Religion a concern for school yoga

ENCINITAS, Calif. — Public school yoga instructor Katie Campbell proudly looks out at 23 first-graders as they contain their squirming in a kid-friendly version of the lotus position.

In a voice barely above a whisper, she says into her microphone: Why look at everyone showing me they're ready for yoga. A-plus, plus, plus!

Then the lesson begins with deep breathing and stretches common to many yoga classes. But there is no chanting of om, no words spoken in the Indian language of Sanskrit nor talk of mindfulness or clasping hands in the prayer position.

Campbell avoids those potential pitfalls for the Encinitas Union School District, which is facing the threat of a lawsuit as it launches what is believed to be the country's most comprehensive yoga program for a public school system.

Parents opposed to the program say the classes will indoctrinate their children in Eastern religion and are not just for exercise.

It's a debate public schools across the country are increasingly facing with the rising popularity of the practice and the recent dispute over school prayer.

Yoga is now taught at public schools from the rural mountains of West Virginia to the bustling streets of Brooklyn as a way to ease stress in today's pressure-packed world. But most classes are part of an after-school program, or are offered only at a few schools or by some teachers in a district.

Encinitas is believed to be the only public school system that will have yoga instructors teach full-time at its nine schools.

This is 21st century P.E. for our schools, said Encinitas Superintendent Timothy B. Baird. It increases flexibility but it also deals with stress reduction and focusing, which kickball doesn't do.

Mary Eady pulled her first-grade son out of the classes after observing a class in which the children did motions referred to in yoga practices as a sun salutation.

She said students were learning to worship the sun, which went against her Christian beliefs that only God should be worshipped.