Jewish students in DCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic dad here too: Lent Fridays and meat for the kids make me totally sympathize as well.

I feel like it’d be easy to have a panel to check in with on this. And a lot of it is public information. Taking a little care would be enough. Maybe even like a checklist would be enough. Check religious calendars for days off, for student dietary restrictions, when to place testing . . . Not sure what else but it feels like we should be beyond amateur hour here.

And Easter Holidays are a mess. Apparently Emancipation Day is more important that the death and resurrection of a certain person beloved by 2 billion people.

Yes. Dear God, I hope you are not implying that the public schools should bend their backs to accommodate yours Easter holidays? You people are really entitled and ignorant of separation of church and state. Maybe they should have more school days just to teach this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic dad here too: Lent Fridays and meat for the kids make me totally sympathize as well.

I feel like it’d be easy to have a panel to check in with on this. And a lot of it is public information. Taking a little care would be enough. Maybe even like a checklist would be enough. Check religious calendars for days off, for student dietary restrictions, when to place testing . . . Not sure what else but it feels like we should be beyond amateur hour here.

And Easter Holidays are a mess. Apparently Emancipation Day is more important that the death and resurrection of a certain person beloved by 2 billion people.

Every public school in the country gets Easter off every year. Christians get our sabbath off every week.

And yes, as a Christian, I can tell you that ending the horrific institution of American Slavery is worthy of celebration. Jesus would approve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic dad here too: Lent Fridays and meat for the kids make me totally sympathize as well.

I feel like it’d be easy to have a panel to check in with on this. And a lot of it is public information. Taking a little care would be enough. Maybe even like a checklist would be enough. Check religious calendars for days off, for student dietary restrictions, when to place testing . . . Not sure what else but it feels like we should be beyond amateur hour here.

If you acknowledged or worked around every holiday, there would be zero days for learning. Are you suggesting just the top 3 religions?

That's a gross exaggeration. First, no one is saying you have to stop learning. People are saying you should try not to have special events on days people can't participate. So, if I class earns a pizza party, it shouldn't be on Passover when most Jewish kids can't participate. Second, there are not that many holidays, particularly when you are only talking about holidays that are important enough for someone to need to forgo other activities. It also depends on the school event. I don't think someone needs to avoid having a routine event, like a PTA meeting, because someone has a holiday. But you shouldn't have the yearly talent show or some special event when you know a decent number of people won't be able to participate. Which brings me to your last question of which religions. I would say any religion that has a decent number of people who practice and there should be a higher threshold for district wide programs than for an event at a school or in a particular class.

All of these issues will require using judgment and there will undoubtedly be some tough calls in terms of how important a holiday is, how important/unique the school event is, how many people would be affected by an event on a particular holiday, etc. But the solution isn't to say f-it, we are going to take anything into consideration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic dad here too: Lent Fridays and meat for the kids make me totally sympathize as well.

I feel like it’d be easy to have a panel to check in with on this. And a lot of it is public information. Taking a little care would be enough. Maybe even like a checklist would be enough. Check religious calendars for days off, for student dietary restrictions, when to place testing . . . Not sure what else but it feels like we should be beyond amateur hour here.

And Easter Holidays are a mess. Apparently Emancipation Day is more important that the death and resurrection of a certain person beloved by 2 billion people.

What are you talking about? Last time I checked, we were always off for Easter Sunday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic dad here too: Lent Fridays and meat for the kids make me totally sympathize as well.

I feel like it’d be easy to have a panel to check in with on this. And a lot of it is public information. Taking a little care would be enough. Maybe even like a checklist would be enough. Check religious calendars for days off, for student dietary restrictions, when to place testing . . . Not sure what else but it feels like we should be beyond amateur hour here.

And Easter Holidays are a mess. Apparently Emancipation Day is more important that the death and resurrection of a certain person beloved by 2 billion people.

What are you talking about? Last time I checked, we were always off for Easter Sunday.

Within Catholicism, Good Friday is the holiest day of the year. It is not always a DCPS day off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic dad here too: Lent Fridays and meat for the kids make me totally sympathize as well.

I feel like it’d be easy to have a panel to check in with on this. And a lot of it is public information. Taking a little care would be enough. Maybe even like a checklist would be enough. Check religious calendars for days off, for student dietary restrictions, when to place testing . . . Not sure what else but it feels like we should be beyond amateur hour here.

And Easter Holidays are a mess. Apparently Emancipation Day is more important that the death and resurrection of a certain person beloved by 2 billion people.

What are you talking about? Last time I checked, we were always off for Easter Sunday.

Within Catholicism, Good Friday is the holiest day of the year. It is not always a DCPS day off.

Good Friday and also Monday of Resurrection.

Over 2 billion people in 100+ countries celebrating that, but DCPS has more important things to think about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those raising Jewish families, how has your experience been in DC public schools with regard to finding community and other families, taking religious holidays off, and encountering any anti-senitisim?

Are there any schools that tend to have larger than average populations of Jewish students in the traditional public school system?

Look at the Wilson feeders and Capitol Hill elementary schools

DCPS gives excused absences for all those who do not attend schools for religious holidays, no matter the religion.

Which Cap Hill elementaries have large Jewish populations?

We belong to Hill Havurah. There are kids of members of our congregation at pretty much every Hill elementary school and many charters. I wouldn’t say that any schools have a large population, but you wouldn’t be the only one at any school.

