This post is about teaching yoga non-religiously in public school. It's from an email i sent to someone.
when i teach in public schools, i always stress the psycho social aspects of yoga. that's the "union" is with yourself, your self confidence, etc., and not something spiritual. i leave it up to them. i emphasize the universal principals of the yamas and niyamas and the need to calm the mind and get control of the body so that you can be in harmony wtih the environment and make your dreams come true and be peaceful, happy people. i draw on a lot of psychology to teach the yoga aspects of meditation, rather than spiritual. psyche means soul in greek, so go figure!
if people have a problem with meditation, i call it silence. if you teach breathing and meditation, just keep it simple and focus on the pscyhological impact and proven studies about it, and that should be enough. if people don't like the world yoga, call it movement! i tell kids that the mind is a monkey (like plato said) and we have to get our monkey in control and on a leash so that we can make our dreams come true. i also emphasize that yoga is a discipline and also focus on awareness of our bodies and how it affects other people. i do this because i've always got hyperactive kids in my class.
i have heard in teacher conferences i teach at, that parents get upset with just the namaste anjali mudra position, however, my friend whose kids go to van arsdale is a strict catholic and she practices yoga, so you never know. i think you just teach being conscious to make it non-religious as possible and go from there.
additionally, i've been working more and more with my after school programs in taking an interfaith approach to teaching the philosophy. i've aways felt the big uproar over religion could be avoided if we just talked about it as a subject, that we're going to look at all the stories in the world and see how they are alike in the field of non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, non-greediness, happiness, etc.
that way i can tell a hindu story, a christian story, a buddhist story, and use joseph campbell in the center to explain their similarities. i talked about this in a workshop i just did this weekend, and the teacher wrote a note saying she was glad that there was such an approach that won't get people all upset. this whole approach has become an integral part of my work these days, and using it to teach peace and character. also i'm incorporating more and more yoga nidra with storytelling.
sydney solis
www.storytimeyoga.com