No Relaxation Technique Left Behind
Here’s my syndicated column this week. I had much more to say about the yoga movement in public schools. An excerpt:
Yoga classes are now a requirement for Needham high school seniors. To further ease the supposed burden on overworked students, Richards has “asked teachers to schedule homework-free weekends and holidays.” Just what we need to turn around those one in 10 schools that are now considered “dropout factories,” huh? Can’t cut it in the classroom? Bend like a bridge, take five deep, slow breaths, and all will be dandy.
Why stop at yoga? Tantric chanting, here we come. And, hey, Kabbalah has done wonders for Madonna. Let’s add hypnotism and acupuncture classes while we’re at it. Hot stone massages? Bonsai tree-clipping? No Relaxation Technique Left Behind!
Some point to a number of tragic student suicides to justify larding up the school day with Tree Poses and Sun Salutations. But the school officials themselves admit the deaths were not related to stress. No matter. Richards is using them to forge ahead with “a movement to push back against an ethos of super-achievement at affluent suburban high schools amid the extreme competition over college admissions.” It appears there are now more than 40 other high schools and middle schools that embrace the “Stressed Out Students” agenda. There’s another yoga curriculum popular in California, Yoga Ed., that has trained 10,000 teachers in more than 100 schools nationwide.
And guess what else I discovered after trying to find out whether yoga was coming to a school near me? We are paying for this nonsense. The Yoga Ed. program, created by Hollywood spouse/socialite Tara Guber, was funded with taxpayer grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the federal Carol M. White Physical Education Program.
Bit by bit, the dumbed-down cult of mediocrity, secular extremism and multicultural madness has infected American public education. Instead of concentrating on the basics and then teaching children to manage and conquer their “stress” through internal discipline, we’re removing every last source of possible damage to their egos.
A reader e-mailed this link to the thread at FARK on my column. There are a lot of unhinged haters over there, but also a few sane people duking it out.
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Department of AGRILCULTURE?
Why do I smell the stench of an Earmark?
“Watch a short clip on YouTube (as long as you are not addicted). The amazing and often funny feats on the site are inspiring and often leave you feeling, ‘Hey I want to do that!’ This is a great attitude to have towards your work.” Mentos, anyone?
aww crap, try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVpUdia50bg
Lots of Michelle Malkin derangement syndrome going on over at Fark.
They are even ’shopping Michelle’s face onto the head of a klansman.
What that has to do with Yoga is anyone’s guess.
Seniors! Haven’t they proven at this point in their
indoctrinationeducation that they can enduretrials and tribulationsschool? I mean they’ve made it that far.Yoga for kindergarteners! It’s stressful trying to learn your ABCs…
Maybe they misunderstood and thought they were funding a Yogurt project. : )
This is an easy thing to deal with. Our local charter high school tried this and I brought in a ton of information on separation of church and state and showed how the local Kashi compound that was introducing Yoga into the school was a religious organization. I also brought a ton of literature showing how each Yoga position honored a different god. Yoga was gone the next day.
Next, I went after witch costumes and how witchcraft is a religion (9th circuit court ruling – thanks).
When I was done, I asked if they were interested in teaching our children or having them learn to blow imaginary bubbles through circles made with their hands.
I was thanked for not involving lawyers – LOL.
Of course, Kashi cereal and yogurt. Now I know the department of agriculure completely misunderstood.
On the other hand, after a bowl of Kashi with yogurt, I do feel more calm:)
The going to start Kama Sutra classes next?
LOL me too. Then I mees it all up with coffee.
Do you have sex with the teacher before, during, or after yoga class?
O
Now you know the reason for birth control pills in middle school.
I don’t know about you all, but I always feel like taking a really hot shower after linking to sites like Fark
On October 31st, 2007 at 2:07 pm, pressto said:
The going to start Kama Sutra classes next?
The OUTRAGE! YOGA! I mean, what’s next? knitting classes for Muslim illegal immigrants?
This so-called Christian nation is going to hell in a hand basket and no mistake.
Back from the honeymoon?
Okay, I have a few questions for you guys…
I am new to the world of blogs. I first visited MMs site about a month ago, and it was the first blog I ever really read. (Surprisingly, I’m in my mid-Twenties, just out of touch I guess.) I like it here; the people are generally intelligent and well-spoken and most have a good sense of humor.
Is this not the norm for political blogs?
