WOODLAND HILLS : Grant Targets Stress in County Schools

The New Age is coming to the old schoolhouse.

Los Angeles middle school and high school students will be taught relaxation techniques to reduce stress and increase their motivation, as part of a five-year, $850,000 grant announced this month by the Woodland Hills-based Wellness Foundation.

Although details--such as which schools will be involved--have not been set, the pilot program may involve a scenario such as the following:

A teacher takes a break from her regular math or English class and arranges the desks in a semicircle. She sits with her students for five minutes of “quiet time.” She then asks them to imagine being in a quiet, familiar place in which they feel safe and comfortable. As a group, the teacher and students breathe deeply. They visualize relaxing scenes. They practice concentrating.

“The point is to get kids to slow down a little,” said Erin Martin, a spokeswoman for the Boston-based Mind/Body Medical Institute, which developed the program. “It helps them feel at ease with each other and with their teachers. It also helps the teacher relax.”

As early as this fall, about 80 teachers will be trained to conduct the 10- to 15-minute relaxation periods, which have been used on a trial basis in Massachusetts and New York. More details are expected to be announced within several weeks.

Developers of the program hope that teaching such relaxation techniques will make students more attentive and help decrease fights, outbursts in class and other behavioral problems at school.

The Wellness Foundation--one of the nation’s largest--also announced a grant of $345,000 to Students Run L.A., a program to help “at-risk” students train for the Los Angeles Marathon.