Too much Christmas Education in my Public School

[Anonymous]

Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

Yes, lots of angry posters calling others anti-semites.
If you hate the holiday, fine. But do not ruin it for everyone else.

Reindeer and elves and fairies and gnomes are not mentioned in any religious book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

Yes, lots of angry posters calling others anti-semites.
If you hate the holiday, fine. But do not ruin it for everyone else.

Reindeer and elves and fairies and gnomes are not mentioned in any religious book.

And they don’t need to take over a classroom for a month. One day is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

Yes, lots of angry posters calling others anti-semites.
If you hate the holiday, fine. But do not ruin it for everyone else.

Reindeer and elves and fairies and gnomes are not mentioned in any religious book.

And they don’t need to take over a classroom for a month. One day is fine.

Go and volunteer as a teachers aide

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

Yes, lots of angry posters calling others anti-semites.
If you hate the holiday, fine. But do not ruin it for everyone else.

Reindeer and elves and fairies and gnomes are not mentioned in any religious book.

And they don’t need to take over a classroom for a month. One day is fine.

Go and volunteer as a teachers aide

Why? K classes usually have an aide.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it makes you feel any better, OP, I too get ticked off with all the Santa, Rudolph, tree focus. But I am Catholic. I feel my faith gets short shrift in public schools' ham handed attempt in "portraying the Christian holiday to the kids". I feel all other faiths get at least a serious focus on what the faith is really about. But if you try to have one serious day about, "Jesus was born in Bethlehem, etc." it is a huge no-no, and just shuffled into the whole Santa/North Pole/Tree sort of thing. That is NOT what my faith is about in the least.

You're mad that your faith isn't properly portrayed in a public school?

Correct.

Uh. It’s public school. If you want a catholic education for your kids you should have sent them to catholic school.

Personally, mine do go to Catholic school. But, to be fair, if we are exposing kids to every religion in public school, just for the purpose of education and exposure and historical awareness, Santa, Rusolph, and Frosty do not check the box for "this is what Christians believe." These are human-created, secular, distractions. So, others, please do not feel like, "These indicate that there is too much of a Christian focus in public schools." Far from it. We are all getting short shrift in the public schools.

I don’t think world religions need to be seriously covered in K. Maybe in HS as an elective.

Cultural events & celebrations are fine though. Nothing deep just touch on a wide variety of cultures for exposure. They are there to learn to read.
You

Absolutely fine with me. Then, what is op complaining about?

Sounds like they only cover Christmas at her kid’s school. And they spend a lot of time on it. Enough to make some kids feel excluded.

But it does not sound like they cover Christmas. They do things like Frosty, Rudolph, and a Dhristmas tree. All of which are secularly conceived, often by Jewish-American entertainers (Irving Berlin, "White Christmas," etc.)

Actually, if you look at the original post, they talked about the theee wise men, baby Jesus and the nativity. She wasn't just talking about Christmas trees, Santa, or reindeer.

But even if she were, even if you consider those things secular, they are secular things all associated with Christmas. Even in a secular/cultural celebration of Hanukkah, none of those things appear. If cultural Christmas things are discussed to the exclusion of cultural aspects of other religions, or if their prevelance dwarfs other discussions, that is problematic in a public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

They may be secular. But when they’re not part of your child’s holiday tradition, and they’re getting shoved at your child every day for a month, with comments like “these are part of an American holiday—aren’t you American?”...do you see where there might be a problem?

Listen, I grew up Jewish in the 1980s, learning Christmas carols in school. It was totally fine to sing the songs at school, then come home to our winter celebrations. But there was no Santa at school, no elves, no discussion of the Nativity. I discussed those things with my friends outside of school, sure, even helped a friend or two decorate their tree at their house. And we had them over for Hanukkah festivities. These celebrations don’t need to be in school. It doesn’t have to be an “our festival or no festivals” mentality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

Yes, lots of angry posters calling others anti-semites.
If you hate the holiday, fine. But do not ruin it for everyone else.

Reindeer and elves and fairies and gnomes are not mentioned in any religious book.

And they don’t need to take over a classroom for a month. One day is fine.

The thing is, kindergarten is different. They do talk about one thing for a month. Other grades don't do it, but kindergarten does.

There are so many problems with kindergarten, the new first grade, now. This is just one more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

Catholic here. Santa etc. is not secular. He's SAINT Nick.

I agree that what OP describes is inappropriate in a public school. I took my kid out of public in about 4th grade and now happily send her to Catholic school where they go crazy over Halloween and Christmas, and we love it. I went to Catholic school, same thing. That said, I agree that this stuff does not belong in public school. Either that or you include it as one of many holiday items with equal time, as an educational activity, not with the assumption that everyone digs Santa.

OP, you should speak up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

Yes, lots of angry posters calling others anti-semites.
If you hate the holiday, fine. But do not ruin it for everyone else.

Reindeer and elves and fairies and gnomes are not mentioned in any religious book.

And they don’t need to take over a classroom for a month. One day is fine.

The thing is, kindergarten is different. They do talk about one thing for a month. Other grades don't do it, but kindergarten does.

There are so many problems with kindergarten, the new first grade, now. This is just one more.

So discuss “cultures & celebrations” for the month and mix it up. No need for an entire month of just Christmas - for anyone.

[Anonymous]

Funny. My 6 yo dd is still arguing with me the advent wreath is either a menorah or part of a divali celebration

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

I know, all these whiny posters expecting public schools to follow the Constitution. Where do they get off?

I would pay good money to see how you would react if you lived in a country where you were a religious minority and your kids were fed nothing but traditions from another religion, even if it was "mostly secular" aspects of that faiths traditions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

I know, all these whiny posters expecting public schools to follow the Constitution. Where do they get off?

I would pay good money to see how you would react if you lived in a country where you were a religious minority and your kids were fed nothing but traditions from another religion, even if it was "mostly secular" aspects of that faiths traditions.

Stupid thought experiment. If any of us moved to Israel we would expect to not be accommodated but Israel isn’t a credo nation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

I know, all these whiny posters expecting public schools to follow the Constitution. Where do they get off?

I would pay good money to see how you would react if you lived in a country where you were a religious minority and your kids were fed nothing but traditions from another religion, even if it was "mostly secular" aspects of that faiths traditions.

Stupid thought experiment. If any of us moved to Israel we would expect to not be accommodated but Israel isn’t a credo nation.

What is a credo nation? And why do you assume it would be Israel? There are plenty of other majority non-Christian nations.

The point was you wouldn't like your kid force fed only another faith. Whether you could expect "accommodation" depends on that country's laws.

Here we have separation of church and state. You might not like it, but it is law. It is not an "accommodation" to minorities to not be taught religion or exclusively Christian traditions in a public school. That you think it is is disturbing and shows you think minorities should STFU and know their place.

If you want that, there are plenty of places you could move where that is the law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overly sensitive people are ruining elementary school. Besides, most of what OP describes is secular.

I know, all these whiny posters expecting public schools to follow the Constitution. Where do they get off?

I would pay good money to see how you would react if you lived in a country where you were a religious minority and your kids were fed nothing but traditions from another religion, even if it was "mostly secular" aspects of that faiths traditions.

Stupid thought experiment. If any of us moved to Israel we would expect to not be accommodated but Israel isn’t a credo nation.

The US is not like other nations. We don't have a national faith. We were founded on religious FREEDOM.