I just got done looking over the comments at that FARK site. I feel like I need decontamination. I have visited a few other liberal blogs over the past month and all the ones I was unlucky enough to stumble into were hateful place full of foul language and immature insults. “Anyone who disagrees with me is a *bleeping bleep*!!!!” They were atmospheres where no serious, intellectual conversation can take place, which is fine, because they don’t seem to want that anyway.
Did I just have bad luck, or is standard in liberal blogs? Is there a respectful liberal blog that I could visit to see what the other side is discussing (without having to wash my eyes out afterward)?
I am failing to see what the big deal is. Obviously, the school in question is not one where the students are having a problem grasping the basics or is a “dropout factory.”
This is in all likelihood a school where half the kids are absolutely miserable because their parents are constantly on their backs to take 4 AP classes a semester, to scrounge and scrap for every tenth of a GPA point in the hope that it might raise their class rank by one, where they are forced to participate in multiple extracurricular activities , not because the student is interested in the class, but because the parents want to bolster the kid’s chance at getting into an elite school, and on top of this to take private tutoring for the all important SAT.
Now, achievement is good. Having to work hard is good. We should have high expectations for our kids. But it has gotten to the point in many of these schools in affluent suburban neighborhoods where the kids are basically denied a childhood and it is starting at an earlier and earlier age. I am probably on the young side here, but it was not necessarily like this when i was growing up and I doubt that it was when most of the others here were either. Kids these days face academic pressures that most of us never did. It is a problem and it sounds like the schools here are just trying to address that.
Now, should we see this in an inner-city or rural school (or any school for that matter) where kids are actually failing to learn the basics? No, of course not. But so long as the quality of the kids’ education is not being threatened, I think it is not the worst thing in the world to make the kids take a step back and relax.
Is it the method you are objecting to MM? Would you be so upset if, instead of yoga, there was a prayer circle?
Maybe the kids are stressed out because they know they are going to be unemployable when they graduate.
Football (pigskins).
#17, if you insist… (!!!)
Here’s a list. Cannot recommend any of them as I haven’t (nor will I) checked out, but this might be a nice place to start.
http://usliberals.about.com/od/liberalblogs/Liberal_and_Progressive_Blogs.htm
Unfortunately, NO. I have visited many liberal sites, and the commentors all seem to blather in the same manner.
I went over to Fork, to read as suggested. Please, that is cruel and unusual punishment. They are racists, vile and really are an example of Michelle’s article. Our students are not being educated in the areas that matter.
One former student spoke of attending the High School and how stressful the work was, but you know it sounded like the Private School I went to in elementary school..sad.. so very sad..
Well, speaking for myself, if this country has gone to such great efforts to remove “religion” from schools it ought to be across the board. Yoga is tied to religion and, therefore, has no place in schools.
I believe you cited examples of Parental pressure, not academic. The parents probably need the Yoga. As in “Relax, your kid isn’t going to get into Harvard anyway.”
Besides the obvious faults (already covered by MM), this sounds an aweful lot like state sponsorship of Hinduism.
Just Google Yoga + Hinduism. The two are very much linked.
This is hippie education at work. What’s next, LSD? Good column MM.
And if your kid would like as many 45 minute math tutoring sessions as they can cram into a month - for $99, see this NY Times article
The tutor is in India.
What? Like fighting off a horney teacher?
I fail to understand what “academic pressures” you are referring to that haven’t always existed.
That’s an really intersting point. Is the “derangememt” due to the diversion from studies, or the method of stress relief?
Strong comment all around #18
#18, do you think that Yoga addresses all of things you enumerated in your post?
What happened to the old fashioned way of sitting down and talking to kids. I know some high school counselors are worthless but isn’t this their job?
Oh boo hoo, and they dont have to walk 25 miles through the snow either.
I’m thinking nowadays one pressure relieved is not being afraid of getting their a$$es kicked if they get bad grades. Having it as a requirement is nuts, elective maybe, but I going on soaps side and say dump it its out of bounds.
Nothin’ but net.
Actually, I have always wondered how Hindu folk felt about something which is pretty central to their spirituality and “religion being hijacked and turned into an exercise routine for upper crust white people.
I guess I should be clear. I am not necessarily endorsing the method by which the school is trying to meet their goal. Maybe yoga is too tied to a specific religion. Certainly someone who did not feel comfortable participating in it (for religious reasons or otherwise) should not be forced. Or maybe everyone (atheists and non-Christians especially) need to be less sensitive about religion in schools. Hell, I am atheist and I have no problem with Christmas displays in schools, the singing of traditional Christian songs, (”I still remember fondly singing “Cum Sancto Spiritu” in high school and this weird Jewish song called something like “Dahyenu” in third grade). nor do I really see a problem with yoga, though at this point “yoga” as practiced here seems really far removed from any religiousness.
