Although students at Needham (Mass) High School may have felt a lot less stressed after principal Paul Richards stopped publishing the list of honor roll recipients last year, it seems the relaxation guru was just getting started, according to Michelle Malkin, who noted that his latest idea was for the school to sponsor “in-school yoga classes.”

“It’s not that I’m trying to turn the culture upside down,” Richards told the New York Times, explaining that his goal was simply to bring “the culture to a healthier place.”

These health concerns not only inspired Richards to install yoga as a standard high school course, but also make it “a requirement for Needham H.S. seniors.”
The yoga mania isn’t confined to Massachusetts. In at least one Virginia suburb of Washington, DC, a local church parish recently offered a series of classes called “Yoga for Advent.”

Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia’s monthly Campus Report newsletter from which this feature is excerpted.