VOA慢速英语20117 美国学校增设瑜伽练习

Along with subjects like reading and mathematics, school children at the Robert W. Coleman Elementary School are learning how to spend time in quiet thought.

除了阅读和数学这些科目之外，罗伯特·W·科尔曼小学的学生们还在学习如何花时间进行静思。

The students are learning yoga exercises and meditation 1 skills.The aim is to provide them with better tools to deal with the daily struggles they face.

学生们正在学习瑜伽以及冥想的技巧。其目的在于提供应对日常问题更好的方法。

The school, called Coleman for short, is in the American city of Baltimore, Maryland.

该学校简称为科尔曼，位于美国马里兰州的巴尔的摩。

Principal Carlillian Thompson brought the program to Coleman in 2010. She sends some of her most troublesome students to the Mindful Moment Room instead of requiring them to stay after school in detention 2.

校长卡利安·汤普森在2010年时引入了该项目。她把学校里最棘手的一些学生送到沉思屋（Mindful Moment Room），而不是要求学生放学之后留下。

Nearly one fourth of Baltimore’s population lives below the poverty line.That information comes from the United States Census 3 Bureau.

巴尔的摩近四分之一人口的生活水平都低于贫困线。该信息源于美国人口调查局。

Many children at Coleman face conditions common to poverty.

科尔曼学校很多学生都有贫困常见的问题。

Principal Thompson told broadcaster CNN that a few of her students are homeless, while others live in homes with no electricity. Some have little or no food to eat.Others are related to victims of gun violence.

校长汤普森对美国有线电视网的播音员表示有部分学生无家可归，另有部分学生的家中没有电力服务。一些学生食物不足或者没有食物。还有一些学生是枪支暴力的受害者。

The Mindful Moment Room is a place where Coleman students do deep breathing exercises and clear their minds.They come to learn how they can better react to situations, and how to calm themselves.They can also speak with Mindful Moment specialists about what caused their teachers to send them there.

沉思屋是科尔曼学生进行深呼吸锻炼放空思绪的地方。他们在这里学习如何更好的应对一些情况以及如何使自己冷静下来。此外，他们还会与想过专家谈谈老师为什么让他们来沉思屋。

Atman Smith is one of the founders 4 of the Holistic 5 Life Foundation (HLF), the organization that leads the program.He told VOA News a few years ago that meditation and yoga can help young people deal with life’s difficulties.

艾特曼·史密斯是整体生活基金会（HLF）的创始人之一，该项目即由HLF发起。几年前，接受VOA采访他表示沉思和瑜伽能够帮助人们更好的应对生活中的困境。

“It’s…like…a serious cycle in most inner cities where people don’t know how to resolve conflicts peacefully. That’s why there is so much violence and abuse and, in us teaching these kids meditation – giving them these tools to self-regulate – it’s going to change, I guess, the social construct and the way the inner city works and is thought of.”

“这就像是市中心一个非常严重的现象，人们不知道如何和平解决冲突。这也是经常出现暴力和虐待现象的原因，通过教孩子们沉思来教孩子学会自我控制，我相信这最终能够改变社会结构以及市中心运作的方式。”

HLF serves 4,500 students each week, and works with a total of 14 Baltimore schools.

HLF每周为4500名学生服务，并与14所巴尔的摩学校展开合作。

Coleman is not the only American school adding meditation and yoga to its academic curriculum.Schools in other cities are also using these tools.

科尔曼并非唯一一所增设沉思和瑜伽课程的美国学校。其他城市的学校也采用了这些方式。

Last year, Visitacion Valley Middle School began offering meditation, NBC News reported.The school is in one of the poorest areas in the city of San Francisco.Some children there witnessed stressful events in their neighborhoods.

据美国广播公司报道，访问谷中学去年也开设了沉思课程。该学校位于旧金山最贫穷的地区之一。有些孩子目睹了街区的各种压力。

A large number of the students see people carrying guns on a daily basis, athletic 6 director Barry Driscoll told NBC News.A few years ago, there were three to five fights at the school every week.

体育指导员巴里·德里斯科尔接受VOA采访时表示，很多学生都看到人们平时都拿着枪。几年前，学校每周都会有三至五次暴力事件。

But then, the San Francisco School District partnered with a local organization called the Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education.The center brought a meditation program called Quiet Time to Visitacion Valley and three other schools.

但当时，这所旧金山学校与当地教育健康和成就中心合作。该中心为访问谷中学以及其他三所学校发起了一个称为“静思时间”的项目。

Each day, during Quiet Time, the whole school has two 15-minute periods of Transcendental Meditation (TM).TM is a process for slowing down unwanted thoughts and reaching a state of calm awareness 7.

每天到了静思时间，全校都要进行15分钟超觉冥想。这是一种排除多余想法以达到冷静的过程。

At first, O’Driscoll thought meditation was foolish.But, as he told NBC, over four years of having Quiet Time, suspensions at Visitacion Valley have fallen by 79 percent.Over that period, attendance has risen to 98 percent.

起初，德里斯科尔认为沉思这种做法非常傻。但他表示，通过四年的静思，访问谷中学焦虑状况下降了79%。那段时间之后，考勤率上升到了98%。

A nearby school that uses the program has also seen a big drop in suspensions -- 75 percent, NBC noted 8.In addition, students are performing better academically.

附近一所学校表示，通过该项目焦虑状况下降了75%，得到了很好的改善。此外，学生的学业成绩也有了提高。

Words in This Story

meditation – n. the act or process of spending time in quiet thought; the act or process of meditating 9

yoga – n. a system of exercises for mental and physical health

poverty line – n. an income level below which one is considered to be living in poverty

regulate – n. to set or adjust the amount, degree, or rate of something

curriculum – n. the courses that are taught by a school or college

stressful – adj. making you feel worried or anxious; full of or causing stress

cynical 10 – adj. distrustful; believing that people are generally selfish and dishonest

address – v. to give attention to something; to deal with a matter, issue or problem

academic – adj. of or related to a school, especially a school of higher education

awareness – n. in meditation, awareness is a process of actively paying attention to one’s mental, physical and emotional experiences