I just don’t see that what these particular schools are doing is in anyway related to “the dumbed-down cult of mediocrity, secular extremism and multicultural madness”.
Point is, there will be NO prayer circle now will there? We all know how dangerous those prayer circles can be.
Academic pressures…..roflmao
Wah.
Wow, I took a look a the Fark site and I am now dumber for having done that. It reads like a teenage myspace page. There were maybe a couple of posts that might have had an argument, the rest are just wasting space on a server somewhere. I myself am not opposed to westernized yoga as long as it is an elective not a requirement, but does the focus need to be there? The U.S. is getting its butt kicked in Math and Science by pretty much the rest of the world and nobody seems to care. Or on the other end of the spectrum we have a serious weight problem. Maybe the kids should be running instead of yoga. Running is a great “stress” reliever and you burn some calories while doing it. Instead of re-inventing the wheel we should use what is already there and will cost nothing since Algebra and geomety have already been invented and most kids own running shoes anyways.
#17 - JW2
I agree with your observations on a sampling of liberal blogs. Those people over at FARK seem especially vicious. Good luck finding a more moderate one. You’ll have to take the point on that mission.
Is it any wonder how they can be so nasty to conservatives when you see how they turn on each other?
If you had any idea, AJ, about what some of the kids in these types of school go through, you would not be so flippant.
We are not talking about “If you come home with Cs and Ds, your grounded.” These are kids that are either growing up feeling like, or being told outright, that they are failures because they scored an A minus rather than an A in AP Calc, or because they slipped two spots in the class ranking last semester or because they “only” got into a very good school rather than an elite one.
Again there is a huge difference between setting high standards for our children and their education and driving them to the point where they become miserable, where nothing can be done except to the extent that it will help them get into a good pre-school, then a good grade school, the a good prep-school , then an elite college, then an elite grad school. That is what happens in these types of schools.
But go on ahead and just be a cynical jerk. “Wah” indeed.
Earth to chap, I have a 13 year old daughter.
Hah. Good point, Aloha, but until the school can figure out a way to have the parents as a captive audience for 8 hours a day, five days a week, the schools will probably just have to do what they can with teaching the kids to cope.
I didn’t say you weren’t a parent. It is entirely possible that your situation with your daughter is not the same as what is described here, I hope for her sake it is not. My argument here is limited. I am not saying that this should be mandatory in all schools. I am saying that in certain types of schools, the problem of over extended, over pressured students is real and this is one way the school is trying to deal with it.
but I guess since it is either 1) not a problem with your kid or 2) you have no idea that it is a problem with your kid it couldn’t POSSIBLY be a problem for others, so screw them.
sheesh…
What’s next, “downward facing dog”…
4x a day facing Mecca?
Hey yoga is great, I wish my track coach had known about it when I was in high school, probably would have saved a lot of pulled muscles..
but teach it in PE for criminy’s sake!
This New Age-ing of our public schools is I contend yet another example of how the dread teacher’s unions have allowed legions of hippie hacks to have their way with the administration of basic education…
IMHO
Chap:
The “problem” as I see it, is “required”. Imagine a required prayer circle in order to focus these same students. Now imagine the stampede of lawyers because of the “requirement”. Also, where was yoga BEFORE the dumbing down of our schools? They are reaching for answers. The charter school in our area has been an A+ school for years. Maybe – just maybe – the public schools here should look at the model of success instead of trying to force something else on our kids (like birth control) like they are, dare I say it, doing it for the children.
OK Doctor Phil, if these are my only choices I’ll take number one. Number two is as ridicules as YOGA being a requirement. Elective, as stated before maybe.
Well, I work in a high school, so I think I have some idea of what goes on in one. Only the top 10% are under a lot of stress vis a vis grades and getting into a top university, the rest are happy with Sacramento State or a community college. And it’s not the yoga that bothers me so much as that it’s a requirement. If someone wants to start an after school yoga club that meets right after the prayer circle and before ski club, fine. Just don’t make my kid do any of ‘em, please.
OK AJ, just for clarification: What really is your issue with this? Is it:
1) That it is yoga and you equate that with religion?
2) That it somehow coddling our students?
3) That these kids are somehow missing out on learning what they should be because of this?
