Not-Halloween Halloween celebrations--name your school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope Montgomery County is stepping up to provide safe alternative ways to celebrate Halloween, since the schools no longer are.

Unlikely the County takes this on. Drag Queen Story Hour is allowed, but Halloween is off-limits.

https://montgomeryparks.org/events/drag-queen-story-time-6-2/

You realize the Parks Department has lots of Halloween events, right? https://montgomeryparks.org/montgomery-parks-announces-halloween-special-events-and-programs/

The library has even more, plus whatever city governments are doing. There's plenty of ways to celebrate Halloween at official county events if that matters to you, but it seems like it probably actually isn't that important.

LOL! Is the Tequila Talk and Bat Walk meant for kids?

Do you even live in the County? There are no ‘city governments’ except for Rockville, which is its own entity.

Do you? Takoma Park has a city government, so does Gaithersburg (both organize Halloween events, Takoma Park does a costume parade, for instance). There's also almost a dozen smaller incorporated areas with their own governments, as well. I have no clue what if any of them do anything official got Halloween.

There's also plenty of things on that list for kids if were interested in having an actual discussion, but you weren't. You wanted to make a comment about Drag Queen Story Hours, didn't bother to check whether your comparison was accurate. It wasn't. Halloween is not "off limits" in Montgomery County but I suppose I'm expecting a lot of someone who didn't know Germantown existed.

And you know quite well that there is a big difference between the County Parks departments offering a Halloween celebration and kids celebrating with a fun parade at school with all of their school friends.

Celebrating Halloween AT school, has been a tradition and it is a fun tradition.

Whether the County offers programs or not is irrelevant to the discussion. This is specifically about MCPS cancelling Halloween celebrations IN school.

And there has been no good reason provided as to why MCPS has done so.

Equally there's a big difference between a program you can choose to go to at a park, and being legally required to go to school where you then sit out the party doing word finds somewhere else in the school.

When MCPS allowed Halloween at school, nobody was forced to attend. Any child who chose to opt out was offered an alternate activity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope Montgomery County is stepping up to provide safe alternative ways to celebrate Halloween, since the schools no longer are.

Unlikely the County takes this on. Drag Queen Story Hour is allowed, but Halloween is off-limits.

https://montgomeryparks.org/events/drag-queen-story-time-6-2/

You realize the Parks Department has lots of Halloween events, right? https://montgomeryparks.org/montgomery-parks-announces-halloween-special-events-and-programs/

The library has even more, plus whatever city governments are doing. There's plenty of ways to celebrate Halloween at official county events if that matters to you, but it seems like it probably actually isn't that important.

LOL! Is the Tequila Talk and Bat Walk meant for kids?

Do you even live in the County? There are no ‘city governments’ except for Rockville, which is its own entity.

Do you? Takoma Park has a city government, so does Gaithersburg (both organize Halloween events, Takoma Park does a costume parade, for instance). There's also almost a dozen smaller incorporated areas with their own governments, as well. I have no clue what if any of them do anything official got Halloween.

There's also plenty of things on that list for kids if were interested in having an actual discussion, but you weren't. You wanted to make a comment about Drag Queen Story Hours, didn't bother to check whether your comparison was accurate. It wasn't. Halloween is not "off limits" in Montgomery County but I suppose I'm expecting a lot of someone who didn't know Germantown existed.

Ah crap, Gaithersburg not Germantown the second time (Germantown isn't incorporated) either way you're a moron and wrong in every particular.

Of course. Always resorting to personal insults when someone disagrees with you.

No, not always, just when the person is very confident about something that is demonstrably wrong. Does Gaithersburg have a city government or not?

Nobody is contradicting you. Nobody, anywhere in this thread says that Gaithersburg does not have a City government. So, who are you calling a moron?

You know what is demonstrably correct? MCPS is cancelling school celebrations of Halloween to cater to religious extremist families in MCPS.

Clearly that is something you support, but some of us find it a bit unreasonable and are sad for our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a Halloween party at our school.

Are you at an MCPS school?

Unlikely that is the case for very long. Over the past few years, MCPS is slowly eliminating Halloween and Thanksgiving from elementary schools. Teachers are not allowed to celebrate in the classroom and are not allowed to read books about the holidays.

