The Boy’s school is having some awesome-sounding live-action Pirates! show today. Canons. Swords. Pyrotechnics. Sounds like a blast, and I wish I could go watch.
The parents group blocked the school from offering yoga as part of the phys ed program because they didn’t like the message it sent the kids.
Glorifying violence and robbery are fine. Just don’t try to get the kids to have a greater understanding of their own bodies.
Did they give a reason for blocking yoga? I’ve heard of right-wing Christian types objecting due to historic links with Hinduism (‘namaste’)… Usually justified as an association with ‘the occult’.
If that was the case, I’d be on the alert for other covert impositions of their personal religious values.
yeah. several VERY vocal parents complained that they didn’t want their kids taught Hinduism. Because pretending you’re a tree or a dinosaur to learn about how your body moves is core to Hindu teaching.
One parent brought a newspaper clipping that described a person who had converted to Islam. One sentence in the article mentioned that the person had done some yoga, but didn’t attribute the conversion to that. And obviously, Islam is the same thing as Hinduism.
Actually, their biggest objection was with the phrase “clear your mind” – their response was a mouth-frothing “BUT NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM! IF YOU CLEAR YOUR MIND, EVIL WILL ENTER!” (they didn’t say EVIL, but that was the sentiment). I could never find out the original source of that particular objection, but it felt like something they were told by their church.
Cults often like to keep their followers busy and starved so they don’t have time to think… I think that’s the idea, keep them busy and their minds occupied (and hungry) so they may not shun our useless beliefs and wisdom-less meanderings through independent thinking…
That explains a lot about school lunch portions.
Jokes aside.
“BUT NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM! IF YOU CLEAR YOUR MIND, EVIL WILL ENTER!”
To me this seems like very direct advice to indoctrinate people, that you should fill their minds with your ideas so that there is no more room for anyone else’s thoughts.
It reminded me of the saying, “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.”
Here’s a reference I found which is of Letters by St. Jerome:
Idleness and mischief are linked in [St. Jerome Letters cxxv. xi.] fac et aliquid operis, ut semper te diabolus inveniat occupatum, do something, so that the devil may always find you busy; cf. [c 1386 Chaucer Tale of Melibee l. 1594] Therfore seith Seint Jerome: ‘Dooth somme goode dedes that the devel, which is oure enemy, ne fynde yow nat unocupied.’
Which to me seems like a common cult tactic that I read some while back about keeping people occupied so that they won’t have time to think, it also talked about depriving them of food.
Further, it’s a problem with tradition and a certain class or personality of people — so I personally think that there is a biological component to this for the human species. These people like order and tradition. Anything not historically belonging to the group is a threat to order and therefore must be suppressed. Unfortunately, these Debbie do-gooders fear anything that does not belong to the traditions that they were raised with… and all these things are threatening, evil, unclean, unholy… etc… Religion eats on this sentiment in spreading and maintaining moronic ideas. These people are neither capable of critical or more importantly don’t have a appreciation for it. Debbie do-gooders make up a significant portion of the female population, if we try to tie it to Myers Briggs probably something like 35-40%. Further, these are the women who are likely to be the so-called concerned parents.
Unfortunately, another class of people those that people who read this blog might belong to make a minority that welcome all ideas and some of us are willing to break from tradition completely to attempt to find the truth. We encourage self-learning abhor authority and see the abuses of tradition that invalidates a lot of its ideas… For some all of its ideas. So it is and will always be an uphill battle unless we have our own schools and institutions.
it certainly felt like some kind of religious creed. what pissed me off is that they were using it to have a secular program removed from a public school, because they accused the school of trying to indoctrinate religion. Insanity.
What pisses me off is that they succeeded. We blinked. They won. I’m seriously considering putting forward a motion to restart yoga next year, and won’t back down this time just to play nice with the parents of my son’s schoolmates.
If I recall from debates with a Christian Theologian friend, there is strong theological reason for Christians to be against “clearing their minds” in any form of meditation. Frankly irrelevant to this discussion in my opinion though.
