The movement of yoga from the studio to the classroom began in 2002 when Tara Gruber, an elementary school teacher in Aspen, Colo., introduced a stripped-down version of the exercise to her students.
In an effort to allay the fears that parents and area Christian groups had that her �Yoga Ed� program was blending state-sponsored education with Hindu teachings, Gruber converted the Sanskrit yogic panting to English, and called it �bunny breathing.� Meditation became �time in.�
�I stripped every piece of anything that anyone could vaguely construe as spiritual or religious out of the program,� said Grueber.
In a 2003 study conducted by California State University at Los Angeles showed that students who participated in Gruber�s yoga program exhibited better grades, behavior and physical fitness than their counterparts who attended schools that did not carry yoga as part of their curriculum.
Today, �Yoga Ed,� or one of many permutations thereof, is practiced in more than 100 schools in 26 states nationwide.
"I see a lot fewer discipline problems," said Ruth Reynolds, principal of Coleman Elementary School in San Rafael. She says the program helps kids learn to focus and not give in to a wandering mind.
"If you have children with ADD and focusing issues, often it's easy to go from that into a behavior problem," Reynolds said. "Anything you can do to help children focus will improve their behavior."
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