The only part of that comment that makes sense is that children should take yoga. The guru's logic is warped: education leads to crime?
It is ridiculous to suggest that educating our children in any way predisposes them to crime,even, never mind creating criminals; it is even more ridiculous that anyone in this day and age would suggest that with-holding information from children will somehow protect them from their natural impulses. Yes, yoga is great, but that alone will not save my daughter from a life of crime or even an unwanted pregnancy. If anything will protect her, it will be the open and honest relationships she has with her parents, her peers, and her teachers, and our willingness to speak to her about the things that your parents and mine considered unspeakable.

I'm trying to make sense of his statements. Sex ed leads to crime? Never heard that one before. He sounds as ignorant as conservative Christians who say teaching Sex ed promotes sexual promiscuity in teens. This has been proven false. The incidence of teen pregnancies and STD's is higher in areas where "abstinence only" is taught. I think adults need to get their heads out of the sand when it comes to sexuality. Better to have kids informed about sex, contraception,etc than pretend that they won't experiment if we tell them No.

Tara

Tara

Sex education has been proven to lower teenage pregnancy rates so yes, it should be taught in schools. Teenagers should know about pregnancy, sex, contraception, and STD's so they are educated enough to make good choices in life.

Even if there wasn't sex education in school, teenagers would still be having sex. Better to educate them than to not educate them at all.

It makes absolutely no sense at all. What evidence does he have for that claim, what studies support that view?

Yes.
It makes absolute sense. The human body and mind needs to be strong and healthy first in order to think in the right direction. Today's kids are overloaded with sex education before they even have time to understand themselves and their own body. As a result, their delicate pure minds start experimenting in areas they are not fully prepared to experiment in. The mind should first be made healthy, strong and positively educated enough in all other areas of life. The first four stages of patanjali's yoga sutras should be taught in order for the body and mind to learn self reliance and self restraints. This will teach them to explore life in the right directions and the mind will be strong enough to make the right decisions.

No. This doesn't make sense to me.
What "crime" does learning about sex lead children towards? Is there some study cited or anything like that?

The Yoga Sutras say that brahmacharya, celibacy, is the foundation of yoga. So if one is to teach classic yoga instead of sex ed, it would still include lessons on sex and celibacy.

It seems a little ignorant to make statements like learning about sex leads to "dreaded criminals." There are countries where sex ed, use of condoms, std's, etc is not taught. Those countries don't seem to be doing very well, if you consider unwanted pregnancy and std infection rates.

This doesn't make any sense. Sex is not a criminal, nor even an inherently negative activity. How does education lead to crime? I can't fathom the connection. I think kids should take yoga lessons, but what does that have to do with sex ed? What a ridiculous statement.

I think there could be less education about sex and western students should get familiarized with Yoga.

hmmm....I would like to see the scientific research supporting this theory. I would have thought that Sex Ed led to lower rates of teen pregnancy and v.d.'s. As young single mothers are more likely to live in poverty and poverty is correlated with crime it would seem that Sex Ed actually lowers crime rates. The best birth control in the world is education for women and I would not like that to be taken away.
ps. I do lots of yoga and if anything I have more sex because of it :)

I am sorry to see the warped views on 'Yoga' that the west has. I feel sad that the west has adapted and perverted yoga to suit their culture. What Swami Ramdev says, is meant for a rich culture that is coveted by the west today. India has an ancient culture and kamasutra is not only about sex, bramhacharya is not only about sexual abstainence. I pray some sense prevails and the yoga practitioners really try to understand the yoga sutras rather than interpret and judge based on their limited immature experience of yoga. There is more to yoga which you shall find if you read Fuerstien or Frawley or Svoboda.

I dont think those who opposed RamDev understand a bit of yoga or the Indian Society. Education is good thing but it has to to be measured in the living society and should not be used hastily. It is like national security which should be used only and when necessary but should not be shared with all

What's wrong with taking yoga AND sex ed? I don't see why the two should need to be mutually exclusive. It is important for teenagers to learn the truth about sex rather than what they see in movies and hear in music. Teenagers will have sex, regardless of whether or not they have sex ed and therefore, they should be educated in order to protect themselves and their partners. Yoga may be helpful in that it helps give young girls a better body image and with more confidence, maybe they will make better decisions, but I do not see the connection of education leading to crime.

does this yogistien have any kids?

hey Arvind.........
INDIA ALSO HAS A RICH CULTURAL PRACTICE called the CASTE SYSTEM.

I understand what Pratibha is saying, but children are learning warped things about sex in our culture, at a very young age, before they even get to a sex ed class. It makes early education, through parents and through classes, a necessity.

His logic makes about as much sense as his grammar.

Arvind, your comment doesn't address the issue raised by the original comment that sex-ed leads to crime. I fail to see how your attack upon the 'ignorant' West contributes anything to the discussion.

It's a question of situation. In a different time, place and culture, maybe the guru's idea would have some value. Today, children are already exposed to sex. This suggestion to ban sex ed is neither here nor now. Besides, sex ed is about making good choices--not about how to have sex. It's a little nuanced.

arvind,
i don't see this as "ignorant westerners versus enlightened indians".
enlightened india has over 5 million cases of HIV infection. it is a serious problem...there as well as here.

the original question is, what do you think of this yogi's opinion that yoga and not sex ed should be taught?

How can education or knowledge lead to crime? The crime rates are always the highest in areas where people are the least educated. When "education" starts to only be about the things that some authority figure wants it to be, it stops being education and becomes brainwashing.

Although there are dogmatic self-appointed authorities who want to brainwash youth throughout the world, the future of our society and this planet depends on an educated, open-minded and inquiring youth, not a bunch of uneducated, superstitious, mindless followers.

The guruji is right when he says that Yoga is important for children. In fact the Indian government did come up with the idea of teaching yoga to school children. This was to be a part of the school curriculum.Sadly they have not executed the plans.
I think the Guruji is wrong in saying that sex education makes children criminals. These kids should know about sex. Maybe the Guruji has never had sex so maybe he does not know the power of sex.