School does away with dominant holiday fun for kids

Reba

Reba

Retired Terp
Premium Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
54,899
Reaction score
1,518
. . . Celebrations of Valentine’s Day and the other “dominant holidays” are ending at one St. Paul elementary school, according to a letter from the principal addressed to families.

Principal Scott Masini of Bruce Vento Elementary School, whose student body is overwhelmingly nonwhite, explained in the letter that “my personal feeling is we need to find a way to honor and engage in holidays that are inclusive of our student population.”…

More:

School pulls plug on celebrating dominant holdiays

This is ridiculous.

This is an American school. These are traditional American holidays. Immigrants come to America to become Americans. Sharing in American traditions helps to unify people from a variety of backgrounds. That, and learning English as a common language, ties different people groups together.

For school kids, especially in the fall and winter, it's nice to have holiday breaks in the routine. Wearing special outfits, exchanging cards, decorating homes and classrooms and eating special treats are a nice change in daily life.

I don't "believe in" Halloween but if little kids want to dress up in costumes and carve jack-o-lanterns, let them have some fun.

Kids enjoy making Valentine cards and eating heart candies and cupcakes.

I see this move as NOT inclusive but alienating. It makes it look like there is something wrong with Americans celebrating American holidays.

When Americans travel or move to other countries do we expect those countries to drop all their customs and traditions for our sake? Of course not. So why do we need to de-Americanize for them when people come here? Why do we need to deny our identity?
 
I can see why the principal would have wondered about this and come to this conclusion. Though it's a hard choice. I'm wondering if the principal could have sent a letter or poll before-hand, or held a "town hall" kinda meeting - to see what the parents and students in the school thought about this idea.

I see this as an outsider looking in - someone who wasn't raised Christian, doesn't observe Christmas and has mixed feelings about Thanksgiving. Many Native people consider Thanksgiving a day of mourning, not something to celebrate.

On the other hand, I can see why some students, parents and teachers may be upset.

This raises questions using a phrase Reba touched on - what does it mean to be "American"?

I'm not so sure that the analogy of going to another country makes a good correlation, because other countries -can be - far more homogenous than the United States; also most other countries aren't purportedly built on the idea of pluralism.

Christmas is a Christian holiday, I don't see it as an American holiday. That leaves out plenty of people who don't follow Christmas.

The Valentines Day thing....I remember doing the card thing in elementary school. It wasn't that big a deal to me and I had many more negative interactions with kids in elementary and middle school than positive ones.

Who's to say whats "American"?
 
http://www.novareinna.com/festive/valworld.html


we're not the only country to celebrate Valentine Day . I know some schools stop celebrating Valentine b/c they don't people bring candies and cupcakes to school b/c kids are getting too fat and also some kids have food allergies. Damn it seem like every days kids are being told it's wrong to have fun b/c it's politically incorrect .
 
It look like some schools are getting more strange nowadays.

I love Valentine party at elementary school with candies, cupcakes, hotdogs and soda in early 90s.

It looks like much of holiday parties stopped when you go to middle school and high school.

For me, at deaf school, I had holiday parties at middle school (7th and 8th grade).
 
Funny, at my old job at the deaf school, we didn't have Valentine's dance because of that reason but each dept had their own holiday celebrations. Then, at my new job at the public school, we had a Valentine's dance but it wasn't labeled is as a "Valentine's Day" but as an end of the quarter celebration but wear red, white and pink. LOL

Schools still find a way to celebrate American holidays but just dont advertise it. :)
 
I can only imagine your outrage if a school decided to celebrate history by building sukkot booths , even though it should be part of your Judeo Christian backgrounds.
 
I would think this would have the opposite effect making immigrants feel welcome in America , some people may protest them more for not allowing American students to celebrate our holidays. Look at all the immigrants that came here over the years they're were fine with living with our holidays so what is so difference with immigrants today that we have to stop let our kids celebrating holidays in school? We didn't stop celebrating holidays when immigrants came here in the 1800's or 1900's.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I would think this would have the opposite effect making immigrants feel welcome in America , some people may protest them more for not allowing American students to celebrate our holidays. Look at all the immigrants that came here over the years they're were fine with living with our holidays so what is so difference with immigrants today that we have to stop let our kids celebrating holidays in school? We didn't stop celebrating holidays when immigrants came here in the 1800's or 1900's.
Click to expand...

were you there in the 1800s/early 1900s to see if immigrants were "fine" with American holidays? If I recall, Americans were quite resistant to immigrants then- especially the Irish "Irish need not apply here" (am sure that was also aimed at Italians also...). Can't have it both ways... have the immigrants be fine with American holidays etc yet suffer abuse from America's own citizens.

We did celebrate some of those holidays in elementary and up to 8th grade with parties and all that. Hated Valentines Day because it always felt like a popularity contest anyway with who got the most cards. If everyone wants a holiday & parties might as well stop or reduce them because if that happened then there would be no school work getting done at all (yes might be a bit hyperbolic but the idea is what I'm getting at).

