Education system was always meant to be holistic and integrative. This applies especially in a fast changing world like today where the question of whether yoga should be made a part of physical education in public schools is gaining attention.
The student curriculum these days not only involve the annual examinations. But includes lack of physical activities, stress, mental health concerns, sedentary lifestyles and an increasing awareness about overall welding.
This is where schools globally are approaching to include practices like yoga as a part of the education system. Traditionally yoga was never meant to be just an outlet for physical expression or flexibility. It was meant to be a comprehensive practice that included the body, mind and the breath work.
But the main question is whether it can fit in into a structured environment like public schools. Let us dive into exploring if it is possible to include it as a part of physical education in schools and what could be the possible challenges.
The rising demand for holistic wellness
Students these days face many kinds of challenges that are more than just the academic pressure, peer pressure, digital overload, increased screen time, very low to zero physical activity and growing levels of anxiety and stress.
So the idea of physical education in schools had until now been limited to including drills or PT or running and certain sports games. Well these are also important, they may not include the emotional and mental well being as inclusively as yoga does.
So including yoga caters to the growing demand for holistic wellness by bringing a balance between physical, mental and emotional elements as well as providing a holistic model for education.
Physical benefits for the growing students
Yoga as physical education obviously supports traditional sports. Yoga is known for its flexibility and mobility aspects so automatically including yoga classes will enhance the student’s posture and contribute to balance and coordination.
The best part about yoga is that unlike sports and games, yoga is not competitive but it is accessible and adaptable so students across all kinds of fitness levels and age groups can perform yoga with ease.
Boosts mental health and management of emotions
It is no surprise that mental health and emotional well being is a major concerns for students of the modern age. This is because students in addition to dealing with the academic pressure are also struggling with competition, lack of performance, proving themselves, being up to mark as well as other concerns that create anxiety and restlessness.
This is where yoga comes in as an excellent practice that boosts mental well-being and supports better regulation of emotions. Students will not only help to manage their stress levels in a healthy manner but also improve their concentration as well as their academic performance.
Builds self-care and discipline
Benefits of school yoga include boosting self care rituals and building discipline in addition to the physical benefits. Yoga not just enhances one’s posture correction and better alignment but also builds quality is like patience, emotional control, discipline and self awareness.
So yoga encourages one to support healthy growth rather than competition. This in turn helps the students to build confidence and develop endurance and resilience as well as better understand themselves.
Promotes inclusivity
One of the biggest advantages of student yoga is that it promotes yoga for student fitness
In addition to promoting inclusivity and accessibility perhaps. This is the biggest strength of yoga that it can be practiced across children of various age groups and fitness backgrounds.
Whether or not a child is perfectly flexible does not matter in the field of yoga. Yoga concentrates on progressive growth rather than Mandating physical limitations so students can freely enjoy bending themselves in yoga. This creates a powerful tool as inclusive education and allows the students to participate meaningfully.
Challenges
Cultural and religious concerns
When major challenge regarding including yoga in public schools could be the cultural and religious concerns. Often yoga philosophy is associated with certain spiritual traditions and traditional practises, like mantra chanting etc. which some communities may not feel very comfortable with.
Therefore, respecting the cultural sensitivities, explaining the parents to overcome the religious associations would be challenging. So schools can make sure to keep a secular and inclusive approach while they bring in yoga.
Therefore, including only the physical posters or the breath work techniques and the relaxation practices can be helpful and some religious elements can be removed. For yoga to be included as a wellness practise rather than a religious or a spiritual activity.
Implementation challenges
The next challenge is the training and the implementation. Often there is scarcity of trained instructors or simply for the school having a standardised curriculum or even time constraints to fit yoga as a weekly class in the already existing time packed schedules.
Therefore, the school requires to hire properly trained teachers who are adapt in alignment practices and safety of the students along with being compassionate and clear in their communication to the students.
Global growth and appeal of yoga
Today yoga holds a global growth and appeal. Even outside India many countries are inculcating yoga into their education systems. Many schools in Europe as well as the United States have yoga sessions and mindfulness sessions in the school curriculum to cater to the student’s mental and emotional well-being.
Even outside the schools wellness seekers globally wanting to expand in their yoga practise and therefore approaching yoga school in goa to seek authentic yoga classes as well as Yoga teacher training courses such as the 200 hours yoga teacher training goa that happens to be a foundational course in Yoga.
This course offers not just alignment based asana practices, but teaching methodology, yoga philosophy, breath work techniques, meditation etc along with excellent career opportunities to grow professionally in this area.
