"Spring" Egg Hunt for DCPS PK Class - Is this usual?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid came home with gelt and a dreidel at Hanukkah. And wanted to know why we don’t have a Menorah. All I did was tell him it’s because we aren’t Jewish. He’s never come home with any information about Jesus or an advent calendar or anything like that and our school programs have always appeared to go out of the way to never include any songs at the winter concerts that are at all related to Christmas but they definitely sang a Kwanza song and a dreidel song this year. So I’m not going to get upset about an egg hunt either, it sounds fun.

yup. My Christian kid came home with a dreidel in Kindergarten. I didn't make a big deal.

Teacher or classmate provided? I'm assuming the latter. As a Jew I can tell you all about being encouraged to performatively 'share' a tradition like this when it's as much a license to normalize other Christian holiday symbolism without overtly excluding others. Nothing wrong with it, but why the fascination with Hanukah? Is it the most relatable to other commercialized celebrations? From experience, there is very little effort to share non- Judeo-Christian traditions.

I'd love to hear a teacher engage with my kid why the Jewish New Year in celebrated in September and why it's significant instead of marking an unexcused absence even after receiving advanced notice. I'd love for my kid to learn more about El Eid or Diwali if others wished to share.

This happened to us too! Not to mention our school had Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur marked on the wrong days of the calendar...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our DCPS had an activity like this for the PK kids a couple years ago. It is a gentrifying school so there is some thinking by some of the teachers that they have to provide these types of experiences at school because some kids don't get them at home. I get that it feels kind of weird because of the association with Easter. But I think its fun for the kids which is the main benefit. When you start stripping away all the fun stuff like this at school it starts to feel pretty joyless.

OP you need to use this as a teachable moment. My kid was sad to learn about Hanukah at school and wanted to know why she wasn't getting presents for 8 nights.

Which is really why schools should not be celebrating holidays (Hanukah presents for eight nights, what?) with young kids - teach about religions when kids are capable of reading and nuanced discussions - MS/HS.

What? Of course young kids should learn about the holidays some of their classmates celebrate! And then learn to deal with the fact that they are celebrating a different holiday.

What meaning "presents for eight nights" has nothing to do with Hanukkah - and is a pretty ignorant thing to say, actually.

I didn’t say anything about presents for eight nights, so you are arguing with the wrong person. Maybe you can take it up with the first PP‘s school, who was teaching their kid wrongly about Hanukkah.

Exactly - during Halloween - our teacher said "the Jews have a Halloween called Prumim [sic]" It's like not necessary for young children. There is no way to nuance it. Do with older kids.

I disagree there is no way to teach young kids about other cultures' religious traditions, or that it's "not necessary" for them to learn anything about them. What you are describing sounds more like a matter of teacher ignorance and an unnecessary attempt to relate Halloween to another culture, but that doesn't mean the discussion of other cultures' holidays should be avoided altogether until MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid came home with gelt and a dreidel at Hanukkah. And wanted to know why we don’t have a Menorah. All I did was tell him it’s because we aren’t Jewish. He’s never come home with any information about Jesus or an advent calendar or anything like that and our school programs have always appeared to go out of the way to never include any songs at the winter concerts that are at all related to Christmas but they definitely sang a Kwanza song and a dreidel song this year. So I’m not going to get upset about an egg hunt either, it sounds fun.

yup. My Christian kid came home with a dreidel in Kindergarten. I didn't make a big deal.

Teacher or classmate provided? I'm assuming the latter. As a Jew I can tell you all about being encouraged to performatively 'share' a tradition like this when it's as much a license to normalize other Christian holiday symbolism without overtly excluding others. Nothing wrong with it, but why the fascination with Hanukah? Is it the most relatable to other commercialized celebrations? From experience, there is very little effort to share non- Judeo-Christian traditions.

I'd love to hear a teacher engage with my kid why the Jewish New Year in celebrated in September and why it's significant instead of marking an unexcused absence even after receiving advanced notice. I'd love for my kid to learn more about El Eid or Diwali if others wished to share.

This happened to us too! Not to mention our school had Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur marked on the wrong days of the calendar...

