{"id":16442,"date":"2019-05-13T02:41:40","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T02:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=16442"},"modified":"2019-05-14T09:44:17","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T09:44:17","slug":"are-yoga-and-mindfulness-in-schools-religious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/are-yoga-and-mindfulness-in-schools-religious\/","title":{"rendered":"Are yoga and mindfulness in schools religious?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Candy Gunther Brown<\/a>, Indiana University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The number of U.S. children age 4 to 17 practicing yoga rose from 2.3% to 8.4% \u2013 or from 1.3 million to 4.9 million \u2013 between 2007<\/a> and 2017<\/a>, federal data show. The number of children meditating rose to 3.1 million during the same period.<\/p>\n

The rise is due in part to more yoga and mindfulness programs being established in America\u2019s schools. A 2015 study<\/a> found three dozen different yoga organizations offering yoga programs in 940 K-12 schools.<\/p>\n

Yoga and mindfulness could become the fourth \u201cR\u201d of public education. But up for debate is whether the \u201cR\u201d in this case stands for relaxation or religion.<\/p>\n

As a professor of religious studies<\/a>, I have served as an expert witness in four public-school yoga and meditation legal challenges. I testified that school yoga and meditation programs fit legal criteria of religion.<\/p>\n

In one case, the court agreed that yoga \u201cmay be religious in some contexts,\u201d but ultimately concluded that the school district\u2019s yoga classes were \u201cdevoid of any religious, mystical, or spiritual trappings.\u201d In two other cases in which I testified, yoga<\/a> and meditation<\/a> based charter schools were found to violate a state law<\/a> prohibiting public schools from providing \u201cany religious instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

My research and experience leads me to believe that there are problems with how yoga is being implemented in schools. My goal is not to ban yoga or mindfulness from school settings. But I believe there are legal and ethical reasons to work toward greater transparency and voluntary participation in yoga.<\/p>\n

A question of religion<\/h2>\n

Although many Americans believe that yoga and mindfulness aren\u2019t religious, not everyone accepts<\/a> that the practices are completely secular.<\/p>\n

My new book, \u201cDebating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion?\u201d<\/a> examines these issues. The book argues that integrating yoga and mindfulness into public schools could violate laws against government establishment of religion.<\/p>\n

The Yoga Alliance, an organization that purports to be the the \u201clargest nonprofit association representing the yoga community,\u201d argued in 2014 that DC yoga studios should be exempt from sales tax<\/a> because the purpose of yoga is \u201cspiritual rather than fitness.\u201d However, when parents sued<\/a> a California school district in 2013 alleging that its yoga program violates the prohibition against the state establishment of religion, the Yoga Alliance rebutted that yoga is exercise and \u201cnot religious.\u201d Thus, the Yoga Alliance seems to take the position that yoga is spiritual but not religious. Courts have not, however, made this distinction.<\/p>\n

In some legal cases the courts have concluded that yoga and meditation are religious practices. A 1988 Arkansas case known as Powell v. Perry, for instance, concluded that \u201cyoga is a method of practicing Hinduism<\/a>.\u201d The 1995 Self-Realization Fellowship Church v. Ananda Church of Self Realization <\/a>
\ncase classified the \u201cHindu-Yoga spiritual tradition\u201d as a \u201creligious tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 1979 Malnak v. Yogi<\/a> case defined Transcendental Meditation as a \u201creligion\u201d and therefore ruled that an elective high school Transcendental Meditation class was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that public schools may not endorse religious practices such as prayer<\/a> and Bible<\/a> reading, even if kids are allowed to \u201copt out.\u201d The Court ruled that practicing religion in the classroom is coercive<\/a> because of mandatory attendance, teacher authority and peer pressure.<\/p>\n

Mindfulness = Buddhism?<\/h2>\n

\u201cMindfulness\u201d likewise does \u201cdouble duty<\/a>.\u201d It sounds like merely \u201cpaying attention.\u201d However, promoters of mindfulness, such as Jon Kabat-Zinn, say they use it as an \u201cumbrella term\u201d as a \u201cskillful\u201d way<\/a> to introduce Buddhist meditation into the mainstream.<\/p>\n

In a Buddhist Geeks podcast, Trudy Goodman, founder of Insight LA and a mindfulness teacher, speaks of mindfulness as \u201cstealth Buddhism<\/a>,\u201d noting that secularly framed classes \u201caren\u2019t that different from our Buddhist classes. They just use a different vocabulary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founder of Yoga Ed. Tara Guber has admitted<\/a> to making semantic changes to get her program into a school district where some parents and school board members objected to it, arguing that it was teaching religion. Guber spoke of how yoga can \u201cshift consciousness and alter beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some research shows that yoga and mindfulness have spiritual<\/a> effects<\/a> even when they are presented secularly.<\/p>\n

One study found that over 62 percent of students in \u201csecular\u201d yoga changed their primary reason<\/a> for practicing. \u201cMost initiate yoga practice for exercise and stress relief, but for many, spirituality becomes their primary reason for maintaining practice,\u201d the study states.<\/p>\n

I propose that respect for cultural and religious diversity can best be achieved through an opt-in<\/a> model of informed consent. That is to say, it may be constitutional for yoga and mindfulness to be available on school grounds, but students should be able to choose to get into the programs, not \u2013 as I point out in various cases in my book \u2013 be forced to take extra steps just to get out.<\/p>\n

Students and their parents must be given enough information about offered programs \u2013 including risks, benefits, alternatives, and potential effects \u2013 to make an informed choice about whether to participate.\"The<\/p>\n

Candy Gunther Brown<\/a>, Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Candy Gunther Brown, Indiana University The number of U.S. children age 4 to 17 practicing yoga rose from 2.3% to 8.4% \u2013 or from 1.3 million to 4.9 million \u2013 between 2007 and 2017, federal data show. The number of children meditating rose to 3.1 million during the same period. The rise is due in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":16436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[1996,1737,1787,6315,130,3297,4849,4677],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16442"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16447,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16442\/revisions\/16447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}