Yoga Ban May Be Partially Lifted

(NewsReady.com) – Controversies involving the separation of church and state are magnified when it comes to public education. There are many who attack the role of Christianity in schools, and public life at large, as it’s the most prevalent religion in America.

This same rule still technically applies to other religions, even if people don’t acknowledge them as often. Because of relations to Hinduism, Alabama prohibited yoga, hypnosis and meditation from public school classrooms in 1993.

Now, state Rep. Jeremy Gray is pushing for a bill to bring yoga back to the classroom. The concessions in the bill include preventing students and teachers from saying “namaste” and chanting. In addition, teachers must only call the positions by their English names.

Alabama may lift a decades-old ban on yoga in public schools, but the greeting "namaste" would remain on the forbidden list. Under a bill in the state House local school systems could teach yoga, but moves and exercises would have to have English names. https://t.co/sttgfCylZv

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 8, 2020