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Alabama public schools will soon be able to teach yoga, though many of the staples that have come to be associated with the practice will be banned.
The new decision will allow schools the final say on whether or not they want to offer yoga to students within their institutions from kindergarten through 12th grade. Parents will also have to sign a permission slip for their children to practice yoga in schools.
The ruling will take effect on Aug. 1, just ahead of the start of the 2021-22 school year.
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When Alabama students potentially take part in yoga classes in school later this year, many aspects of the practice will look different, however.
According to theTimes, instructors will not be allowed to say “namaste” and chanting is also not allowed, including the use of “om.”
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Similarly, English descriptions must be given for poses as opposed to their original Sanskrit names, the newspaper reported.
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The new ruling will also ban school instructors from using “hypnosis, the induction of a dissociative mental state, guided imagery, meditation or any aspect of Eastern philosophy,” theTimesreported.
Conservatives in the state have argued that yoga cannot be separated from Hinduism and Buddhism, and that allowing yoga in public schools amounted to the government “promoting religion,” theTimesreported.
“Anyone who has taken yoga, we know that namaste is not something religious,” said State Rep. Jeremy Gray, a former football player who was once a certified yoga teacher and introduced the bill, per the newspaper.
source: people.com
