Re: Yoga is controversial

Posted by greg bert on 11/15/07

More | Report Post

On 11/07/07, Houston teacher wrote:


Hi, I am a male HS pe teacher and I also teach yoga to my
ninth graders; what you can do is just call it "fitness
stretching" or "Yoga Fit". This lady probably thinks you are
teaching "eastern thought"-- which you are not. So continue
teaching it; but just normalize it by saying "Yoga" is just a
form of flexibility and leave it at that...

Greg Bert
Black Hills High School
Olympia, WA



> Ok. So I don't know if anyone here also teaches movement or
> dance or anything like that,but I needed a place to tell
> the this story- I will also posted on the fine arts board.
> I teach a motor skills/movement class to young children (
> under 2) with their parents. I see that this subject could
> get controversial so please for the sake of my sanity- if
> you want to flame or fight go somewhere else- I have had a
> tough day and just can't take it. I just need to vent and
> see if there is anyone else that has shared my experience.
> thanks.Here's my story...Today, I was very excited to bring
> my Yoga baby book to class for the kids to be animals. All
> the kids gathered around for the story and were staring at
> me wide eyed and then out of no where a mom flips out on
> me. " No, don't read that!" " Put it away!" Well, I just
> stared in amazement as did everyone else. Then she says
> well go ahead and read it to the others,but I don't want my
> kid doing yoga- I will explain later. At this point, I feel
> as if I am about to read about vodoo and all the kids are
> staring at me. I wasn't sure what to do. So the rest of the
> class I was shaken and to be honest offended. The book
> seriously is just posing like animals and her little boy
> wanted to be an animal. So she did at the end say " Oh he
> can be a frog" I just didn't know what the book was. So the
> mom( oh by the way someone I have known since high school)
> explains to me that she is sorry that she embarrassed
> me,but she doesn't want anything to do with Yoga b/c it is
> based in eastern religions( I knew that,but we weren't
> doing anything prayer related) and that most people don't
> know that and that it is a form of worship and that doing
> yoga is a offensive to god. She then goes in to tell me
> that another mom in the class also thinks that( she didn't
> say anything) and I felt awful. I see both sides of the
> story( some forms could be worship,but now most of it is
> completely fitness based and is totally secular. It NEVER
> occurred to me that it would offend. Of course, she goes on
> to say that her daughters school( VEry religious) had even
> done Yoga and so had her husband before she read " this
> article" and once they read it they too stopped. Now, I
> feel like she has forgiven me for offending her( Clearly I
> had no idea),but that she is going to be offended that I
> still teach yoga( Not in the class any of her kids are
> in!!). I teach kids yoga classes weekly. I now feel like I
> have walk on eggshells about the subject. Of course, I am
> still a bit miffed in how she reacted- I think she could
> have just said " can i see your book before you read it?"
> Or hey, could you just say the animal names and not the
> word Yoga( as I did). I had a new student/parent in the
> class and I was worried as to how I would be judged after
> that. Although, I kind of think she came off a bit loony in
> her dramatic reaction. Has anyone else had anything like
> this happen to them??

Posts on this thread, including this one

• Yoga is controversial, 11/07/07, by Houston teacher.
• Re: Yoga is controversial, 11/13/07, by Triocd.
• Re: Yoga is controversial, 11/15/07, by greg bert.
• Re: Yoga is controversial, 1/14/08, by S. Bolden.
• Re: Yoga is controversial, 3/20/08, by LAN.
• Re: Yoga is controversial, 3/25/08, by Vickie.