PBS News: Teaching students how to combat traumas of poverty on the yoga mat

On 3rd March 2014, PBS News online posted a video report in the TOPICS > Health section titled: Teaching students how to combat traumas of poverty on the yoga mat.

 

The blurb went as follows:

"At Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto, Calif., 7th graders are learning yoga as a way to cope with the stress of life in a community rife with homelessness, shootings and gang war trauma. By teaching these children to pay close attention to their breathing and movements, Stanford University researchers are hoping they will focus better in school and beyond. Jeffrey Brown reports."

The main focus of the report was on how young students from neglected homes were suffering from PTSD which is being understood to hamper their ability to focus and study in school. Mindfulness is being brought in to help the students to heal and learn more.

Here are some key quotes from the transcript:

"DR. VICTOR CARRION: So the issue that we have with stress and chronic stress, and when it manifests as a PTSD syndrome or disorder is that some of the areas that are affected are areas that we need for our learning. For example, brain centers that process memory, brain centers that process executive function are particularly vulnerable. So PTSD can have an effect in how children learn.
[...]
MARQUEL COATS: I have seen tremendous, like, growth in students from being in mindfulness, from, like, kids that have attitudes are quick to get upset about something, breathing and taking it slower, and then saying, you know, I didn’t like that or please don’t do that, as opposed to lashing out."