Meeting Students on the Mat: Why Wellness Programs Are Essential in Today's K-12 Classrooms

The students file in as diverse as the clothes they wear. Various grades, mental capabilities, and backgrounds create a blend of students who struggle to get their shoes off, revealing an even more diverse sock selection before sitting down on the mat. Some sit cross-legged with practiced ease, while others rest on the mat as if it were a street curb. No matter their variation in style, every student is thinking the same thing: "What the heck is this? Who is this bald Black man sitting in the middle of the floor, and what is he going to tell me?"

Some students have already developed an exterior that matches the feelings of rejection and self-doubt running through their heads. Others are too busy seeking attention through behaviors and jokes with friends to think much about the person giving them the strange order to remove their shoes before sitting on the mat.

The Changing Landscape of Student Wellness

I never had the opportunity to do yoga at their age. I never heard about it, let alone took a class, until I was in my twenties. When I did join, I was solely looking for ways to stretch my body and preserve my waning athletic physique from high school football. But these kids are part of a newly educated generation that experiences learning with wellness as the background—not just a school counselor, PE coach, or nurse, but wellness rooms, mental health therapists, emotional regulation programs, SEL curriculum, restorative justice, meditation, and much more.

It's a change, but is it enough? Students now have constant internet access in their hands and must navigate COVID's ongoing effects, school shooting drills, the threat of bullying both online and at school—plus, parents are still parents.

The Research: Why Students Need Wellness More Than Ever

The data paints a sobering picture of student stress in today's educational environment. The average student-to-school-counselor ratio was 385:1 in the 2022-2023 school year (vs. the recommended ratio of 250:1), and half of the 12-17 year-olds with depression didn't receive treatment in 2022. Meanwhile, growing awareness shows many subgroups of youth experience high levels of chronic stress, to the extent it impedes their abilities to succeed academically, compromises their mental health functioning, and fosters risk behavior.

The stressors facing today's students are unprecedented. There's always a new threat to our youth, and solutions closely behind. Now that kids can recite the DSM-V and protocol for mental health interventions or look up how to treat their own illnesses, how do we engage students with programs and practices that actually help them deal with being a student in today's world?

The Promise of Social-Emotional Learning

Fortunately, research shows that wellness interventions work. The benefits of social and emotional learning (SEL) are well-researched, with evidence demonstrating that an education that promotes SEL yields positive outcomes for students, adults, and school communities. Studies confirm that SEL programs reduce disruptive behavior problems and emotional distress. Fostering these competencies increases students' engagement in learning and subsequently improves students' cognitive and academic performance.

Even more encouraging, sixty-three percent of public schools using social and emotional learning curriculum in the 2023-2024 school year found that 72% found that the curriculum was moderately, very, or extremely effective in improving student outcomes. The evidence is clear: Social and emotional learning in schools leads to positive outcomes, including better academic performance, and decreases in stress and anxiety.

The Art of Engagement: Meeting Students Where They Are

With students in a circle and me as part of it, I start to study. I listen to the pre-session conversation—who's joking and who's serious about their sixth-grade issues. What curse words they use and how comfortably they use them. Who's on the phone and who's reading a book or staring blankly into space. I offer a fist bump first, and if they have a name tag on or are willing to share their name, I log it into my temporary memory bank along with their face and an obnoxious nickname to help seal it in for the session.

No matter how they come in, we're breathing. Depending on what I see, there could be a breathing challenge or just time to lay down and breathe.

"Let's get ready for the chill challenge," I announce. Some perk up to see what it is; others still haven't registered what's happening in the room.

The VIP Approach to Student Engagement

Engaging students is a process that begins before you even get on campus. It's knowing what's available to them and what they've previously been exposed to. How can you tie the practice of yoga into students' personal sense of wellness? The barriers may be there for various reasons, or they may be all in but only for a short time.

I've learned to categorize student needs into core areas: sports improvement, social matters (making friends), getting better grades, and dealing with personal issues. These relate to our fundamental human needs for relationships with our bodies, friends, family, and work.

My engagement strategy follows the VIP acronym:

Valuable: It has to have value to the student because they see it as relatable and capable of solving their problems.

Interesting: Make it fun for them.

Performative: They can use it immediately.

Practical Strategies That Work

Start with a Challenge: Students respond to challenges that feel achievable yet engaging.

Learn Their Names: This basic act of recognition builds connection and trust.

Let Them Lead: Give students agency in their wellness journey.

Use the VIP Framework: Ensure every activity meets these three criteria.

Have Fun Too: Your genuine enjoyment models the behavior you want to see.

Building a Wellness Culture

When students learn SEL skills, their emotional intelligence grows and leads to better mental health, more classroom engagement, stronger decision-making and healthier relationships. These skills in turn create schools with safer, more caring and more effective environments.

The goal isn't just individual student wellness but creating a school culture where wellness is woven into the fabric of learning. This requires meeting students where they are and creating dynamics that are informative, welcoming, and impactful.

The Path Forward

I'm not sure of the best way to help every student achieve their goals, but I know every student is worth engaging. I constantly look for ways to meet them where they are, recognizing that each diverse sock selection represents a unique human being with their own story, struggles, and potential.

The research supports what we see in practice: wellness programs work when they're implemented thoughtfully and with genuine care for student needs. In a world where students face unprecedented stressors, our role as educators and wellness practitioners becomes even more crucial.

As these students settle onto their mats, shoes kicked off, some cross-legged with practiced ease and others perched like they're on a street curb, we have an opportunity. We can meet them exactly where they are and offer them tools that research shows will help them navigate not just their time in school, but their lives beyond it.

The question isn't whether we need wellness programs in schools—the evidence is clear that we do. The question is how we can engage every student, from the one hiding behind a tough exterior to the one cracking jokes with friends, in practices that will serve them for a lifetime.

Remember: Every student on that mat is thinking, "What the heck is this?" Our job is to show them it's exactly what they need.

Student Stress Statistics:

• The average student-to-school-counselor ratio was 385:1 in the 2022-2023 school year (vs. the recommended ratio of 250:1), and half of the 12-17 year-olds with depression didn't receive treatment in 2022 School Stress Reaches 2024 Record in Crisis Text Line Conversions - Crisis Text Line 
• Growing awareness shows many subgroups of youth experience high levels of chronic stress, to the extent it impedes their abilities to succeed academically, compromises their mental health functioning, and fosters risk behavior NYU Study Examines Top High School Students’ Stress and Coping Mechanisms 

Effectiveness of Wellness Programs:

• The benefits of social and emotional learning (SEL) are well-researched, with evidence demonstrating that an education that promotes SEL yields positive outcomes for students, adults, and school communities What Does the Research Say? - CASEL 
• SEL programs reduce disruptive behavior problems and emotional distress. Fostering these competencies increases students' engagement in learning and subsequently improves students' cognitive and academic performance Evidence for Social and Emotional Learning in Schools 
• Sixty-three percent of public schools... using social and emotional learning curriculum in the 2023-2024 school year, 72% found that the curriculum was moderately, very, or extremely effective in improving student outcomes Addressing Youth Mental Health with Social and Emotional Learning in Schools | KFF