[Anonymous]

Atheist here- I don’t give a crap about your fake holidays and mythology. Have your kids miss school. I’m happy you can’t participate.

Ps- when I hear “my church” I think “my intolerance group”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Atheist here- I don’t give a crap about your fake holidays and mythology. Have your kids miss school. I’m happy you can’t participate.

Ps- when I hear “my church” I think “my intolerance group”.

How tolerant and open minded of you.

[Anonymous]

Nobody here: I want nothing off but summers and weekends.
There are plenty of days kids/teachers miss because of illness.
You all should be able to keep your kids home whenever you want.
Don't know who is Jewish and who is not at our JKLM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic dad here too: Lent Fridays and meat for the kids make me totally sympathize as well.

I feel like it’d be easy to have a panel to check in with on this. And a lot of it is public information. Taking a little care would be enough. Maybe even like a checklist would be enough. Check religious calendars for days off, for student dietary restrictions, when to place testing . . . Not sure what else but it feels like we should be beyond amateur hour here.

And Easter Holidays are a mess. Apparently Emancipation Day is more important that the death and resurrection of a certain person beloved by 2 billion people.

Yes. Dear God, I hope you are not implying that the public schools should bend their backs to accommodate yours Easter holidays? You people are really entitled and ignorant of separation of church and state. Maybe they should have more school days just to teach this.

I think by "you people," you meant to say "PP."

[Anonymous]

To get back to the original question: it sounds as though you are suggesting either that your kids could only have a community at the school if there are other Jewish kids at the school - or that the other kids would reject your kids because they are Jewish. I am not sure what your community is like, but at my Title I elementary school, none of the kids are making their friendship decisions on the basis of religion, race etc. and the teachers do an amazing job building classroom and school community. There are SO many problems with DC public schools but this is what I like most about our school and I firmly believe my kids will carry their openness and love of people of all types forward because they have had this rich and diverse community around them during such formative years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic dad here too: Lent Fridays and meat for the kids make me totally sympathize as well.

I feel like it’d be easy to have a panel to check in with on this. And a lot of it is public information. Taking a little care would be enough. Maybe even like a checklist would be enough. Check religious calendars for days off, for student dietary restrictions, when to place testing . . . Not sure what else but it feels like we should be beyond amateur hour here.

If you acknowledged or worked around every holiday, there would be zero days for learning. Are you suggesting just the top 3 religions?

That's a gross exaggeration. First, no one is saying you have to stop learning. People are saying you should try not to have special events on days people can't participate. So, if I class earns a pizza party, it shouldn't be on Passover when most Jewish kids can't participate. Second, there are not that many holidays, particularly when you are only talking about holidays that are important enough for someone to need to forgo other activities. It also depends on the school event. I don't think someone needs to avoid having a routine event, like a PTA meeting, because someone has a holiday. But you shouldn't have the yearly talent show or some special event when you know a decent number of people won't be able to participate. Which brings me to your last question of which religions. I would say any religion that has a decent number of people who practice and there should be a higher threshold for district wide programs than for an event at a school or in a particular class.

All of these issues will require using judgment and there will undoubtedly be some tough calls in terms of how important a holiday is, how important/unique the school event is, how many people would be affected by an event on a particular holiday, etc. But the solution isn't to say f-it, we are going to take anything into consideration.

There's that narrow-minded view that there are only a handful of "important" religions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic dad here too: Lent Fridays and meat for the kids make me totally sympathize as well.

I feel like it’d be easy to have a panel to check in with on this. And a lot of it is public information. Taking a little care would be enough. Maybe even like a checklist would be enough. Check religious calendars for days off, for student dietary restrictions, when to place testing . . . Not sure what else but it feels like we should be beyond amateur hour here.

And Easter Holidays are a mess. Apparently Emancipation Day is more important that the death and resurrection of a certain person beloved by 2 billion people.

What are you talking about? Last time I checked, we were always off for Easter Sunday.

Within Catholicism, Good Friday is the holiest day of the year. It is not always a DCPS day off.

Good Friday and also Monday of Resurrection.

Over 2 billion people in 100+ countries celebrating that, but DCPS has more important things to think about.

Growing up protestant, we didn't care much about good Friday or Easter Monday. We certainly never went to church on those days. I think those are overwhelmingly Catholic observances. Given that only 20% of the DC population is Catholic and only 39% of Catholics attend mass (per Gallup in 2018), only about 7.8% of the DC population actually celebrates those holidays, and many of those kids go to Catholic schools. The actual percentage of DCPS students impacted is probably about the same as the number of Jewish kids impacted by no school holidays for Yom Kippur, Pesach, Rosh Hashanna, and Purim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic dad here too: Lent Fridays and meat for the kids make me totally sympathize as well.

I feel like it’d be easy to have a panel to check in with on this. And a lot of it is public information. Taking a little care would be enough. Maybe even like a checklist would be enough. Check religious calendars for days off, for student dietary restrictions, when to place testing . . . Not sure what else but it feels like we should be beyond amateur hour here.

And Easter Holidays are a mess. Apparently Emancipation Day is more important that the death and resurrection of a certain person beloved by 2 billion people.

What are you talking about? Last time I checked, we were always off for Easter Sunday.

Within Catholicism, Good Friday is the holiest day of the year. It is not always a DCPS day off.

Good Friday and also Monday of Resurrection.

Over 2 billion people in 100+ countries celebrating that, but DCPS has more important things to think about.

If it means that much to you, take the day off. No reason to expect that everyone else has to take the day off.