Yoga in SchoolFollow

Is this a mandatory class? An elective? Is it just a group who gets together? In HS we had a Christian group get together every mornining and do their thing. My sophmore year I helped a Wiccan friend, I was not and am not Wiccan, start up a group. It got met with alot of opposition but eventually the school either allowed us to meet or they had to forbid all other such groups.

That isn't really the point though. If it is an elective then no student or teacher can complain as the ones choosing to take it are either okay with the spiritual part or just are not bothered by it. You don't like peanut butter then don't eat a reeses.

I went to public school. Never said, and did not mean to imply, that is how it works. I did not take German because I did not want to learn or take part in that. I knew what was part of the curriculum and since I did not like it did not opt to take the class. I might have missed it in a later post but did not see a link to this specficily. At work and if it interest me enough later will google it.

Are you saying this is an extra-curricular activity Joph? If so, why is it a problem? No one cries that the Christians have their prayer groups, how is this any different? Want yoga purely for the physical aspects then students can ask a teacher to do "American" yoga class. Without the spiritual (not religous) health component.

To try to make it a bit more clear, I say spiritual as in who we are. the emotional, chemical and physical experiences that mold us. This is my personal definition.

This city in Southern California is actually in Encinitas, which is a mile away from where I work. And this is such a hot button issue right now. There have been half a dozen meetings between school administrators and parents about the yoga class. The yoga instructor has stated that she's not teaching anything spiritual, she's even changing the names of the positions to make them fun for the kids (downward dog is puppy triangle). I watched one of the demonstrations and in no way is there a faith or spiritual component. It's about getting the kids some physical activity and flexibility. It's not even about getting them to focus because if a kid doesn't want to do the pose called out, the teacher lets that kid do whatever pose the kid is in the mood for that moment.

Encinitas/Cardiff is such a laidback beach town that I was surprised that parents in this area were getting upset about this. It's a very "live and let live and to each his own" attitude in this area. But someone told that most of the parents that were upset were parents who have their kids choiced into this area school because they don't want their kids going to their own neighborhood's school.

In the NPR article it doesn't say anything about ages, but there is a picture of elementary kids doing the yoga. So, it's something the whole class participates in.

This is one mother's quote from when she visited the classroom....
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Taken without context that's pretty mundane and innocuous. But considering the context - performing yoga, a practice developed almost entirely as part of a religion, it raises my eyebrow - one of them. I'd allow my kid to do - hell I've probably said sh*t like that to my kids. But, because schools have to be utterly cognizant of guiding kids in faith maybe they should tone it down.

I have no doubt some bit of structured and progressive bit of physical exercise in the classroom is beneficial, and yoga specially forces you to control your breathing and your movements and what not. It sounds like the classes that have been doing it will be reporting over-all better educational success with the kids.

We used to have to stand at the side of our desk and do exercises. Arm circles sucked.



Edited, Jan 9th 2013 11:54pm by Elinda

Yoga as we know it was actually more or less invented by gymnasts and contortionists in the last two hundred years. It was adopted by the religious folks after the fact, because it's good exercise, good meditation, and meshed with the religions nicely anyway.

It's a big lie that yoga is thousands of years old.

Source: My atheist yoga instructor friend

I at first read that as group menstruation

No, I'm saying that it's not extra-curricular therefore your comparison to your little friend's Wicca Club doesn't wash. As part of the actual PE curriculum, it's under greater scrutiny for violation of the separation of Church & State. Even if it were an elective class, it would be tax-payer funded and under such scrutiny and therefore "Well, just don't take it" isn't an appropriate response.

Thanking the sun offends people? Really!? Give me a freaking break... I get that these are kids, so this makes things a little tricky, but come on.

Yoga does not have to be spiritual. It is up to the individual performing the poses to make it spiritual or not. And the great thing about it, is that if you want it to be spiritual you don't have to make it Hinduism spiritual. I am Wiccan, and I have had at least one deeply moving spiritual moment while doing yoga. If these parents have an issue with the spiritual nature of Yoga, they can tell their kids to think about baby Jesus while doing their poses, it's not that difficult of a problem.

Yoga does not have to be spiritual. It is up to the individual performing the poses to make it spiritual or not. And the great thing about it, is that if you want it to be spiritual you don't have to make it Hinduism spiritual. I am Wiccan

Of course you are. Wouldn't it be simpler to buy a tee shirt that had "look at me! Everyone look at me!" in large font?

The fact that it's non-sentient and doesn't give a shit whether you "thank" it or not?

The same scientific process that led us to decide the sun is real also led us to realize that a giant sphere of fusion energy and plasma doesn't need you to "thank" it. What exactly are the kids remaining ignorant about if they're not singing the praises of the sun?

Edited, Jan 10th 2013 9:18am by Jophiel

Without the Sun, who else would pour two scoops of raisins into my cereal?

Um, It's inanimate. Is the sun going to treat you better, maybe bless you with robust pigment if you tell it 'thank you' every morning?

What is there to gain in thanking the sun?

Edit - so much for multi-tasking.....

Edited, Jan 10th 2013 4:24pm by Elinda