Do you have an Elementary-aged kid? Because if so, you'd know this statement is ridiculous. There are SO many parties! 100th day of school parties; fall festival parties; holiday parties; valentine parties; spring parties; school "spirit week" parties; school fundraiser-associated-parties; end of school year parties; and I'm probably forgetting a few. So - it's absolutely not true that Halloween is the only opportunity to "get a little fun at school." My god. |
Jones Lane did a PTA sponsored trunk or treat in the evening on Oct 28. Halloween is “school spirit day.” |
A lot of MCPS schools don’t do Valentine’s Day parties or birthday celebrations. It seems you’re the one who’s out of touch. |
Same! And I grew up poor, so it’s not like I always had a ‘cool’ costume. It was whatever I could get my mom to help me put together. Wish my kid’s ES allowed Halloween. But they are not allowed to even read books about it. Let along have a Halloween parade. |
Add Lucy V Barnsley ES to the list! Not only do they ban Halloween in school, they also banned the PTA sponsored ‘Spooktacular’ that used to be held on the weekend. Used to be such a fun ‘community’ event for families. |
May this be the worst thing that ever happens to your child. |
| I don’t understand the hostility on this thread. We grew up celebrating Halloween and vday—they are fun American traditions and we have fond memories of celebrating them in schools. I believe these were Charlie Brown specials even. And so it’s sad to see, at some schools including my DC’s, these holidays being treated like they are almost unmentionable or like they don’t exist. I don’t make a big deal out of it, but it does seem like these holidays are being erased whereas holidays from other cultures are at least acknowledged. |
What?!? Where I grew up it was the churches who boycotted Halloween…churches full of generations of white americans. |
Not sure how they could ban the PTA event as that is separate from MCPS. |
You should bring that up with your school and PTA. |
LOL. Do you think the PTA can do whatever it wants because it is ‘separate from MCPS’? That is so far from the truth. Our PTA wanted to provide extra funds to increase staffing but that was not allowed. The PTA leadership does not have free reign at any given ES. |
Is that your argument? Things could be worse for my kid, so I can’t express my disappointment that our ES has banned any mention of Halloween during school? Nah, sorry, it doesn’t work that way. |
Expressing disappointment: I have fond memories about Halloween in school, so I am sad that my kid won't have that. Oh well. I'm looking forward to trick-or-treating tonight! Is that what you're saying? |
I mean, it IS a satanic holiday. But it has morphed/merged into a secular cute/fun tradition with parades and costumes and fun. Just like Christmas was a pagan holiday that then morphed/merged into celebrating the birth of Christ….and then for many years was celebrated in schools (as long as the specifically “religious part” was left out)…we had class Christmas parties with secret Santa exchanges and stockings and sang “jingle bells” and “up on the housetop” and “deck the halls” in music class and that is no longer permitted. Today it’s “winter parties” with snowflakes and snowmen and mittens. Times change, PP. |
+1 I have a ton of cute/fond memories of Christmastime at school where our school PTA would set up a Santa’s Secret Shop in the cafeteria and we could buy inexpensive trinkets for members of our family (junky stuff ranging from 25 cents to $5–kind of like things you might find in the oriental trading catalog) And then the moms would gift wrap it for us. It was such fun to pick out a gift to give that was just from me! As an adult, of course I realize now that there were probably a few kids in the school who didn’t celebrate Christmas (it was the Midwest) who might have felt excluded by this tradition, so it’s not a terrible thing that it no longer exists. But yes, it’s a fond memory for me that I wish my kids had. (We also watched the Charlie Brown Christmas episode IN SCHOOL the morning of the Christmas party for at least three years in a row. And that one is very religious. Public school. Times have definitely changed.) |