“And if you`re not exercising, it`s a great way to work on your posture, flexibility, balance and strengthen your core,” he said of yoga. The new law will allow Alabama public schools to offer yoga to students. Here, children take part in a yoga class in Pennsylvania. Susan L. Angstadt/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images Hide caption The group also claims that each yoga pose was not designed as an exercise, but as an “offering of worship” to the Hindu gods. Gray said his experience with yoga began when he played college football at North Carolina State University. The final legislation was amended to include a rule requiring parents to sign a permit for students to practice yoga. Democratic Congressman Jeremy Gray and certified yoga teacher introduced the bill to allow yoga in schools ahead of its passage Monday by a vote of 75 to 14. Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, signed a bill this week that lifted a longstanding ban on teaching yoga in classrooms, saying the practice would introduce Hinduism into public schools. Despite the new law`s restrictions on how yoga is practiced, the news that the ban will now be lifted has been well received.
The legislation, according to the Alabama Legislature website, states that “all yoga instruction shall be limited only to poses, exercises, and stretching techniques.” The law, which will come into effect in August, also requires that English names be used for all poses and exercises. And to practice yoga in school, students need permission from a parent who indicates they understand it is associated with Hinduism. The bill, introduced earlier this year by Democratic Rep. Jeremy Gray, allows K-12 students enrolled in public schools to take yoga electives. Whether courses are offered is left to the local education authorities. The measure, which will take effect Aug. 1, will give local school boards the final say on whether to offer yoga to K-12 students. Attendance at classes is optional under legislation introduced by Rep. Jeremy Gray, a Democrat from Opelika, Alabama, who was previously certified as a yoga teacher. Gray, who was elected in 2018, said he only recently learned of the ban, which was approved by religious leaders at the time.
He remembers attending a high school in January 2019 that introduced a yoga program, but quickly stopped taking it after learning about the 1993 law. The new legislation allows yoga to be offered as an option for K-12 classes. While it lifts a ban that some schools were unaware of over the years, it also imposes restrictions on how yoga should be taught. For example, students are not allowed to say “Namaste”. Meditation is not allowed. Gray, who has been a yoga teacher and has practiced yoga for more than a decade, said Alabama is the only state that bans it in public schools. Gray, who played football at North Carolina State University, was introduced to yoga as an athlete. “You`re already doing it.
Many of the stretches you do are yoga; It`s just not called that,” said Gray, a former college and professional football player, most notably as a cornerback for the North Carolina State Wolfpack. Some of the opponents described yoga as if it were almost dangerous. The new law states that “school staff may not use techniques involving hypnosis, induction of dissociated mental state, guided imagery, meditation or any other aspect of Eastern philosophy and religious education.” What do you think? I read something about hypnosis, like we want to teach them how to be hypnotized, and it`s just weird to me. What children need to know about meditation is important, but it`s just silence. As long as you don`t use guided images, we have to be careful about that. I think the wording will be important. When I teach children mindfulness and silence, what could be considered meditation is “working on their concentration and attention.” And there`s nothing wrong with that. I just think we have to be careful when it comes to educating parents and making sure they understand that when we work with children, we are teaching on a scientific basis rather than a spiritual one. Conservative religious groups are expected to fight to enforce the 1993 yoga ban. In an explosion of emails from the governor`s press office on Thursday announcing the law Ms.
Ivey had signed, including one that lifted the ban on yoga in schools, Ms. Ivey`s spokeswoman, Gina Maiola, had a Zen moment. However, this has not been enough to appease some opponents of teaching yoga in public schools. Gray also pointed out that it`s up to schools to decide if they offer yoga. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill allowing public schools to offer yoga, ending a ban that had lasted nearly 30 years. Christian conservatives who support the ban said yoga would open the door to people`s conversion to Hinduism. One bill proposes bringing yoga back to Alabama public schools — but without the pro-yoga “Namaste” legislation, conservative groups have clashed, including former Chief Justice Roy Moore`s Foundation for the Moral Law and the Alabama chapter of the Eagle Forum, a conservative group founded in 1972 by activist Phyllis Schlafly.
The changes require parents to sign a permit for students to practice yoga. They also prohibit school staff from using “hypnosis, induction of dissociative mental state, guided imagery, meditation or any other aspect of Eastern philosophy.” Inbox: Governor Kay Ivey signed the bill allowing K-12 schools to offer yoga as an option. So we`re closing the book on one of the stupidest moral panics in Alabama history, which speaks volumes. #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/wnzcTYFyKp In the debate over lifting the ban, Christians and atheists have become “strange bedfellows” in opposition to yoga, Lee said, noting that atheists “don`t want anything religious taught in schools.” Alabama, in a 1993 law, banned yoga in public schools as well as other practices such as “meditation” and “guided images” under a blanket ban on the use of “hypnosis and dissociative mental states.” What did you think when you heard about the ban? I thought it was ridiculous just because I knew how much yoga helped me with anxiety in my early 20s. And since I`m a Christian myself and grew up in the Church, it didn`t make sense. I just didn`t associate it with religion. If we can teach children self-awareness and self-regulation, it can help with attention problems and anxiety. Yoga is the best fun way for kids to learn mindfulness and body awareness, and then control their behavior.
