AP
Tara Gruber and staff demonstrating a schoolteachers' instruction session. Teachers claim yoga helps students with attention-deficit disorder and may help lower childhood obesity.Posted on 01/30/2007 10:42:21 PM PST by Coleus
AP Tara Gruber and staff demonstrating a schoolteachers' instruction session. Teachers claim yoga helps students with attention-deficit disorder and may help lower childhood obesity. |
SAN FRANCISCO -- In Tara Guber's ideal world, American children would meditate in the lotus position and chant in Sanskrit before taking stressful standardized tests. But when she asked a public elementary school in Aspen, Colo., to teach yoga in 2002, Christian fundamentalists and even some secular parents lobbied the school board. They argued that yoga's Hindu roots conflicted with Christian teachings and that using it in school might violate the separation of church and state. Portrayed as a New Age nut out to brainwash young minds, Guber crafted a curriculum that eliminated chanting and translated Sanskrit into simple English. Yogic panting became "bunny breathing," and "meditation" became "time in."
"I stripped every piece of anything that anyone could vaguely construe as spiritual or religious out of the program," Guber said. Now, more than 100 schools in 26 states have adopted Guber's "Yoga Ed." program and more than 300 physical education instructors have been trained in it. Countless other public and private schools from California to Massachusetts -- including the Aspen school where Guber clashed with parents -- are teaching yoga.
Teachers say it helps calm students with attention-deficit disorder and may reduce childhood obesity. The federal government gives grants to gym teachers who complete a teacher training course in yoga. "I see a lot fewer discipline problems," said Ruth Reynolds, an elementary school principal in San Rafael, Calif. Her observation of the school's six-year-old yoga program is that it helps easily distracted children to focus. "If you have children with ADD and focusing issues, often it's easy to go from that into a behavior problem. Anything you can do to help children focus will improve their behavior." In 2003, researchers at California State University, Los Angeles, studied test scores at the Accelerated School, a charter school where Guber serves on the board and where students practice yoga almost daily. They found a correlation between yoga and better behavior and grades, and they said young yogis were more fit than the district average from the state's physical fitness test.
Guber, married to former Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Peter Guber, embraced yoga after moving to California in the 1970s. Their 13-acre Bel-Air estate includes a cliff-top garden leading to a Yoga House retreat. In 2004, Americans spent almost $3 billion on yoga classes and retreats, books, DVDs, mats, clothing and related items. About 3 million American adults practiced yoga at least twice a week in 2006, more than doubling from 1.3 million in 2001, according to Mediamark Research. Despite mainstream acceptance, yoga in public schools remains touchy. Critics say even stripped-down "yoga lite" goads young people into exploring other religions and mysticism. Dave Hunt, who has traveled to India to study yoga's roots and interview gurus, called the practice "a vital part of the largest missionary program in the world" for Hinduism. The Bend, Ore., author of "Yoga and the Body of Christ: What Position Should Christians Hold?" said that, like other religions, the practice has no place in public schools.
"It's pretty simple: Yoga is a religious practice in Hinduism. It's the way to reach enlightenment. To bring it to the West and bill it as a scientific practice for fitness is dishonest," said Hunt, 80. "I've talked to too many people who got hooked on the spiritual deception of yoga. They come to believe in this and become enamored with Hinduism or eastern mysticism," he said. Concerns about yoga's spiritual implications have also fueled a cottage industry of books and videos that offer the purported benefits of yoga -- flexibility, strength and weight loss -- without mentioning the y-word. Laurette Willis, 49, wrote an exercise regimen called "PowerMoves Kids Program for Public Schools." The stretching routine includes pauses for children to contemplate character-building quotes from Martin Luther King Jr., Emily Dickinson, Harriet Tubman and William Shakespeare. She also created an exercise regimen, "PraiseMoves: The Christian Alternative to Yoga."
"I'm not here to say that yoga is necessarily bad, but it is counter to what I think the public education system is for: It should have programs without any form of religious overtones whatsoever," Willis said. The dispute confuses some yogis, particularly Westerners who say yoga as it's practiced in the United States is primarily about fitness and stress relief. Baron Baptiste, who owns three studios in the Boston area and practices with his 7-year-old son, loves Guber's program. He said his son takes yoga far less seriously than he does. "We adults need to be reminded to lighten up, breathe in the joy and have some fun," he said.
Chinese Buddhism originated with a monk (can't remember his name) who walked from India to China but Buddhism in general originated with Shakyamuni Buddha the historical Buddha of our times. His name before his enlightenment was Guatama Sakya. The Sakyas were the royal family in the northeast part of present day India. Guatama's father was the king. Thus he also became known as the Lion of the Sakyas.
LOL Not in this day and age. The lawsuits, the legislation, the parental fistfights on school grounds...
It's all good.
I don't worry about that too much. I think, in death, the mind just stops. Just like in deep sleep. I believe we have just this moment to enjoy existence. Take it to the max!
Careful what you wish for! ;^)
Yoga is from eastern religion. And very dangerous.
I was joking, really, having risked life and limb in many ways. The belief in a world to come is more of an extra thing for some of us. But either way, your outlook ("to enjoy existence") is a good one, IMO. And that good attitude is the antithesis of fear. ...very conducive to learning and generosity.
I haven't heard that story but I like it. Many Buddhist lamas become more and more childlike the older they get. I don't think you have to be Buddhist to do that. Just relax and see the world with the freshness of a child as if you've never seen it before. Hard to do when you've gotten old and crusty like us but possible if you keep at it.
Thank you, AUG. Your telling is more correct and specific than mine and you got his name right. Siddhartha was his first name. Sakya was the clan name and I don't know if it was used as a last name or not.
May your walk be refreshing and delightful. On with the adventure! : )
Lol!
Thank you for the compliment!
?
Yes? You have a question?
Had one. Since forgotten. Breathe.
If you remember it I'll catch it tomorrow. Off to saw logs now.
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