Don't even get me started on trying to explain the concept of "Erev" vs the observance on the following day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lordy, it's EGGS. Jesus didn't lay eggs nor did he hunt them. Let the poor kids enjoy a damn egg hunt. I loved it when my kids learned to spin a dreidel and we aren't Jewish.

we should be friends! i'm a total atheist and i absolutely adore christmas trees and egg hunts. I would love if our school had one! We do one at home each year and my kid looks forward to it so much, even thought he's never heard the word "jesus" in his life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My main concern is that holding these activities that are associated with Christian holidays brings up a lot of discussion amongst the kids about that holiday. At Christmas time, DD was very upset that we would not be celebrating Christmas at home and had a hard time understanding why Santa wasn't going to bring her presents. I don't think the teachers/school do a great job of being inclusive of other customs or encourage the children to share their families' traditions. It is a very culturally and ethnically diverse school. I feel that holding a Spring Egg Hunt needlessly encourages the kids to talk about the Easter Bunny and how they will get more presents/candy. It's not a religious aspect of the holiday but non-Christians typically don't have egg hunts and my 4 year old has not heard of the Easter bunny. It's a learning lesson of childhood, but if it can be diminished within school that would be better. I was planning to reach out to the teacher to ask how they were also incorporating or discussing aspects of the other major holidays happening this time of year (Passover and Ramadan/Eid) into the class.

OP again. I will be contributing eggs/candy for the hunt and letting DD participate. Just wondering if I should get used to many years of this and if this was the norm in DCPS.

Your daughter should get use to it because life, not DCPS. There are millions of people throughout the world who celebrate the secular parts of Christmas just for fun.

[Anonymous]

My daughter had an egg hunt at her August birthday party, just because egg hunts are fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lordy, it's EGGS. Jesus didn't lay eggs nor did he hunt them. Let the poor kids enjoy a damn egg hunt. I loved it when my kids learned to spin a dreidel and we aren't Jewish.

we should be friends! i'm a total atheist and i absolutely adore christmas trees and egg hunts. I would love if our school had one! We do one at home each year and my kid looks forward to it so much, even thought he's never heard the word "jesus" in his life.

The multicultural agnostic life is pretty good too! I'll celebrate any holiday I'm invited to because no religion has a monopoly on fun. Other traditions are fascinating and I'm always honored to be part of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My main concern is that holding these activities that are associated with Christian holidays brings up a lot of discussion amongst the kids about that holiday. At Christmas time, DD was very upset that we would not be celebrating Christmas at home and had a hard time understanding why Santa wasn't going to bring her presents. I don't think the teachers/school do a great job of being inclusive of other customs or encourage the children to share their families' traditions. It is a very culturally and ethnically diverse school. I feel that holding a Spring Egg Hunt needlessly encourages the kids to talk about the Easter Bunny and how they will get more presents/candy. It's not a religious aspect of the holiday but non-Christians typically don't have egg hunts and my 4 year old has not heard of the Easter bunny. It's a learning lesson of childhood, but if it can be diminished within school that would be better. I was planning to reach out to the teacher to ask how they were also incorporating or discussing aspects of the other major holidays happening this time of year (Passover and Ramadan/Eid) into the class.

OP again. I will be contributing eggs/candy for the hunt and letting DD participate. Just wondering if I should get used to many years of this and if this was the norm in DCPS.

Your daughter should get use to it because life, not DCPS. There are millions of people throughout the world who celebrate the secular parts of Christmas just for fun.

So much centering and privilege in one post. Egads! Do what feels right to you as a parent - but you don't have to feel compelled to cosign anything that you don't agree with, e.g., religious encroachment in public schools. Join the PTSA and see if you can get collective action to address the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My main concern is that holding these activities that are associated with Christian holidays brings up a lot of discussion amongst the kids about that holiday. At Christmas time, DD was very upset that we would not be celebrating Christmas at home and had a hard time understanding why Santa wasn't going to bring her presents. I don't think the teachers/school do a great job of being inclusive of other customs or encourage the children to share their families' traditions. It is a very culturally and ethnically diverse school. I feel that holding a Spring Egg Hunt needlessly encourages the kids to talk about the Easter Bunny and how they will get more presents/candy. It's not a religious aspect of the holiday but non-Christians typically don't have egg hunts and my 4 year old has not heard of the Easter bunny. It's a learning lesson of childhood, but if it can be diminished within school that would be better. I was planning to reach out to the teacher to ask how they were also incorporating or discussing aspects of the other major holidays happening this time of year (Passover and Ramadan/Eid) into the class.