I can celebrate if it’s part of my religion. It’s not, just showing the absurdity of telling people they can’t do something. No wonder there are no good teachers left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope Montgomery County is stepping up to provide safe alternative ways to celebrate Halloween, since the schools no longer are.

Unlikely the County takes this on. Drag Queen Story Hour is allowed, but Halloween is off-limits.

https://montgomeryparks.org/events/drag-queen-story-time-6-2/

You realize the Parks Department has lots of Halloween events, right? https://montgomeryparks.org/montgomery-parks-announces-halloween-special-events-and-programs/

The library has even more, plus whatever city governments are doing. There's plenty of ways to celebrate Halloween at official county events if that matters to you, but it seems like it probably actually isn't that important.

LOL! Is the Tequila Talk and Bat Walk meant for kids?

Do you even live in the County? There are no ‘city governments’ except for Rockville, which is its own entity.

Do you? Takoma Park has a city government, so does Gaithersburg (both organize Halloween events, Takoma Park does a costume parade, for instance). There's also almost a dozen smaller incorporated areas with their own governments, as well. I have no clue what if any of them do anything official got Halloween.

There's also plenty of things on that list for kids if were interested in having an actual discussion, but you weren't. You wanted to make a comment about Drag Queen Story Hours, didn't bother to check whether your comparison was accurate. It wasn't. Halloween is not "off limits" in Montgomery County but I suppose I'm expecting a lot of someone who didn't know Germantown existed.

Ah crap, Gaithersburg not Germantown the second time (Germantown isn't incorporated) either way you're a moron and wrong in every particular.

Of course. Always resorting to personal insults when someone disagrees with you.

No, not always, just when the person is very confident about something that is demonstrably wrong. Does Gaithersburg have a city government or not?

Nobody is contradicting you. Nobody, anywhere in this thread says that Gaithersburg does not have a City government. So, who are you calling a moron?

You know what is demonstrably correct? MCPS is cancelling school celebrations of Halloween to cater to religious extremist families in MCPS.

Clearly that is something you support, but some of us find it a bit unreasonable and are sad for our kids.

I've bolded the part I've been responding to. I was accused of not really living in Montgomery County because I didn't know that only Rockville has a city government, which isn't true.

My overall point was that, apart from the schools, there's lots of official celebrations of Halloween, so the whole "you can celebrate drag queen story hour, but not Halloween" line is silly. You can celebrate Halloween in exactly the same way you can celebrate drag queen story hour (i.e. at the parks and the library).

Personally, I do not care if Halloween is celebrated at school, so the "clearly this is something you support" is wrong. I don't care either way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington Grove in Gaithersburg does not do Halloween- pumpkin/ fall festival instead

Not everybody likes pumpkins. How is this equitable?

Np you can say this about any celebration...no mothers or fathers day because some people don't have mothers/fathers. No valentine day because not everyone as a boyfriend/girlfriend

Also your statement "not everyone likes oumpkins" sounds ridiculous. What did pumpkins do to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a Halloween party at our school.

Are you at an MCPS school?

Unlikely that is the case for very long. Over the past few years, MCPS is slowly eliminating Halloween and Thanksgiving from elementary schools. Teachers are not allowed to celebrate in the classroom and are not allowed to read books about the holidays.

I can celebrate if it’s part of my religion. It’s not, just showing the absurdity of telling people they can’t do something. No wonder there are no good teachers left.

The progressive liberals in Montgomery County support this perverse, strange form of censorship. I mean, really, that is exactly what they are doing. My kid’s 1st grade teacher told me that they had been explicitly instructed not to read any books about Halloween to the kids at school. Definitely a bit extreme.

[Anonymous]

My kid had to do an alternate activity on take your child to work day!one year. It just really wasn’t appropriate for us to take our child to work, given our jobs.

It was t a big deal. I think they had pizza and got to read whatever books they wanted. That’s fun for my kid.

But even if it wasn’t, he learned something. Which is you aren’t always going to be included or invited to everything. And that’s ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid had to do an alternate activity on take your child to work day!one year. It just really wasn’t appropriate for us to take our child to work, given our jobs.

