About RYE
Micheline Flak founded RYE – Research on Yoga in Education - in 1978. She taught English in a Parisian middle school and was also a yoga practitioner and teacher. Her experience of yoga began to influence her English lessons and through various experiments of incorporating yoga instruction in the classroom she became deeply interested in the way yoga enhanced the whole learning process. Micheline’s experience of yoga comes from the Satyananda tradition - a holistic approach, integrating all aspects of being; here she learned the systematic relaxation of Yoga Nidra™, developed from and ancient practice by Swami Satyananda to make it accessible and useful for modern man.
RYE has its roots in ancient yogic tradition, and its basis is centred on 6 principles that are relevant and effective tools for the modern classroom. RYE uses simple yoga techniques – postures, breathing, relaxation and concentration in small amounts throughout the lesson to improve learning, by unifying the body with the mind, creating amity within the class, amongst both peers and teacher.
More and more research is constantly being explored on the complexity of how individuals learn and schools are often implementing new methods. This in itself can often be draining for teachers who already have a multitude of tasks to perform. The key to RYE is that the teacher experiences yoga and RYE techniques for themselves to help harmonise both body and mind, enabling them to use the techniques more effectively.
RYEUK and EURYE
RYEUK was set up in July 2005 and we have run a 2 year training course for teachers that culminated with a residential seminar in France, Evian. The European seminar is held every two years and gives teachers from this country an opportunity to connect with other teachers from Europe and to share ideas and techniques. EURYE is an international organisation with branches in France, Italy, Belgium, Uruguay, Israel and Greece to name but a few. Each country runs the training according to the needs of teachers. RYEUK is currently adapting the training to meet the needs of busy teachers in the UK, by running a six-month certificate course.