If its 1: From what I know of it, what people practice as yoga here is so far removed from any sort of actual hindu religious practice that it has as much to do with Hinduism as eating a slice of toast in the morning has to do with communion. But OK I will grant you this one. Maybe it is too intertwined with religion. But then I have to ask: Are you upset about this simply because you see a double standard in how Christianity is treated or do you object because you do not want our youth exposed to religious practices other than Christianity in school.
If it is 2 or 3: I think I made my point above.
Bob’s Kid
Bingo and the Supreme Court ruled it that way about anything concerning a “religious activity”. Student led and not a requirement.
And I guess a basic question. How often and in what setting is this taking place? Are we talking every day? Once a week? During gym class? If this was like, once a week as part of gym class for one semester, would people care as much?
MM makes it sound like they are supplanting math class for this. I find her lack of detail in this regard very suspect.
for the 3rd time….YOGA being a requirement. Elective, as stated before maybe. and I still think Academic pressure is hogwash. maybe they should just cut back on the red bull, without trying to sound cynical….k?
Maybe this will catch on in the military for basic training. I know I would have loved some relaxing time away from the drill instructors. They were such meanies.
Actually, some of these kids probably need some basic training action. It would give them the basics of self-discipline and I can speak from experience–high school and college were walks in the park compared to basic training.
Then there was technical training. After 6 solid hours of classroom technical training every day, we got treated like we were still in basic. Now there is some academic stress. You’ve got to be able to retain enough knowledge from that day of instruction to do the homework, prepare for multiple varieties of military inspections, and do physical training.
At least that would give them a sense of what real stress is like.
That was a great column Michelle. As for FARK, they must have restricted registration for commenters with IQ’s of 70 or less.
Bob’s Kid
My only experience of high school is as a mom of high-schoolers.
I agree about the top 10% and they are there because they are competetive, it’s in their nature, and yes, offer it as an elective or an after-school activity. No problem with that, but I wonder if these mandatory classes are factored in their GPA. I would imagine so, then, I would have a problem. Any child attending parochial school has their GPA re-factored when they apply to state universities, resulting in lower GPA’s. Again, no problem if that’s your choice, but to put Yoga on the curriculum as a mandatory class, puts the parochial kids at a disadvantage.
Not just tied to, Soap, it’s a very religion-specific (Hinduism) ritual. You’re right that it should be able to be readibly removed from the schools due it’s undeniably religious nature.
Don’t know about that. I mean, hey, Maxim magazine wasn’t that far off when they recently referred to her as “Willem Dafoe with hot flashes.”
It seems to me that MM and many commenters are conflating two completely distinct phenomena for the sake of mustering some manufactured outrage.
Yes there are many public school systems in shambles and many public schools that are little more than dropout factories; this is a major problem and allocating talent and resources to remedy it should be a high priority.
However at the same time there are many exceptional, highly competitive public schools where cutthroat competition and stress do more harm than good to students. As chapoutier has said we’re not talking about intelligent student’s getting A’s and B’s….we’re talking about student’s being pushed by their parent’s and teachers to take 4 AP classes a semester, play a sport, play an instrument, prepare for the SATs, join National Honor Society, do volunteer work, apply for college, hold an office in student government, etc, etc, etc… At the same time they’re considered a failure if they get an A-, don’t make all county, and don’t get in an Ivy League college.
This is not healthy pressure for teenagers and in many of these hyper-competitive Ivy feeder schools stress relief is exactly what these students need. Now is mandatory yoga the best way to accomplish this? That’s debatable, but claiming these student’s are coddled or these are the type of student’s who drop out is just ridiculous are intellectually dishonest.
Purplepeep,
Just trying to be kind. My opinion is already sharp on the subject. If my kids couldn’t be “required” to pray, I don’t want any other “religious activity” forced on them either. The schools agreed with me by the way!
I am reminded of a story Dr. E.V. Hill told once. He was invited to breakfast with the Supreme Court Justices – an honor indeed. One of them asked him how to deal with crime in schools. Dr. Hill replied, “We should hang signs in every classroom that read thou shall not steal”. The justice thought it was a great idea. This same justice was the justice who was instrumental in removing the 10 Commandments from the classrooms.
Now we have to deal with “Yoga is the answer”. I do not know if I should laugh or cry.
I don’t so much have a problem with teaching Yoga in the PE class. But making it an extra class is a bit extreme in trying to make our kids dumber. I agree with you that the focus needs to be on the fundamentals in school. But I think that PE is an essential part of the school. I don’t see a problem with teaching Yoga in PE class. But to have it as a separate curriculum class is absurd.
