Heart Matters available to both the teachers and students of this program, as Swami Satyananda wrote a special section for children with disabilities, and likewise, when I designed Heart Matters, I devoted a special section, a whole term, to Yoga for the disabled.

Yoga for disabled children (and adults) works very well as it connects them to their heart, their inner self, which is not disabled and is most often the place from where these children shine. It becomes something they look forward to and it brings them joy. Also because they can be like all the other children in the class and not seen to be different. This assimilation of course, occurs for children who are not severely physically or mentally disabled. For those who are, it still works as I have said above, except that I would work with them as a group separately from the mainstream.

As I said earlier, my focus was for children to feel better in order to be better, and I knew that Yoga would do this even if it was in a seemingly small way (although I knew there would be nothing small about it). As well, my aim was to visibly engage the whole person, that is body, mind and spirit (which naturally occurs with Yoga practice but perhaps is not so visible to the novice teacher and student). In order to facilitate this, I knew that firstly, at least improved breathing needed to occur, then the physical body needed to be strengthened, and for mental calm and clarity, relaxation in the form guided imagery needed to also occur – the integration of these three aspects would then engage the spirit to some degree at least.

To that end, Heart Matters Yoga program is specifically for teachers to present to students for the purpose of teaching skills to enhance calm, mental alertness, focus, physical and emotional resilience, correct posture, and wellbeing. The three aspects I speak of above (which comprise the whole Heart Matters session) I broke down for the information of teachers, students and parents as follows:

• Yoga poses for physical wellbeing, flexibility, resilience, posture and balance

• Breath awareness for wellbeing, mental alertness, focus, concentration and clarity

• Relaxation – guided imagery – to enhance calm, clarity and wellbeing

These three segments work together to give the student the above skills and allow the reconnection with the Heart – so that the Heart and Mind can work together.

In everyday busy-ness it is easy to lose connection with the Heart and to operate solely from the Mind. There has been a lot of positive feedback from teachers and students about Heart Matters, as the program has resulted in many benefits for all involved.

Heart Matters is presented each day for 15-20 minutes, usually at the start of the day, but not necessarily or exclusively. It comprises the 3 segments above (Yoga Asanas, Pranayama and Guided Imagery/Relaxation), which work beautifully together, with each session fitting into no more than half an hour – ideally it can fit into 20 minutes (10 minutes for each segment) but of course, it also takes a few minutes to organise a class.

There are 4 levels to Heart Matters, one for each term of the year, and each level is sequential and progressive, so it is a program for the whole of the school year. With this, students have enough time to notice and also feel their improvement and skill growing, and teachers have the year to make assessments of their students, themselves and their teaching. Importantly, the aim is also to see these improvements in life outside the classroom, i.e., in the home, the playground, within their social circles etc., and this is re-enforced throughout the practise of the program. So Yoga becomes a living science for students and teachers, which they can live and use forever if they so wish. I also designed an assessment sheet for each term where teachers could map the improvements in their students and overall class, also their own teaching performance.

Within each term there are six separate sessions, one per week, for six weeks. So the same session is done every day for a week, then teachers move on to the next session for the following week, and so it goes. Whilst the school term is usually at least 10 weeks, I made the levels of six weeks duration, so as to make it easier for teachers to fit it in as at the beginning and end of each term, there are usually other extras they need to fit in and also so that Heart Matters could fit into school life and not take on a stress factor.

Heart Matters greatly benefits teachers as well, by the calm and focus it generates by merely presenting the program. This enhances teaching and learning with focused attention, and provides a calmer and therefore more receptive classroom and a calmer and healthier teacher. In feedback I have received over the years, particular benefits are experienced in relation to physical wellness, to study and exams and the program has specifically shown benefits in subjects including English, story writing, maths, art and physical education. Older students have reported improvements in their sleeping, as in getting to sleep and sleeping better

Teachers attend professional learning sessions (from me) for 6 weeks every term (4 terms) for one hour per week, to learn and feel confident with presenting the weekly sessions to their students. The program is progressive and spans for the whole of the school year. Each week builds on the previous week’s sessions and the program can then be presented to subsequent classes the teacher may have, year after year.

Below are some testimonials from teachers

“Students are calmer, more appreciative and aware of others; keen to discuss the sessions”

“More productive overall”

“A great opportunity for relaxation all round and hence provides improved output”

“Sensed a ‘greater calm’, more focus”

“Calmer, smoother transition into a task”

“Is an important part of anyone’s life; creates balance but needs to be practiced”

“Students much quieter, more focused”

Students ask when doing Heart Matters again, don’t like it when I say ‘not today’ “

“Of benefit to the curriculum”

“I have learned valuable skills which can be used as an extra teaching tool”

“Has helped to develop students’ physical wellbeing”

“Helps me to bring my class to order when unruly or excited by an unexpected event”

“I can use parts of it, particularly the breathing, many times during the day to refocus the class and myself”

“The calm atmosphere is almost tangible when the students are doing Heart Matters, particularly during the breathing and relaxation”

“More orderly and calmer thinking”

This last comment related to a particular incident in when a reception child brought the teacher’s attention to the ‘caterpillar’ at the door. It was regarding how children left their shoes before entering the room for Heart Matters. At first they would throw off their shoes and they would all be in a pile. After a while, the shoes were (without any prompting from the teacher) lined up, two by two in order at the door – looking like a ‘caterpillar’. This to me is Living Yoga!

I believe that my account of this program and how Yoga for Children can be implemented is a living example of what is possible for our children and indeed our future through the practice of Yoga. It is also an example of how our established and entrenched western educative system can hold us all back. I think of Paramhansa Yogananda with his Ranchi School in India, and his close disciple Swami Kriyananda with his Ananda Schools in the United States. Both amazingly dynamic and gigantic human beings and incarnated souls, who worked tirelessly for the educative system and its evolution, and I am saddened to say that it seems to me that the people who need to be listening (those with authority and power) seem not to be. However, I passionately believe it will come about, in time….. the inclusion of skills for living, at least in part, with Yoga being accepted and indeed considered necessary, in our educative systems throughout the world.

Om Tat Sat

Tathaastu: So Be It

Candida Vassallo is a Yoga teacher from South Australia.

www.ntpages.com.au/therapist/15944

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http://www.oneworldretreats.com/ubud_bali_yoga_retreat_candida.php