As course selections begin for the 2020-2021 school year, students will now be able to take a new course, Yoga, which will be offered both first and second semester as half-year courses, or as a full-year class. 

“In the class, we will be learning different types of yoga, mindfulness, meditation, and overall body awareness and flexibility,” Jefferson Physical Education (PE) and Health teacher David Arthur said. “It’s a new class and I’ve never taught it before, so I’ll be learning it with everyone else.”

The course was proposed in response to feedback from upperclassmen, juniors and seniors, who expressed their desire for a PE-related course, since PE is only available for underclassmen, or freshmen and sophomores.

“Next year is the first year that the county is allowing us to offer [the yoga class], so I thought it’d be a great opportunity to bring what we’ve been doing in ninth and tenth grade [PE classes] and Meditation Monday to the 11th and 12th grade,” Arthur said.

As the difficulty of courses increases and college applications begin to pile onto the workload of upperclassmen, a relaxing period of yoga will offer a place for students to unwind and separate themselves from their daily lives.

“I hope the students could take this class as a way of an outlet for all the stress and anxiety these students are facing here at TJ,” Arthur said.