I am unclear what are arguing. We should make sure to celebrate Irish people because a long time ago they were servants and they overcome that, but it's fine to cancel Black History Month? Because overcoming being treated like servants is really hard, but overcoming being enslaved is NBD? Irish people are white. In modern American society people of Irish descent are treated as white. If we aren't having cultural celebrations, or acknowledging the history of some groups who overcame diversity, then we need to apply that to groups that are white. That isn't to say that Irish people and immigrants from Ireland haven't faced significant struggles. I'll add that our family is more than 50% Irish heritage. We even have multiple family members named Patrick! I love St. Patrick's day. I also love Black History month. I think we should acknowledge all kinds of groups in our schools. But if we aren't going to do that, I think that continuing to acknowledge the white ones while canceling the others is the very worst of the options. |
So no pumpkins and no valentines. |
Honestly, if we're going with "no cultural celebrations", then we have to acknowledge that those are cultural celebrations. Does that suck? Yes. Would only having cultural celebrations that honor subsets of the population be worse? 100%. |
My public school never celebrated St Patrick's Day |
Good. Time to move cultural celebrations out of school. |
The only real ways to celebrate are to listen to Irish music, eat Irish food, drink beer or Irish whiskey, go to church, & maybe watch a movie associated with Ireland (e.g, the Quiet Man). |
The people who are wringing their hands over the end of DEI are often the same people who insist that all mentions of Christianity in public schools be banned. |
That’s not my experience at all. — Christian former public school teacher who believes that understanding all people’s religions, cultural practices and histories is critical for the survival of our nation, and supports teaching about religions (not proselytizing) and topics labeled DEI. |
Our kids built Leprechaun traps- but they are in Catholic schools. They also still celebrated BHM with book reports.
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Maybe it’s just because I teach older students but we have not celebrated this in schools in the 20 years I’ve been teaching. Many wear green. Some don’t. That’s it. |
That’s not culture that’s Black history. Who said they couldn’t learn about Rosa Parks? And I’ve never seen a celebration of St Patrick’s Day in any school. It’s not White culture it’s Irish specifically. Plus with immigration changes Ireland has new citizens coming from Asian and African countries. |
If Christianity is brought up in history or English that’s fine. It’s not comparable to anything being discussed. |
That’s … completely wrong. |
In Fairfax county years ago our kids learned about leprechauns and made a leprechaun trap |
There are plenty of reports of DoD schools and schools in red states removing any texts or other teaching materials that reference Black History. |