By Elizabeth Herman ┃Posted: August 06, 2018

How can schools and teachers make learning more enjoyable and interesting? Integrating a program for social and emotional health can make a profound difference in the quality and impact of education.

A cutting-edge public middle school in Freeport, NY has incorporated yogic breathing techniques into their curriculum. The purpose of the program is to help students and faculty enhance social-emotional learning, boost grades, and curb disciplinary problems. The program has been met with remarkable results.

“Dr. Kishur Kuchen is the superintendent of the Freeport School District,” says Michael Fischman, in a recent episode of his podcast Back to the Source. “He’s a mild-mannered champion of public education who has made going to school more interesting, safe, and friendly for the students as well as the faculty.”

“Through partnering with the Yes for Schools training program,” he continues, “Dr. Kuchen has brought yoga, breathing and meditation techniques into the school curriculum, as a way for students and staff to handle stress in a healthy way.”​​​​​​

Quotes from the podcast

Fischman explains in his introduction to the interview, “Although kids are quick at communicating with their thumbs, they haven’t developed that skill of making real friends, and they’re really lonely. Today, many students are diagnosed with mental health problems and the suicide rate among teens is ever-increasing…

But in Freeport, Long Island, a small, maritime and suburban village on the south shore of New York, there’s a phenomenon going on!

Students are actually looking forward to going to school everyday. The school system is on the cutting edge of social-emotional learning, and they integrate life lessons on human values such as responsibility, friendliness, and kindness into the classroom.

Freeport is a multicultural, multiracial community. It’s comprised largely of immigrants who come from the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, Haiti, and Guatemala.”

Dr. Kuchen states, “I wanted to bring this gift, these world-class opportunities to our community, our children, our staff, and our families... One of the most critical things that I felt I could pass on was breathing, yoga, and meditation coming to our schools.”

Elizabeth Diallo is a certified Ashtanga Yoga instructor and the school psychologist at Freeport High School. She attended the first Yes Program in Freeport, and says, “I actually piloted the first Yes Program in Freeport… I offer workshops for teaching assistants. I’ve done professional developments for all the departments. I have even taken the students with severe disabilities and modified the curriculum so that they could participate and gain knowledge and skills and that was just so much fun.

I’ve worked with at-risk students, collecting and gathering permission slips and taking them off campus for 2 and 3 hour programs. I utilized the Yes curriculum within my counseling sessions at school, and this year my undertaking is to push into the detention room and deliver some Yes points in there.”

 

Elan Gepner, the Executive Director for Yes for Schools in the U.S., states, “No young person breathes or does a practice because you tell them to. It’s not initially cool, or something they want, but when they have an experience, and they feel better, and they open their eyes and smile and say ‘I haven’t felt this relaxed in my entire life,’ or ‘I haven’t rested like this since I was a baby,’ and you know what they’re dealing with in their life, it’s just the most rewarding work to do. It gives one a sense that anything really is possible for these young people.”

A pioneering model school

Joanne Ligondi, principal of Dodd Middle School, a pioneering model school for the Yes Program in the Freeport School District, says, “I’m actually a Yes for Schools teacher, and when I went for teacher training, I gained a greater understanding of meditation’s impact on people’s lives, and that to me is phenomenal!”

Ligondi continues, “If we want to truly end violence, we need to start with our kids and we need to not talk to them about love but show them love. That’s the real culture of peace. To show them and to tell them, ‘Not only do you matter, you are going to be better than I am.’ I tell my own children that. Well, I call my kids my kids, so I tell my thousand kids that, too. But I have to show them better. So we have to live it. I think that’s the big shift.”

Michael Fischman concludes the podcast, saying, “Education shouldn’t only be about getting good grades. Education should be about creating the best leaders for tomorrow. I think the Yes for Schools training program is on the right track. When teachers and students are provided with tools to manage their own stress, education becomes more well-rounded, with increased awareness, kindness and love. ”

Links

You can find this podcast, “Social Emotional Learning,” at the Back to the Source Radio website. You can also download it from iTunes and Google Play.

By Elizabeth Herman - PhD in English, with concentrations in Rhetoric and Composition, and Literature, she offers writing support to clients, teaches locally, and lives in Boone, NC. With a longtime keen interest in Yoga and Ayurveda, she recently completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training with Sri Sri School of Yoga.