union yoga

>> >>peggy: the parents attorney sent an email to superintendent tim beared calling the yoga classes religious in nature and threatenedlegal action. ut san diego columnist matt hall joins meat our weekly round table to talk about the parents claim.now, matt, you went to some of the yoga classes, you actually sat in on them, what were theylike and who was there?

union yoga, >> >>matt hall: i went and saw two classes,both first grade classes. dollar were probably a dozen or 15 kids. i'dsay in each. their hr 30 minutes, twice a week, and classesthat i saw you had kids doing airplane, so they're lying down on their stomachs, puttingtheir arms out, they did alligator, they did

bird, ask and then they do poses that don'teven have some of the names from what most people would think of as yoga.these classesãš from what i saw and what i believe, are not religious in any way.>> >>peggy: they've been modified, certainly those terms are modified.you don't have airplane or alligator poses in true yoga classes.let me explain to the viewers, dean royal the attorney hired by some parents at theschool district wrote an e mail where he said there's a deep concern that the encinitasunion school district is using tax payer resource to promote ash tonga yoga and lind ewism.do you think the parents concerns is really because of the origin of yoga coming fromindia and hinduism or as you said and what

you observed was dollar are actually somesort of religious poses. >> >>matt hall: i think it's both.i think the parents who are concerned about this are doing it because of the ash tongayoga they say is rooted in centuries old hinduism, and they're worried their students are gettingwhat they see as religious indoctrination. it's not.this is notãš we're not teaching the four r's of arithmeticãš reading, writing, arithmeticand religious indoctrination at the school. when i wrote my column, it ran on monday,the school is on a two week break. when i talked to the school board members beforei finished my column up they said we've heard their concerns, we've toured ourselves someof the sites, we have seen these classes and

we hope this dies down over the break, insteadit flared up. >> >>peggy: half nine of the encinitas schooldistrict schools are on board. who's paying for it?>> >>matt hall: it's the grant that's coming into the school is being a paid by a foundationthat is formed by a man who is an ash tonga yoga practitioner.>> >>peggy: it's a non profit, right? >> >>matt hall: ritz ar non profit foundation.the program was actually startedãš yoga was implement ped in schools three years ago ina few campuses and only this year has it kind of boiled over because they are implementingit district wide. these kids enjoy it, it's physical activity,it calms them, it eases their stress.

>> >>peggy: we don't have a whole lot of time,but i wanted to get to the point. what is the district's response? are theygoing to shut this down? >> >>matt hall: i don't get the sense they'regoing to shut this down. i think they hope there won't be a lawsuit filed.bu but just yesterday on twitter, coast law group which is a well known encinitas lawfirm said they'll represent the school district for free.if we're headed for a legal fight, there's going to be some lawyering to do.>> >>peggy: ut san diego columnist matt hall, thank you so much for talking with us aboutthis.