On another note, maybe I can be a Yoga teacher as a profession! More jobs.
As a teacher and trainer in a former life, I went by the following rule-
What you don’t use you lose.
Young minds need to be held to the grindstone of drill and practice when it comes to learning. Fundamentals aren’t discovered; they are integrated into the psyche through continuous (not constant) and consistent practice, application, and feedback.
Say the words “drill”, “memorization”, or “practice” in a public high school these days and somebody who hears you-more than likely a dope smoking adult- will call Child Protective Services.
As for Yoga- it introduces anybody who practices it to a brave new world that is their own body, psyche, and spirit. It is great stuff.
The rub lies with the basic conditions most kids are in should they take it on as a “requirement”. Yoga is a demanding regimen with a result that is part relaxation and part kick ass exercise. It would take the typical overweight, out of shape, no muscle tone, carbohydrate swilling and mashing, teen more than a few months to get into it enough to reap a benefit beyond being a blowoff class- of which there are many.
The parents and admins that are pushing this policy are providing something they wish they had for their own misguided lives.
Spend more time learning and growing intellectually and let the young choose a direction for themselves on their own time for being able to stay in the game their parents are making many of them play.
Nothing wrong with yoga- but there is plenty wrong with the teachers and administrators running these failure academies.
Oh! But we cannot engage in an honest debate over that either because “my (insert relation here) is a teacher and they are so devoted and dedicated to their students……yada yada blah blah”.
Of course they are. And this is such a a pervasive and dominant trend that American public schools are the jewel in the crown of our democratic republic.
Puke.
At the outset, I am a secular hindu.
Hey MM, this is too much. The school board’s proposal may or may not be right. But to foul mouth yoga is wrong.
Winger:
When was the last time some yoga teacher asked you to embrace Hinduism.
Pressto
Nope, not your fault. This is what you have been exposed to. That is your limited knowledge to the culture and diversity of my country.
Hope I am not labelled a troll. If, and only if, you have patience go here. It is a .pps powerpoint presentation.
And finally, hope you all understand, if not, share my view.
I guess those commentors aren’t very relaxed at all, the way they’re spewing, lot of stress there…
I for one don’t see Yoga as a religious threat; but I cannot respect the duplicitous stance of middle class suburban Americanos who are so biased against any form of Judaic or Christian historical facts being presented in public school classrooms in order to promote understanding of the basics on which the country is founded.
However, if the lexicon and building blocks of the vacuous “New Age” popularities can be incorporated into a curriculum (mainly from the Asian continent) the Loonies will crash their way into doing so. Yet, completely strip everything of its context.
So the vacuousness continues unabated. This crowd seeks to define itself based on what it is not.
All context is stripped from study out of fear some teen chucklehead is going to “feel” brainwashed.
Pharmaceuticals or yoga? These idiots will let them have both, just so long as they don’t have to feel anything in the process.
If I had a time machine, I’d send em all back to Sparta in the time of Leonidas.
While we are talkin about the regimen of yoga, which most Berzerkoids call a regimen for peace, i wanted to mention a great bumpersticker I saw today. It was something I thought was great. Some might not like it at all.
Here goes: “War is Not the Answer. But it sure sorts out the questions, don’t it?”
You should see all the Yoga Thong Divas around here come unhinged in PTA meetings and School board meetings around here.
It’s quite the sight. Lots and lots of pain in these parts. Nothing is going their way. And they worry about EVERYTHING.
Not too many would survive in the environment where Yoga originated.
Not too many at all. I mean, like, there were no yoga mats back then, were there?
Bear, well said. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.
I agree sometimes the moonbats can get crazy ith their ideas that there is a magic bullet.
But as a conservative who does practice yoga (and not just the physical part) I really do believe it would be so beneficial to especially inner city kids.
The reason is yoga calms the mind and the emotions. Often crimes and un social behavior is caused by lack of emotional control? Yoga has the ability to nip negative emotions in the bud.
Yoga has also heightened my moral sense and the sense of respecting others and living in a non violent manner. I think all of this would be beneficial to members of at risk groups. Less ego, less problems.
There is only one thing. One needs discipline to study and do it in the first place. Unfortunately, too many of these kids have little.
And YES, I am conservative!
