Ugh. My kid was identified as one of the Jews for kids to interview
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Anonymous
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I totally get the purpose of having kids interview eachother about religion to foster understanding. However, we are at a public school with many international kids (World Bank and Military) and a high number from countries where Jews are not allowed to travel. My daughter likes these kids and we want her to have friendships with all. She is not a very socially successful kid and she wants to be liked. She is fine with being interviewed about being Jewish and we are not going to say anything. It's just in this political climate I feel discomfort with identifying my kid as the Jew, another kid as the Muslim and so forth. Plus, my daughter says thanks to this project, a child from Africa and a child who is African American have already been questioned about why they don't celebrate Kwanza.
Before you berate me for over-reacting, I am simply sharing my internal discomfort. I have said nothing to the school or my child. We don't agree with Trump's decisions in Israel at this time and there is already tremendous unrest and animosity toward Jews and Muslims in particular. Maybe let the family decide if they want their kid singled out as the representative of their religion. |
Anonymous
| I agree this is weird and inappropriate. Were the kids asked to self-identify? Otherwise how would it be known? |
Anonymous
| They talked about what they celebrate at school-again harmless it weren't for the political climate. I think the teacher asked her, but she would not feel comfortable saying "no" to a teacher. In this case, not sure it would cross her mind. She is naive about all that is going on. Thank you for validating my concerns. |
Anonymous
| How old is she? This is something I can see kids doing voluntarily at an age when they're more able to navigate it. But as a required assignment, and in elementary, sounds really uncomfortable. |
Anonymous
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I agree that the kids should have been allowed to volunteer. Newbie teacher?
—veteran teacher (yes, my lunch break/pee break/make 10 parent emails anyway) |
Anonymous
| I agree that it's slightly inappropriate. By about 10 though, we knew who all the Muslim and Jewish kids were in school (I too was in a very diverse school). So maybe if they didn't call her out, it was already well known she was Jewish? |
Anonymous
They are talking about what they celebrate and sharing. That is a bit different than how you are making it. |
Anonymous
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When my DD was in elementary school, one morning on the courtyard with everyone (students, staff, and parents) a girl came running across to DD and SCREAMED, "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE **JEWISH**!?!?!"
EVERYONE looked over horrified. DD nodded and smiled, and the girl threw her arms around DD and yelled, "ME TOO! SHALOM!" She was just really excited to have discovered another jewish person. Hopefully that will be more the reaction your DD gets. And not kids asking why she isn't ________. |
Anonymous
| in 2nd grade my son's class did something where it became known what you celebrate--xmas, Hanukah, kwanza or eid. I thought is was weird. and my child got sad as he was the only one celebrating Hanukah. they found a Jewish teacher in the school who talked to him and wrote him a letter, so he would not feel so alone. We moved a year later, to an area with a few more jewish families. same reason my parents moved us in the 1970s, from PG to Montgomery. No one wants to feel alone or isolated, especially as a young child. |
Anonymous
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Kids learn to deal with these things. There was a girl in my son's class in elementary school who gave a nice little presentation about Hanukkah to the class and handed out little dreidels to all the kids and taught them how to play with them.
About a month later, another girl in the class started telling the other girls in the class not to play with the girl because she didn't celebrate Christmas. This was the class mean girl, cute and popular. I was so proud of these kids when I heard that the kids stood up to the popular mean girl and kept on playing with the Jewish girl. The funny thing was, the mean girl was from an immigrant family and wasn't even Christian, so I don't know why she cared that the other girl didn't celebrate Christmas. |
Anonymous
Cute story! OP here. It's 4th grade. The situation I describe, as I said, would be no big deal in a different political climate at a diverse school, that wasn't internationally diverse. We have kids from countries where Jews cannot enter. I want our daughter to be able to be friends with these kids. I know religion comes out in conversation, but it's different than being the representative Jew. The goal is to increase understanding of course and love for eachother. The concern is some of these kids were raised to have animosity toward Jews the same way too many people are being brainwashed into hating Muslims. Let the kids mingle and form friendships, but I guess it makes me very uncomfortable to make too big a deal about religion. "Come see the Jew." Now, "Come ask the Muslim some questions." "Over here, we have a Hindu for you!" |
Anonymous
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What grade is this OP? If this is an elementary grade, I'd say this is more like an exchange of "what holiday do you celebrate and what do you do on that day" type of thing.
Most kids know by 2nd or 3rd grade who celebrates Christmas and who doesn't. It's not really a big deal. Now if this is something more like formal interviews- "what are the tenets of you religion" that sort of thing then I would have a conversation with the teacher. |
Anonymous
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What are the countries to which Jews aren't allowed to travel? I'm Jewish but it doesn't say so on my passport, so I didn't know there were countries I couldn't go.
I think you're making too big a deal. I don't see the problem with kids asking each other about their holiday traditions. Has anyone said anything negative to your daughter? |
Anonymous
You are seriously overthinking this. Kids don't know or care what countries others can go to. If it was middle or high school, ok but seriously, they are sharing their customs and culture. |
Anonymous
I'd be more embarrassed as except for Hanukkah we don't practice so my kid couldn't answer any questions. |