In one sense I can see why Valentines Day at least would be stopped- it's technically not a legal holiday... Interestingly it was once a Christian holiday- that's no longer the case anymore- it's a commercial one.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I would think this would have the opposite effect making immigrants feel welcome in America , some people may protest them more for not allowing American students to celebrate our holidays. Look at all the immigrants that came here over the years they're were fine with living with our holidays so what is so difference with immigrants today that we have to stop let our kids celebrating holidays in school? We didn't stop celebrating holidays when immigrants came here in the 1800's or 1900's.
Click to expand...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day

Valentine's Day is commonly practice in majority Christian countries, especially North America, Latin America, Europe and Russia.

Majority of immigrants come in US are from Latin America that are mostly Christians. *SMH*
 
But this isn't an Asian country. It isn't a European country, or even a South American one. It isn't even Canadian.
 
I'm not saying that the public schools should perform religious ceremonies or make all-day holidays out of every occasion.

For Valentine's Day, what's wrong with kids making cards to give to their family or exchanging with their classmates? It's not a popularity contest if everyone makes a card for every classmate--they would all get the same number. What's wrong with decorated cookies or cupcakes (not everyday).

For Halloween, what's wrong with drawing or making from construction paper jack o'lanterns and serving treats?

For Thanksgiving, what's wrong with learning how to show appreciation to others for the things they do? It might be a nice change from feeling entitled to everything.

On Presidents Day, they can learn about US Presidents.

On Martin Luther King Day, they can learn about MLK.

Christmas has already be secularized in schools. They can make ornaments and decorate trees, sing non-religious songs, and eat red and green cookies. What's wrong with that?

Nobody needs to perform any religious rituals.
 
And no one should be banned from performing religious rituals either. Freedom of religion ... remember that one?

It seems like those whom are non-religious really enjoy their freedom to be non-religious by attempting to ban religion from not only their own personal lives, but every one else for that matter too.
 
Steinhauer said:
And no one should be banned from performing religious rituals either. Freedom of religion ... remember that one?
Click to expand...
They don't have to perform formal rituals led by their teachers at public school during the school day.
 
Reba said:
I'm not saying that the public schools should perform religious ceremonies or make all-day holidays out of every occasion.

For Valentine's Day, what's wrong with kids making cards to give to their family or exchanging with their classmates? It's not a popularity contest if everyone makes a card for every classmate--they would all get the same number. What's wrong with decorated cookies or cupcakes (not everyday).

For Halloween, what's wrong with drawing or making from construction paper jack o'lanterns and serving treats?

For Thanksgiving, what's wrong with learning how to show appreciation to others for the things they do? It might be a nice change from feeling entitled to everything.

On Presidents Day, they can learn about US Presidents.

On Martin Luther King Day, they can learn about MLK.

Christmas has already be secularized in schools. They can make ornaments and decorate trees, sing non-religious songs, and eat red and green cookies. What's wrong with that?

Nobody needs to perform any religious rituals.
Click to expand...

If schools banned Valentine's Day so they should be most Muslim or Hindu students or whoever object to Valentine's Day. US isn't only problem, also some schools in UK and Europe have same problem, even more common than US because of larger Muslim immigrants. In here, most Muslim students go to private school instead.

I don't see Valentine's Day as religious but it is more western (commercial) holiday, even many atheists and agnostic celebrate on Valentine's Day, such as take someone to out for dinner and gift.

This school isn't mine so I don't worry about their school. I will not send my kids to school with majority Muslim or full of sensitive students.

Speaking about Thanksgivings Day, Native Indians don't like Thanksgivings Day and Columbus Day due long history of brutal treatment on Native Indians. Those aren't my problem because I'm not belong to any tribes.
 
Reba said:
They don't have to perform formal rituals led by their teachers at public school during the school day.
Click to expand...

The freedom of religious is totally up to students or whichever all students agree to celebrate.

I live in bible belt so using religious influence to celebrate the holiday (Easter, Thanksgivings and Christmas) is common, but I don't care.

I don't notice about religious influence in Valentine Day's and Halloween until I learned on internet today.
 
I have message for Muslim people - they should have thicker skin and balls when they come to USA, Canada and Europe so they need to stop crying like baby about whatever is offensive to them and please respect our traditions so we aren't going to change our way to follow Muslim culture.

If they quit being sensitive or politically correctness so we don't have to deal with them.

The US flag is our national flag and it doesn't offend Muslim people because of stupid wars and conflict in Middle East so we come to fighting for freedom to everyone, but sometime, it don't work out for some countries. If they want to find whichever is accountable - blame on leaders, not our flag.
 
Reba said:
They don't have to perform formal rituals led by their teachers at public school during the school day.
Click to expand...

I wasn't implying that. I was saying that religious rituals cannot be specifically banned.

A teacher cannot tell a student (unless it is "disrupting" class) that they cannot pray on school property. They cannot stop a student from reading religious text during their lunch hour, etc.
 
Back
Top