“Tree Poses and Sun Salutations”
Two things there,sivapragasam. First, Michelle is anything but “foul mouthed”. Second, to note the above-named - and other - Hindu ritual poses being forced on school children (and, thus their parents) is in no way “foul” by any strech of the imagination.
I’d say Yoga as just as silly as a Scientology “auditing”. And, frankly, if your religion doesn’t stand up to the harshest of critique you would probably be better served in dumping it.
“Winger:
this sounds an aweful lot like state sponsorship of Hinduism.
Just Google Yoga + Hinduism. The two are very much linked.”
You avoided his correct observation that Yoga is a distinctly Hindu religious practice. Nobody can avoid that very “inconvenient truth”.
Also, since he wouldn’t put himself under a Yoga guru your question is moot. However the school children have no choice and are being forced to do the Hindu religious rituals - in public schools They are not being “asked”; the Hindu religious rituals are mandatory.
It would be the same problem if public schools were forcing children to be baptised.
If Hindu students want to have a voluntary get-together to practice their religious rituals in a rented room after school, that’s no problem. Same as with kids who want a place to have an afterschool prayermeet/biblestudy.
I don’t imagine anybody would stop you from starting a Hindu-Yoga mission in “the hood”, Soliel. Certainly Christians have traditionally maintained missions in slums, skidrows and such for a very long time.
The problem is the forcing of this religious practice and other questionable “feelgood-selfesteem” silliness on public schoolchildren.
Though I still sorely miss my folks, who have long since passed on, I’m glad they were spared seeing this type of insanity in American schools, Soap.
Many people want a feelgood quickfix that’s supposed to solve all their problems, that’s why you see so many celebrities get into drugs and this type of shallow “spiritual funtrips”. (and end up jumping on Oprah’s couch!)
Just chant the magical “Auummm” and everything will be okay, doncha know.
Purplepeep
You pretty much made clear of what you believe. And I respect that and I will never, ever try to change your opinion nor impose mine on yours.
we agree to disagree.
e pluribus unum
But to say
is just 2 much 3 much and 4 much
I am born a Hindu and will remain so.
I respect MM as person and for her political idealogy. May be she got carried away and used the phrase Tree Poses and Sun Salutations.
If you take offense to what I had called her earlier, let me rephrase it: That, to me is a unfair characterization.
I stand by my word. Hope MM responds.
Huh, sivapragasam? Both are legit Yoga positions. The Sanskrit term for the Sun Salutation is “surya namaskar” and the Tree pose is called “vriksha asana” . What is incorrect there?
Describing the forms of a religious ritual is no more “getting carried away” than would be noting “sprinkling” and “immersion” are two forms of baptism.
I am a newcomer to yoga. It rocks. I am getting in touch with physical powers I didn’t know I had, and which have been dormant most of my adult like.
It is a perfect complement to my martial arts practice of Moo Gong Do, a specialized hybrid martial art combining Tae Kwon Do and Tang Soo Do. The concept of “moving meditation” describes it aptly- as well as lethal.
Now that I’ve discovered yoga it is taking life to the next level. Awesome.
My 9 year old son, Levon, is into yoga and soccer. Who knows how his life will be with it.
er, i meant adult LIFE!!!!!
sivapragasam:
re: Tree Poses and Sun Salutations…
valid translations of two different asanas (poses), respectively Vrksasana and Surya Namaskar…
Stop looking to be offended…does it make you feel good to “pose” as a victim? (and that is NOT an asana… but maybe you are, you’re sure acting like one).
I’m sure these guys here who have no problems with schools making yoga and chakras and all that a requirement wouldn’t have a problem with an alternative proposal of mine: chanting beads.
It’s a great relaxation technique, and just like American yoga, it’s completely secular. You simply chant some repetitive phrases like “Haylmareefuluhgrayce” on each bead, and it clears your mind and relaxes you.
Wouldn’t this be wonderful for our children, to be relaxed when they’re so stressed out? What’s wrong with a little relaxation time? What’s that? You don’t want children chanting on beads? Why, you must be one of those children-haters that the Democrats keep telling me about. Why do you hate children?
While I know (and Michelle knows also) that sometimes the facts get in the way of a good story. So, sometimes, it’s easier to ignore the facts. Fact is, there is a small yoga component that is taught as a part of PE class during one semester at Needham High. And those “no homework weekends and vacations” are rare. BUT, it is nice to be able to take a family vacation and not have to bring the 20 pound backpack with you over Christmas. I certainly expect that my child will still have to work on a term paper or some other long term project during that break. The whole story is really not such huge news.