OP again. I will be contributing eggs/candy for the hunt and letting DD participate. Just wondering if I should get used to many years of this and if this was the norm in DCPS.

Your daughter should get use to it because life, not DCPS. There are millions of people throughout the world who celebrate the secular parts of Christmas just for fun.

Yup. I even know Jews who have Christmas trees. They aren't really religious though, and are just participating in this pagan aspect of Christmas just like lots of Christians who aren't religious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My main concern is that holding these activities that are associated with Christian holidays brings up a lot of discussion amongst the kids about that holiday. At Christmas time, DD was very upset that we would not be celebrating Christmas at home and had a hard time understanding why Santa wasn't going to bring her presents. I don't think the teachers/school do a great job of being inclusive of other customs or encourage the children to share their families' traditions. It is a very culturally and ethnically diverse school. I feel that holding a Spring Egg Hunt needlessly encourages the kids to talk about the Easter Bunny and how they will get more presents/candy. It's not a religious aspect of the holiday but non-Christians typically don't have egg hunts and my 4 year old has not heard of the Easter bunny. It's a learning lesson of childhood, but if it can be diminished within school that would be better. I was planning to reach out to the teacher to ask how they were also incorporating or discussing aspects of the other major holidays happening this time of year (Passover and Ramadan/Eid) into the class.

OP again. I will be contributing eggs/candy for the hunt and letting DD participate. Just wondering if I should get used to many years of this and if this was the norm in DCPS.

Your daughter should get use to it because life, not DCPS. There are millions of people throughout the world who celebrate the secular parts of Christmas just for fun.

So much centering and privilege in one post. Egads! Do what feels right to you as a parent - but you don't have to feel compelled to cosign anything that you don't agree with, e.g., religious encroachment in public schools. Join the PTSA and see if you can get collective action to address the problem.

NP. Collective action to prevent kids from having fun with an egg hunt? Yikes. LOL at viewing this issue as one of "religious encroachment".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, while associated with Easter, eggs/egg hunts are not part of any official religious Easter celebration. So, I think you could just relax and let the kids have fun.

Ummnmm. Easter is a religious holiday, and eggs/egg hunts are indeed part of church sponsored religious celebrations. So, I think you could try not centering yourself and policing people who are not Christian from worrying about religion in public schools. Yikes!

No, an egg hunt is not part of any Christian religious service. Bunnies and egg hunts are completely secular and are not mentioned in any Christian religious texts.

#checkyourprivilege

How is it privileged to note that bunnies and egg hunts have nothing to do with the religious aspects of Easter? They are related to pagan celebrations of spring and the rebirth of the season of spring. Just like snowflakes have nothing to do with Christmas, but instead relate to the season of winter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, while associated with Easter, eggs/egg hunts are not part of any official religious Easter celebration. So, I think you could just relax and let the kids have fun.

Ummnmm. Easter is a religious holiday, and eggs/egg hunts are indeed part of church sponsored religious celebrations. So, I think you could try not centering yourself and policing people who are not Christian from worrying about religion in public schools. Yikes!

No, an egg hunt is not part of any Christian religious service. Bunnies and egg hunts are completely secular and are not mentioned in any Christian religious texts.

#checkyourprivilege

How is it privileged to note that bunnies and egg hunts have nothing to do with the religious aspects of Easter? They are related to pagan celebrations of spring and the rebirth of the season of spring. Just like snowflakes have nothing to do with Christmas, but instead relate to the season of winter.

The PP seems to think that these days the accusation of "privilege" will shut down anyone's argument, that's why she is using it in every one of her posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Egg hunt is a pagan activity associated with spring that is completely appropriate for a pre-K classroom. Time for you to expand your own horizons parent and recognize that your student's education will include being exposed to all sorts of traditions that are not common for your family. Also fine for you to suggest to the teacher other cultural activities that are pagan in nature that your family commonly enjoys.

Right, and you can volunteer to come into class and educate the children about slavery in Egypt. FUN! Right? Don't forget your lamb to sacrifice and mark the doors!

[Anonymous]

If I see the words "centering" and "privileged" one more time refering to an egg hunt in Sping, I am going to lay an egg. Get a grip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I see the words "centering" and "privileged" one more time refering to an egg hunt in Sping, I am going to lay an egg. Get a grip.

Amen. (Oops, no religious reference intended.)