In New York City, kindergartners to high school seniors will be required to do breathing exercises during class next fall, after Mayor Eric Adams announced that all public schools would have to offer two to five minutes of mindful breathing work each day.

“Thousands of years ago, other cultures were learning how to breathe,” Mr. Adams said at the announcement at P.S. 5 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. But in today’s world, he said, “we have never been taught.”

“We think that it’s just, air goes through your nostrils and you move. No, there’s a science to breathing,” the mayor added, before closing his eyes and following a student-led breathing exercise.

The breathing exercise requirement in New York reflects the renewed focus that school districts across the nation have placed on student well-being in recent years, as they grapple with increased rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm and other mental health challenges in children and teenagers.

Source: The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/nyregion/mindful-breathing-nyc-public-schools.html