Yoga in school does not violate First Amendment religious rights, a California appeals court ruled Friday. Some of you may remember the huge to-do and trial over yoga in the Encinitas Union School District, which ended in a triumph for the yoga program in the end. As a brief summary, a lawsuit was filed by conservative parents [...]
Yoga in School
The yoga program that sparked major controversy in Encinitas not too long ago has expanded to even more schools in San Diego and now New York City. Remember the huge lawsuit? Ultimately, concerned parents were unsuccessful in proving yoga was inherently religious and the program was able to carry on in the Encinitas Union School [...]
Stepping outside the perceived yoga “norms” of thin and stretchy folks sipping green smoothies and spouting quotes from a bottomless well of inspiration, somewhere in the middle of high-crime, poverty-level, gang-ridden neighborhoods, school kids stand strong in mountain pose. Some such kids currently reside in East Palo Alto, CA where they are faced with very [...]
The latest dispatch from Encinitas: While most of the yoga-in-school drama has died down after a judge ruled that yoga’s not religious and therefore okay for students to practice it as part of the school district’s curriculum, we’ve been biding our time waiting for the promised appeal from the opposing parents. Well, the wait is [...]
In a move that seems like a big up yours in the most giving way possible, the Jois Foundation (now called the Sonima Foundation) has offered to up its original grant of $533,000 for a yoga program in the Encinitas Union School District (you know, the one that went to trial and won earlier this [...]
Saying there’s yoga news out of California is like saying there’s a ripe stench wafting from a sweaty Bikram studio, they just belong together. But this less than favorable story of parents looking to sue over free Ashtanga yoga classes at Encinitas elementary schools is a bit shocking.
Did you catch that? Encinitas. Encinitas of all places! The land of Paramahansa Yogananda where the seedling of yoga in the West was planted, where studios of varying styles flourish today and the site John Friend had chosen for his lost Anusaraland. Do you mean to say, there are people in Encinitas that do not like the idea of yoga? Tell us no!
Jewish Yoga: Who says the goyim get to have all the Holy Yoga fun? Jews are embracing yoga and melding it with Jewish traditions. “Torah yoga combines prayers, passages from the Old Testament and themes from the Jewish calendar with classic yoga poses.” “Torah yoga, according to Hadassah Magazine, a publication of the charitable Zionist [...]
Yoga Balls in the Classroom: Lucky kids! Minnesota middle schoolers are benefiting from research concluding that students have better memory and retention when movement is part of the curriculum. Instead of chairs they sit on balance balls! Meanwhile, we eagerly await the yoga-in-the-classroom research. [Star Tribune] Bikram Endorses CA Desert: In an apparent effort to outdo Swami [...]
