Has your elementary school changed the name of its valentine party?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
How sad... It seems like all the fun has been taken out of education. How can this type of environment incite creativity and a love for learning?

Well, for creativity, children can be encouraged to read lots of stories and poems and plays, and then can turn around and write their own. That's in the curriculum. They can be creative in art and music, of course. In order to love learning, children can respond to the teacher's enthusiasm as he or she introduces a topic. They can experiment in science and take nature walks. Kids can play math and spelling games; they can have friendly competitions; they can have fun playing games during indoor and outdoor recess.

There's no rule that says you MUST celebrate St Valentines Day, in school, in order to enjoy learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
How sad... It seems like all the fun has been taken out of education. How can this type of environment incite creativity and a love for learning?

Well, for creativity, children can be encouraged to read lots of stories and poems and plays, and then can turn around and write their own. That's in the curriculum. They can be creative in art and music, of course. In order to love learning, children can respond to the teacher's enthusiasm as he or she introduces a topic. They can experiment in science and take nature walks. Kids can play math and spelling games; they can have friendly competitions; they can have fun playing games during indoor and outdoor recess.

There's no rule that says you MUST celebrate St Valentines Day, in school, in order to enjoy learning.

I don't know about your school, but in ours, art and music occur once a week. I've never heard of a nature walk occurring and the one recess a day is 30 minutes. I certainly don't think tat you MUST celebrate Valentine's Day in school to enjoy learning, but it seems that starting in Kindergarden our schools are increasingly becoming about teaching for the tests. There really isn't much room for fun and creativity in the classroom and I find it sad for our children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher at an elementary school that has a fair number of children from Jehovah's Witness families. Their families do not celebrate any holidays, including birthdays. The families do not approve of children having holiday celebrations at school and will keep their children home if they learn of any holiday celebrations. If there is an event at school that has a legitimate academic focus, then that is generally OK by them, but just plain holiday celebrations is not. This includes Thanksgiving lunch, Valentine's Day parties, Christmas parties, and May Day, and birthday celebrations.

So the entire school has to sacrifice because of one group's beliefs? How does this make sense? I can understand not wanting to celebrate other religion's holidays (a Christmas or Easter party), but no birthdays? No national holidays like Thanksgiving? Could you imagine our country no longer having national holidays because one religious group was opposed to them?

Everything we do at school is supposed to be tied to the curriculum. If you can make a case for a celebration being tied to the curriculum, then OK. So if the second graders are studying thePilgrims and want to put on a Thanksgiving play -- that's tied to the curriculum, so go ahead. But they aren't studying St Valentine.

What they might be studying is the proper way to address a friendly letter. Soooo.... don't have a "Valentine's Day Party". Because that's not in the curriculum. Have a "Friendly Letter" tea. And practice addressing letters to one another using proper format. And deliver them. And have it on February 14th. See? that's why people have changed the names of their parties.

Same thing for Halloween. Kids aren't studying ghouls, ghosts and goblins (or ax murderers, hoboes, princesses and butterflies). Our school doesn't have a Halloween party or parade. But, in the fall, we have a dress as your favorite book character parade... and we interpret book character very liberally. I hate it -- I'd much rather celebrate Halloween as we did when my kids were in Catholic school -- but that's the way it is at our school ... and the reason for it is basically that the Jehovah's Witnesses would keep their kids home.

How sad... It seems like all the fun has been taken out of education. How can this type of environment incite creativity and a love for learning?

I am a mainstream white Christian, and I don't think it is sad. I think it is reflective of the diverse population are children are growing up in, vastly different from what my peer population looked like (largely white and Catholic, a few Jews). This is the world that they are growing up in, and they are learning to navigate it in ways that I didn't have to. I don't see it as any different from e.g. my kids learning technology in ways that I didn't. We have a home life in which we celebrate our holidays - we don't need to rely on the school to do that.

RE creativity and a love for learning - if you are relying on a couple of 30-minute holiday parties to incite creativity and a love for learning in your children, you have bigger problems than you realize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
How sad... It seems like all the fun has been taken out of education. How can this type of environment incite creativity and a love for learning?

Well, for creativity, children can be encouraged to read lots of stories and poems and plays, and then can turn around and write their own. That's in the curriculum. They can be creative in art and music, of course. In order to love learning, children can respond to the teacher's enthusiasm as he or she introduces a topic. They can experiment in science and take nature walks. Kids can play math and spelling games; they can have friendly competitions; they can have fun playing games during indoor and outdoor recess.

There's no rule that says you MUST celebrate St Valentines Day, in school, in order to enjoy learning.

I don't know about your school, but in ours, art and music occur once a week. I've never heard of a nature walk occurring and the one recess a day is 30 minutes. I certainly don't think tat you MUST celebrate Valentine's Day in school to enjoy learning, but it seems that starting in Kindergarden our schools are increasingly becoming about teaching for the tests. There really isn't much room for fun and creativity in the classroom and I find it sad for our children.

I agree with this statement but it is not relevant to the Valentine's Day party topic. The occasional 30-minute holiday party has no effect on our schools' increasing tendency to teach to the test.