Hindus urge Connecticut schools to offer yoga

Hindus are urging Connecticut State Board of Education and Connecticut State Department of Education to formally introduce yoga as a part of curriculum in all the public schools of the state.

 

Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, indicated that since yoga was reportedly already there in various formats in many of state’s schools, Connecticut should develop a uniform curriculum for all the state schools offering yoga as an elective subject, giving a choice to students who wanted to avail the multiple benefits yoga provided.

 

According to reports, Bethel High School offered “Ah Ha Yoga” (.4 or .5 credit; in place of 1 Physical Education credit) for 11th and 12th graders whose Course Description included “unite mind, body, and inner self”. There is a Beginner’s Yoga Class on Mondays at Hamden Middle School whose announcement includes “Improve your flexibility, strength, balance and stamina”. At Middlebrook School in Wilton some groups try to decrease the pulse rate using meditation and yoga under "Feel The Beat" (A Guided Exploration of Factors That Affect Pulse Rate), a "Curriculum-Embedded Performance Task” of the Department in Middle School Science.

 

Calling introducing yoga as a step in the positive direction, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, suggested Connecticut to incorporate yoga in the lives of the state’s students. Yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed pointed out.

 

Rajan Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.

 

According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to an estimate, about 21 million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.

 

The Connecticut State Department of Education, the administrative arm of the Connecticut State Board of Education,  helps to ensure “excellence in education for all Connecticut students” which number over half million spread in  state’s 166 school districts. Allan B. Taylor is Chairperson of the Board, while Dr. Dianna R. Wentzell is Commissioner of Education. Dannel P. Malloy is Connecticut Governor.