Yoga Banned in Schools

A while back I read a newspaper article about some schools banning yoga. Some of the parents saw yoga as a religion and therefore not appropriate in the schools (church and state!). The teachers were using yogic relaxation techniques to help quell the nervousness in students before exams. Some of my lunchmates had also read the story and asked me what I thought.

The yogic texts define yoga. In Patanjali’s writing he defines yoga as the ‘art which brings an incoherent and scattered mind to a relective and coherent state.’ He also says in the sutras that yoga ‘quiets the fluctuations of the mind.’ These definitions or explanations seem to be spot on with the teachers’ intent … to help quiet the minds of the students and lower the test anxiety in the moment so the they can have clear minds for taking tests. Not to practice a religion.

That’s not to say that some yoga goes hand and hand with religion. There certainly are parts of the sutras that point to God. Some of the sutras sound much like the ten commandments (non-violence, non-stealing, speaking the truth) and the overall objective (as I understand it) is for the yogi to work in the poses and through self study of the texts to come to know herself better. Once there is an understanding, a union, or deeper knowledge of her individual soul then her individual soul can unite with the Divine.

Personally, I struggle with this part. I know that ‘communion with divine’ isn’t something I expect to every get to and, since I consider myself a non-believer, I suspect even if I got there, I wouldn’t recognize it, believe it or understand it. Maybe *if* I ever closer I’ll change my mind.

So, should yoga be in the classroom? I can see how parents would object. The texts talk about the divine, God, even ‘surrendering to God’. I certainly wouldn’t want the teachers asking the kids to pray to God for a good grade right before the test. After spending a weekend (and a good number of days before the weekend) at assessment with a high level of anxiety, I’m all for a little ‘calm the mind practice’. So, maybe they can do it but call it something else … meditation, focused breathing, positive self talk. Much of it is the same … but different.

It’s all in how you practice it and what your objective is. What do you think?

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