The response to MoCo's calendar change shows why the FCPS religious holidays will never go away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:If we want to remove religious holidays, it needs to be all. It isn’t right to leave in Christian holidays but then view Muslim holidays as expendable. A new calendar system where only federal holidays are honored and no religious holidays are included at all would work, but it would require people who are very used to having Christian holidays honored to accept the change. No two week winter break. Christmas Eve in school, only Christmas Day off for the federal holidays and back on 12/26. Spring break untied from Easter.

There are no Christian holidays on the FCPS calendar (except for the ridiculous Orthodox ones they added).

I surprised people still try to act this stupid.

Please name the specific Christian holidays on the calendar that aren't already covered by something else like Winter Break.

You can't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we want to remove religious holidays, it needs to be all. It isn’t right to leave in Christian holidays but then view Muslim holidays as expendable. A new calendar system where only federal holidays are honored and no religious holidays are included at all would work, but it would require people who are very used to having Christian holidays honored to accept the change. No two week winter break. Christmas Eve in school, only Christmas Day off for the federal holidays and back on 12/26. Spring break untied from Easter.

There are no Christian holidays on the FCPS calendar (except for the ridiculous Orthodox ones they added).

I surprised people still try to act this stupid.

Please name the specific Christian holidays on the calendar that aren't already covered by something else like Winter Break.

You can't.

All Saint's Day is covered by Dia De Los Muertos. Epiphany/3 kings day is on the calendar as an observed day. Orthodox Epiphany was covered by MLK day. Ash Wedneday was an O day.

There's a ton of Christian feast days, high holy days, saint's days etc. Peasants in medieval europe had a ton of time off.

[Anonymous]

America is a Christian nation. The only holidays should be federal holidays and Christian observances. We can’t continue with making every single culture feel honored with their countries observances. This is getting out of control.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving doesn’t require 3 days. Make the Weds or the Fri a teacher work day.

Christmas does not require two weeks. Make 23rd a teacher work/training day.

Memorial Day does not require three days. Make one a work day.

Teacher should be allowed to work remotely on their workdays and training should be available online.

There, got rid of three days off and didn’t upset anybody/disenfranchise any religion.

Majority of the TW are timed around the end of a quarter. Nit picking a few days off the calendar isn’t going to fix that. It would be more effective to time quarters around existing breaks. For example, Monday and Tuesday of Spring Break could have been TW/SD days instead of tracking them onto the following week.

Looking at FCPS calendar, the pattern seems to be that there is a TW day at the end of each quarter (presumably for grading, and finalizing the gradebook) and 1 TW and one SD or SP day during each quarter, allowing for teachers to plan.

You could move those days to non-religious holiday days, I guess, but it wouldn't change the fact that teachers need days to plan, and that those days need to be distributed throughout the quarter, not clustered. If this doesn't seem obvious to you, I'd ask you this. How does it work in your job? When you have time when your client isn't present. Perhaps you're creating documents, reviewing documents, or meeting with colleagues. Are those kinds of tasks clustered, or do you have time to do that every single month that you work? Are you asked to do things in illogical sequence, or do you generally get to gather data before you analyze it? Or plan meetings with clients after you already held the meetings? Because that is what people seem to think teachers should do.

They can be distributed through the quarter without adding more holes to the calendar. Indigenous peoples day is a great example.

Indigenous people day is a great example of what?

Using the calendar to provide TW days on days students are already out of the classroom, not adding more disruption.

What day in late February are you proposing be used in that way?

Also, do you work federal holidays, or are you just expecting that teachers do so?

I work some of the Federal holidays— and I don’t for example get 3 days for Thanksgiving.

The schedule is supposed to prioritize *students* not teachers. It’s embarrassing how few people seem to realize that.

The schedule is supposed to prioritize instruction. Providing decent working conditions so that they can do their job, and so that they don't quit is an important part of that.

It's embarrassing how many people think that it's a zero sum gain, and that driving teachers away from the profession is somehow to the benefits of students.

It is to the benefit of children not to be taught by self-absorbed and entitled adults. If they flee the profession for working five day weeks ten months a year (with several weeks off) thats for the best.

LOL! And you’ll be stepping up to replace them. You “have a job?” Too bad. Enjoy that sweet, sweet first year teacher salary!

Unemployment is high, especially among new graduates. There are plenty of people who will be very grateful for a job that you seem to believe is too hard for you.

I’m not a teacher.
The rate of students going into education is plummeting.
You’re an imbecile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:America is a Christian nation. The only holidays should be federal holidays and Christian observances. We can’t continue with making every single culture feel honored with their countries observances. This is getting out of control.

Nope. You fail. Go back to 9th grade government class.

[Anonymous]

All these calendar threads are just packed with parents who mad that their kids don't have to go to school every single time they have to go to the job they hate.