A primary school in the town of Dechantskirchen in Styria, Austria offered yoga as part of concentration classes to its students.  All was going well with the course when one mother of a student objected because of religious reasons.

“All I heard was that according to the Bible yoga should not be allowed and it would lead the children in the wrong direction,” yoga teacher Ingrid Karner told the local paper, Kleine Zeitung.

She was disappointed as her monthly yoga classes had proved to be a success with both parents and children.

“We introduced children’s yoga and concentration exercises into gym classes. I presented the project to the headmistress and the district school inspector in advance and they were both happy with it,” Karner said.

Apparently many parents are outraged that their children can no longer do yoga during the school day.  Unfortunately after the ban was put in place the district school inspector Helga Thomann said that in principle she thought children’s yoga was a good idea but said that “anything from the Far East that touches on the esoteric has no place in schools”.