Some get exercised over yoga in Georgia classrooms

Kindergarten students at Bob Mathis Elementary School do yoga with instructor Sedef Dion earlier this month. Students at the school in DeKalb County get yoga as part of their unstructured time during the day. Administrators and teachers say their students exposed to yoga are more focused, and some students themselves have found it helps with their classwork. A small but growing number of metro Atlanta schools have embraced yoga, though it triggered litigation in Cobb County, where a lawsuit says Christian parents at one school complained that it endorses a non-Christian belief system. KENT D. JOHNSON / AJC

Credit: Kent Johnson

Credit: Kent Johnson

Kindergarten students at Bob Mathis Elementary School do yoga with instructor Sedef Dion earlier this month. Students at the school in DeKalb County get yoga as part of their unstructured time during the day. Administrators and teachers say their students exposed to yoga are more focused, and some students themselves have found it helps with their classwork. A small but growing number of metro Atlanta schools have embraced yoga, though it triggered litigation in Cobb County, where a lawsuit says Christian parents at one school complained that it endorses a non-Christian belief system. KENT D. JOHNSON / AJC

Despite a backlash last year by some parents against yoga being taught in a Cobb County elementary school, the ancient Eastern practice has been quietly embraced as a teaching aid by other metro Atlanta school districts.

Those who use it say it is a healthy way for students to release tension and relax their minds.

Those who have concerns have cited the fact that yoga is rooted in religion and say you can’t separate the religion from the practice.

The Cobb County School District event led to a lawsuit, but many other schools are quieting incorporating the slow exercise and stretching routines into classes.

“If it helps our children in some way, I’m very much in favor of it,” DeKalb Superintendent Steve Green said in an interview in early May.

>> You can read the full story on what is happening and where it is working at myAJC.com, and view a video of students and their teacher.