Would you support having meditation and yoga taught in schools?

I've heard a lot about yoga and meditation but is it safe? Are we not inviting bad spirits because they say it can be pagan practice? I heard yoga uses poses and slow movements. What if we just invent our own yoga exercises?

I think that's an excellent suggestion and would do good for all children. Just the thought of having even a minority of children learn to control anger issues, health issues, and bring on some inner peace and calm would be worth it to me. If my kids were little I would for sure let them do this. I wish they had it years ago.

Personally, looking back on my school days I would have welcomed meditation and yoga classes, although I guess they weren't so 'open' to those type of classes back in the late 70s/early 80s. As an adult I tried meditation and wasn't able to get on with it, I guess it takes a lot of practice, trouble is would children be able to sit for any length of time and meditate without getting fidgety, be disruptive, it only takes one child to upset the 'mood' and the 'meditation' class. Basically I don't think they'd be disciplined enough.

Yes, of course! But its," Pie in the Sky!" The problem here is religion! Religion is desperately scared of anything that could be deemed 'spiritual,'which is why Yoga is misrepresented by the church. The Yoga Group that I manage at Alamo Palms has as many as 40 members at peak season, and it's not unusual for would-be members to tell me that advise from their priest is, "Stay away from Yoga, because it can play games with your head."

A conditional "yes". It would need to be voluntary - for both the students & parents consent. It would also need to be managed by a competent instructor who also does not charge any fees to anyone whatsoever. The benefits to students & families would be so much more than what you have briefly listed, but they will depend upon both the competence of the instructor & the dedication & sincerity of the students. Should either one, or both be lacking, others will see it as a complete waste of time. Yoga could also be incorporated into a child's daily fitness program.

I honestly can think of no reason "why not" and since that is the case, yes I would support this. I have recently been trying out meditation for myself and it has helped me feel pretty good. I think this would be a great thing for children in schools. Its hard to be around a lot of children all of a sudden and the case of bullying, something needs to be done. This would be something consistent and I think it would help.

Some interesting thoughts here, and it might actually help in some ways. Give kids something else to want to do and concentrate on. Personally I feel a lot of times some of the bullying happens when kids are always trying to compare themselves with one another. Then they tend to think because they are better dressed, get better grades, are sports jocks, etc. they are better than you. Personally the issue is the way you are raised. Too many times if they parents are always thinking they are better than some others, their kids will too and it will make it hard for them to ever really be able to get along and succeed in today's society.

Hello Pose. There are too many kids that are failing in reading and writing. I have two granddaughters inn high school that can't spell let alone read at grade level. Kid are not being taught the basics as they should be. They can be taught about bulling love through reading and improve reading at the same time. California is taking algebra out of the schools. There is also talk about taking civics and American government out of the schools. I have nothing against meditation or yoga but the schools need to use their time with the students better. There is not enough expectation of our kids as it is now.

I think that this will be a great idea and it will eliminate a lot of the problems that we have in Society today.

Even if there are to many complaints, children could be taught about their breath for stress control. Wouldn't it be great to see a couple of kids counting their breath instead of raising their fists?

I think that it would be an incredible thing to teach meditation and yoga in schools. I think it would be faced with a lot of opposition from different religions, especially Catholics and Christians, that claim that it isn't fair for meditation and yoga to be taught in schools and not have the bible be taught in school as well. Yoga would be great for students because it would help relieve hypertension. A lot of our sores and aches of daily life are from not strectching and not working all of the different tendons and parts of our body. Meditation would help as well because it would help children to find their true identity. Overall I don't see how teaching this wouldn't be a positive thing for school systems.

If I had seen this question some years ago I would have said that it was nonsense and wouldn't make any kind of difference at all. However when I was in college I had the opportunity to take a personality class where our teacher did several activities to help us get in touch with our whole selves and yoga was one of those activities. I think that this would be something that would be very beneficial in the classroom because it would help to release stress while the students also had the opportunity to tune into their body in ways that they'd never before done.

Hi Pose: I used to practice yoga myself and I think this ancien practice can give people peace in their minds which is necessary. It's healthy, it's good because they make people active and can help with the student's attention and can be an strategy against bullying. So if it's present in a non religious context it could be taught in schools. ALVARO

Hi friend yes now a days meditation and yoga has become the necessity because of all the junk foods we eat especially children are facing this problem at a very young age which is really bad.

I got through school without that. All the things you mentioned can be taught without meditation. I always had to much to teach to include yoga. I don't even do those things but still have compassion, love, and respect for others even when they don't show me those attributes.