Reading, writing and yoga classes?
Yoga used to be something that Warren Owen associated with hippy culture.
The Lower Hutt principal now wants the Ministry of Education to include yoga in the national curriculum.
Pupils at Waterloo School were introduced to yoga via a Hutt City Council programme, which he said the kids loved.
Although the benefits of increased physical flexibility are worthwhile, he said it was the impact on young minds and the sense of wellbeing that impressed him.
‘‘I do not have any hard scientific evidence on calmness, but the teachers are reporting back to me that the children are feeling much more relaxed.’’
He admitted that yoga was a long way from traditional physical education, but said people should have an open mind.
‘‘Even 10 years ago, if you said yoga people would look at you sideways and think you were new-aged and a bit touched.’’
Yoga calmed the mind and provided children with a way of dealing with stress and anxiety, he said. Anxiety was becoming an increasing problem in youth and society needed to find ways of dealing with it.
‘‘To be honest, I think it would be almost negligent if we do not have something like this in the curriculum.’’
The Ministry of Education’s acting deputy secretary of early learning and student achievement, Pauline Cleaver, said the current curriculum already had the flexibility required to allow yoga.
Health and physical education was one of the required learning areas and schools could choose yoga, she said.
Associate education professor Joanna Higgins, from Victoria University of Wellington’s school of education, said that educators were becoming increasingly aware of the importance of mindfulness and wellbeing.