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

In less than eight minutes of must-watch reporting, the PBS News Hour did considerably more than showcase an innovative mindfulness program at a California school. It featured a caring principal who spoke eloquently about the stressors experienced by the Cesar Chavez Academy student body that has a homeless rate of 50 percent, and a faculty member of the Stanford University School of Medicine and head of the Early Life Stress Research Program who described the impact of adverse childhood experiences on the brain. The segment is an outstanding tutorial for general audiences about how early life experiences impact brain development and subsequent learning and success in life. 

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.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/low-income-students-combat-stress-mindfulness/