Parents to Fight Against Free Yoga Classes in School

A small group of parents are really not happy that their children are getting free yoga classes in school. They are considering legal action against, well, whoever is giving them free lessons.

To start off, these are really very caring parents and want to see their children live a very healthy life, please don’t get a wrong image of them. They are not ignorant.

Now, lets try to find what want angers this caring parents. It is simple, learning yoga could mean their children could get influenced by eastern religion. Of course we don’t want that to happen, do we?

“There’s a deep concern that the Encinitas Union School District is using taxpayer resources to promote Ashtanga yoga and Hinduism, a religion system of beliefs and practices,” the parents’ attorney, Dean Broyles, told the North County Times (http://bit.ly/RUMM4T ).

In an Oct. 12 email to district Superintendent Tim Baird, Broyles called the yoga program unconstitutional and said he may take unspecified legal action unless the classes stop.

The lessons are funded by a $533,000, three-year grant from the Jois Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes Asthanga yoga. Some schools began classes last month and others will begin holding them in January.

The classes involve traditional eastern breathing techniques and poses. The district chooses teachers and sets the curriculum while the foundation trains the teachers.

The district has removed any religious content from the twice-weekly classes, Baird said.

“I think that they really would like to think that, but I don’t think that, in actuality, it has been done,” said Mary Eady, who removed her son from the classes. “There’s really a lot of unease among a lot of parents.”

The superintendent said only a few parents have pulled their children from the yoga classes and he did not expect district trustees to cancel the program.

“Our goal is that kids get a really healthy workout, that they get a chance to relax and reduce stress and yoga’s perfect for that,” Baird said.

“Yoga is a worldwide exercise regime utilized by people of many different faiths,” he said. “Yoga is part of our mainstream culture.”

Jois Foundation Director Eugene Ruffin denied the group is religious and said the board of directors includes people from various faiths.

“These therapies are headed toward trying to find solutions for some of the stress that these children find themselves in,” he said. “We’re trying to solve problems.”

The concerns of these parents are very legitimate, Yoga is full of acts of worship of various Gods, but it is only promoted as a way of exercise, as a matter of fact it does have that benifit.

Ultimately it comes to whether or not we consider it as an act of worship or an exercise. Because our intentions define our actions.