Yes, yoga comes from India. By that token, many Asian martial arts are also thought to have come from yoga. While I’m no huge fan of Yoga, modern yoga practice is far from Hinduism aside from a few Sanskrit-sourced words strewn throughout the practitioner’s vocabulary (this bothers the crap out of me too, but is another conversation). All it should take in a sane environment is some anglocisation of the vocabulary and removal of spiritual-esque “clear your mind” type comments, for which one could substitute “calm yourself” or “relax” to the same effect. “Meditation” also treads on spiritual territory, so no need to include that aspect. There is no reason Yoga as a physical activity can’t be taken as separate from its fringe religious/spiritual roots.
Objecting to yoga as a whole is to reject an accepted (if ridiculously trendy and fashionable) form of modern exercise.
As for the Islam link to Hinduism, ??????
Also, pirates are awesome.
Yoga and meditation are not in conflict with Christian belief, especially if you are looking at the Christian mystical traditions. Really, this is just another case of those afraid of that which they don’t understand.
Again, not particularly relevant to not wanting yoga to be taught but, as I recall from the discussion with my friend, it’s not meditation in itself that’s the issue, it’s the objective and focus of said meditation. “Clearing the mind” is not seen as a useful objective. Christian meditation encourages active thought and contemplation of Christian works and ideas.
Anyway, not to debate Christianity or any such thing. I’m not Christian, just regurgitating what I heard from a Christian Theology graduate.
Man, I hear about idiotic stuff like this happening in other places, scary to think it can carry the day in a major Canadian city. A toxic mix of racism, ignorance, religious zealotry.
And if they really think that public schools have a covert agenda to turn their kids into Muslims (as that newspaper-clipper evidently does), shouldn’t they send them to one of their nutbar private schools?
it was really bizarre. they were almost in tears at one point. we tried to give the kids a great phys ed program, and they turned it into some fictional religious battle.
Even if yoga was somehow Hindu (or Muslim, or whatever it is these people are really afraid of), I’d be for having it in the school. Awareness of cultures is a _good thing_ not something to be feared.
But it wasn’t that. It was purely secular, stretching and posing to learn about how the body moves. Stupidity. Parent Council meetings have been interesting since this happened – I have difficulty talking to the Yoga Denialists without laughing in their faces.
Awareness of cultures is a _good thing_ not something to be feared.
OMG, agreed to the greatest extent.
If you come from a belief system that is so fragile that the mere investigation of external concepts endangers it, you should seriously reconsider the validity of that belief system.
Are you sure you are in Canada? That sounds like US style ignorance.
Actually, the woman I share an office with is a yoga instructor. If it gets out, I expect she’ll be deported. She is from Vermont which is pretty much Canada anyway.
You might try introducing them to the idea that many Christians practice yoga, but really if they have already decided their side on a contentious issue, you’re pretty much done with this type… The only way it would make a difference is if you could get someone in position of authority or age to tell them that it’s okay or perhaps focus on only the physical part of the exercise and nothing else:
http://www.christianspracticingyoga.com/
http://christianyogamagazine.com/
This is from Wikipedia, however:
In 1989, the Vatican declared that Eastern meditation practices such as Zen and yoga can “degenerate into a cult of the body”. In spite of the Vatican statement, many Roman Catholics bring elements of Yoga, Buddhism, and Hinduism into their spiritual practices.
Some fundamentalist Christian organizations consider yoga practice to be coherent to its religious background and therefore a non-Christian religious practice. It is also considered a part of the New Age movement and therefore inconsistent with Christianity.
it was pretty clear that there was no room for rational discussion. we talked to priests, the school board, people of various faiths, yoga practitioners. every one of them laughed at the thought of yoga being used to indoctrinate hindu (or muslim, or non-christian-protestant Other) religion. Still, we couldn’t stop that vocal group of parents to stop frothing at the mouth without caving in and discontinuing the evil yoga classes.
but, that same group of parents was perfectly fine with a day-long celebration of piracy in the school. (which really did sound like fun! we never had pirate shows in school when I was a kid…)
I am SO VERY GLAD I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here, it’s mandatory to learn Yoga in grade school. Well, almost :).
…well, at least they’re doing their part to reduce global warming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster#Pirates_and_global_warming) – OH NO! They’re promoting Pastafarianism!!!!
now you’re just making me hungry, with all the talk of noodly appendages. fill your stomach, so evil has no purchase!