teaching pre-adolescent boys

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam and Happy Holidays:

 

I have just begun teaching a small group of 11-12 yo boys at a

residential treatment center. The children there are wards of the

state and have many behavioral/emotional, learning problems.

 

It is a challenging group and their ability to focus and follow

direction seems to vary from moment to moment. In some ways they are

more challenging than younger children. They seem to enjoy tuning in

and chanting mantras together. When I teach them sets with vigorous

asanas they tire very easily.

 

Would appreciate suggestions from the community. The director, the

head of recreation therapy and I all believe the children can benefit

from the yoga.

 

Blessings and thank you

 

Wahe Guru kaur/Lee

Temple City, CA

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam!

 

I taught the same age group of boys in Australia over the past two

years as part of a behavioural program at their public school. All

the boys (32 to begin with!) came from broken homes, very low income

families, and have witnessed or experienced all kinds of abuse. Their

stories make you want to take them home and keep them safe.

 

Our first task was to get the group size and make-up right, allowing

enough personal attention and avoiding personality conflicts within

the groups. We ended up with groups of 6-8 as a maximum.

 

I rarely taught kriyas to the boys, for the exact reason you shared -

they just got too tired. Remember Kundalini Yoga brings up so much

emotionally and it takes energy to process. Plus children are far

more sensitive than adults, so need more relaxation and 'recovery'

time to do this processing.

 

I taught them based on Shakta Kaur's Radiant Child Yoga Program,

(www.childrensyoga.com) keeping the class engaging and interesting

through stories some weeks and other weeks through personal

challenges. This works really well with boys - you keep a record,

even a chart, of their PERSONAL progress in holding different poses.

My boys favourites were table pose, front platform, crow pose and

shoulder stand. They also loved having penguin races (walking on your

knees holding your ankles behind you) and doing what they

called 'yoga wresting' (bundle roll across a room and back but

without waiting for the previous person to finish so you end up with

them rolling over each other - they invented this one!).

 

The boys responded well to guided relaxation too - yoga nidra rather

than a story or using their own imagination. Most preferred for the

room to be completely dark during relaxation and some needed to cover

themselves - particularly when there is a history of abuse, the cover

gives a sense of security. I used a small torch(flashlight) so the

boys could see me - again to keep them feeling same and secure.

 

I found they either loved the gong, or hated it, there was no in

between. I think for the ones who hated it, it was just too much for

where they were at. I generally used instrumental relaxation music

and sometimes they would bring in their own music too.

 

Meditation was fun with them, they loved doing Sa Ta Na Ma but

changed it to almost a rap version with " I said " in between each

round.

 

The boys and their teachers all loved Tuesdays - the boys because

they got to do yoga, and were in a class where they were never yelled

at or in trouble. And the teachers because the boys always returned

calm and focussed for the rest of the day. In the year end video last

year, when asked the best thing about school that year two of 'my

boys' responsed " yoga with Penny because she teaches us how to calm

down and relax " . I cried when I saw it.

 

I learnt just as much from them as they learnt from me, probably

more. Remember to trust yourself, and trust the boys. We are all

teachers, we are all doers, we are all students.

 

Peace Joy and Abundance to all

Sat Shabad (Penny).