Publication Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Balancing act
Balancing act
(January 28, 2004) Paly task force unveils trial programs
by Rachel Metz
The battle against student stress could soon claim another victory, if a Palo Alto High School task force has anything to say.
Thanks to the school's balance task force -- which works on reducing student stress by balancing academic, extracurricular and leisure activities - several stress-reduction moves will be in full force this month.
The task force is one of several that evolved from last year's evaluation of Paly and Gunn high schools by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. In that evaluation, the association stated the schools need to reduce student stress.
The balance task force, which includes about 15 students, teachers and staff members, began working this past fall. It's led by Paly's student activities director, Joann Vaars, and Paly guidance counselor, Susan Shultz. The group is responsible for implementing a third of the school's three goals for this school year, which deal with reducing student stress and improving health by balancing academic, leisure and extracurricular activities.
The other two deal with helping students develop skills for life after high school and improving the academic performance of underrepresented minority students.
In May the task force will recommend ways students can balance their lives to the school's educational council. But first, the group wants to pilot potential projects such as an after-school yoga class and lunchtime breathing exercises.
The group will also look at the results of a districtwide survey that will examine how students balance extracurricular, leisure and academic activities. The task force is hoping to use results of the survey, which should be conducted this spring, to help reach its goals.
Such projects could help alleviate a problem Paly Principal Sandra Pearson thinks is already improving -- time management.
"My sense is teachers ... are conscious of how much time they expect students to put in and how students can effectively study," Pearson said.
The idea for yoga classes came from a student member of the task force, Vaars said. The student had been taking yoga and found it helped her relax and prioritize issues, Vaars said.
Since the committee is supposed to find balance-increasing activities that don't cost money, it ended up turning to Paly English teacher Trinity Klein. Klein isn't a certified yoga instructor, but has taken yoga classes and practiced on her own for the past three years.
"It's hard to run a yoga program without paying an instructor, but fortunately we have a wonderful resource in Trinity Klein," Vaars said.
The class will run after school as an informal drop-in program in Paly's English Resource Center. It is open to all students, as well as staff members if there is room.
Students might not come out en masse -- Klein said staff members seem more interested than the teens -- but it could be beneficial.
"I think it's a good start, and it might be good for people who do have the time," Paly junior class President Aaron Spolin said.
Klein is working with a yoga instructor to put together a sequence of postures. She's also trying to get the yoga studio she attends to lend Paly some blocks and straps to aid in stretching.
The class won't include any complex moves, Klein said, but she hopes participants will continue practicing on their own.
"I think for the people that come to it certainly will be (stress-reducing). Absolutely," she said.
The other relaxation-themed activity is mindfulness breathing, which Vaars said can change how people digest and react to situations.
The breathing exercises will run during lunch twice a week starting in the last week of February and continuing for about a month.
"It's kind of a relaxation of focusing on your breathing and really thinking about it," Vaars said.
Reneé Burgard, a licensed clinical social worker from the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, is expected to run the breathing exercises.
The exercises will teach participating students to relax muscle tension, be aware of their breathing and turn stretches into a simple kind of yoga, Burgard said.
"It looks like the medical foundation might kick in and help us out," Vaars said of funding for that project.
Vaars is raring to go.
"I think it's really exciting. I just I'm waiting to see what the response is," she said.
Rachel Metz can be e-mailed at rmetz@paweekly.com
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