In a traditional school gym of basketball hoops, 3-point lines and climbing ropes, Colfax Elementary students are practicing downward-facing dog, breathing techniques and cobra poses.
Yoga has become a weekly ritual in this school off West Colfax Avenue, where students on Mondays and Tuesdays grab yoga mats and learn to balance, stretch and relax.
“It’s fun, you get to learn new moves and it helps us to exercise,” said Brianna Rivera, 9.
“You feel more relaxed,” said her friend Maria Esquivel, 9. “You just feel so good.”
The yoga curriculum is courtesy of the Wellness Initiative – a Boulder-based nonprofit run by Debbie Huttner, a former media executive who is bringing the ancient Eastern exercise to 14 metro schools.
Huttner’s goal is to improve the physical, mental and emotional health of children through nutrition, yoga, stress reduction and integrated wellness programs – especially for low-income students.
“This is to reach kids who would never be exposed to yoga or whose parents may have never been exposed to yoga,” Huttner said.
The organization has received grants and donations to bring yoga to about 800 students in Denver and Boulder.
The money pays for an instructor. Mats have been donated, and the curriculum is meant to help children with troubled lives learn to deal with stress while getting some exercise, Huttner said.
“It really helps with their focus,” said Colfax fourth-grade teacher Kristin Gruebmeyer. “It’s hopefully something they can take with them.”
Phys-ed teacher losses
The fully funded program is particularly welcome in Denver Public Schools because the district has lost 32 percent of its full-time physical education teachers since 2002, said Eric Larson, DPS’s physical education coordinator.
Today, DPS averages about 80 minutes of phys ed per week for elementary-school students. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education recommends 150 minutes per week. Increased study time has cut into phys ed and budget cuts have reduced the number of teachers, Larson said.
Studies have shown that students with high levels of fitness also have high academic achievement, Larson said, referencing a 2002 California Department of Education study.
“When a student exercises, it helps them in the classroom,” Larson said. And yoga is a good fit, he said.
“Yoga meets our P.E. standards – skills and fitness,” he said. “It gets the kids active, getting them moving and we’ll look into anything that gets kids active.”
A bow to sensitivities
On a recent morning at Colfax Elementary, instructor Allyson Levine worked about two dozen shoeless children into a variety of poses – “the dancer,” “the bow pose” and “twisting dragon.”
Each pose ended with students clasping their hands in front of their chests in a classic namaste pose. In this public-school setting, however, the pose is called “mountain,” to remove its religious connotation.
All connections to the Hindu origins of yoga have been removed from the curriculum, which was a lesson learned from a battle in 2002 when yoga was introduced in Aspen schools, Huttner said.
“We don’t say ‘Om,”‘ she said. “Instead we say ‘Home.”‘
The morning session at Colfax includes a “sun salutation” and ends with students reclining on mats, eyes closed, imagining themselves in a garden where the pressures of their young lives lift and float away.
The yoga curriculum is meant to get the blood moving as well as helping kids learn to relax, said Tom Barela, phys ed teacher at Colfax Elementary.
“The kids come out of here and they are relaxed and focused,” he said. “You have to be aware of your body and space and your breathing. It’s very cerebral.”
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Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer may be reached at 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