It was t a big deal. I think they had pizza and got to read whatever books they wanted. That’s fun for my kid.

But even if it wasn’t, he learned something. Which is you aren’t always going to be included or invited to everything. And that’s ok.

What we didn’t do was complain to the principal or ask them to cancel take your child to work day. I’m just not sure where this ends, but I’d hate to see school become the dull, dreary place that I recall growing up or worse - what the kids had during covid.

When kids get to college, it will become apparent to them that they have peers who are different than them, and engage in different activities. Sheltering them from everything doesn’t really prepare them for the real world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope Montgomery County is stepping up to provide safe alternative ways to celebrate Halloween, since the schools no longer are.

Unlikely the County takes this on. Drag Queen Story Hour is allowed, but Halloween is off-limits.

https://montgomeryparks.org/events/drag-queen-story-time-6-2/

You realize the Parks Department has lots of Halloween events, right? https://montgomeryparks.org/montgomery-parks-announces-halloween-special-events-and-programs/

The library has even more, plus whatever city governments are doing. There's plenty of ways to celebrate Halloween at official county events if that matters to you, but it seems like it probably actually isn't that important.

LOL! Is the Tequila Talk and Bat Walk meant for kids?

Do you even live in the County? There are no ‘city governments’ except for Rockville, which is its own entity.

Do you? Takoma Park has a city government, so does Gaithersburg (both organize Halloween events, Takoma Park does a costume parade, for instance). There's also almost a dozen smaller incorporated areas with their own governments, as well. I have no clue what if any of them do anything official got Halloween.

There's also plenty of things on that list for kids if were interested in having an actual discussion, but you weren't. You wanted to make a comment about Drag Queen Story Hours, didn't bother to check whether your comparison was accurate. It wasn't. Halloween is not "off limits" in Montgomery County but I suppose I'm expecting a lot of someone who didn't know Germantown existed.

And you know quite well that there is a big difference between the County Parks departments offering a Halloween celebration and kids celebrating with a fun parade at school with all of their school friends.

Celebrating Halloween AT school, has been a tradition and it is a fun tradition.

Whether the County offers programs or not is irrelevant to the discussion. This is specifically about MCPS cancelling Halloween celebrations IN school.

And there has been no good reason provided as to why MCPS has done so.

Equally there's a big difference between a program you can choose to go to at a park, and being legally required to go to school where you then sit out the party doing word finds somewhere else in the school.

When MCPS allowed Halloween at school, nobody was forced to attend. Any child who chose to opt out was offered an alternate activity.

You're not forced to attend the Halloween event, but you're forced to attend school. "Alternative activity" - i.e., a pile of word finds and coloring sheets with a handful of other ostracized kids. Woot!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid had to do an alternate activity on take your child to work day!one year. It just really wasn’t appropriate for us to take our child to work, given our jobs.

It was t a big deal. I think they had pizza and got to read whatever books they wanted. That’s fun for my kid.

But even if it wasn’t, he learned something. Which is you aren’t always going to be included or invited to everything. And that’s ok.

What we didn’t do was complain to the principal or ask them to cancel take your child to work day. I’m just not sure where this ends, but I’d hate to see school become the dull, dreary place that I recall growing up or worse - what the kids had during covid.

When kids get to college, it will become apparent to them that they have peers who are different than them, and engage in different activities. Sheltering them from everything doesn’t really prepare them for the real world.

+1 million to both of these

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid had to do an alternate activity on take your child to work day!one year. It just really wasn’t appropriate for us to take our child to work, given our jobs.

It was t a big deal. I think they had pizza and got to read whatever books they wanted. That’s fun for my kid.

But even if it wasn’t, he learned something. Which is you aren’t always going to be included or invited to everything. And that’s ok.

What we didn’t do was complain to the principal or ask them to cancel take your child to work day. I’m just not sure where this ends, but I’d hate to see school become the dull, dreary place that I recall growing up or worse - what the kids had during covid.

When kids get to college, it will become apparent to them that they have peers who are different than them, and engage in different activities. Sheltering them from everything doesn’t really prepare them for the real world.

MCPS is hellbent on sucking every last bit of fun out of school, while simultaneously offering a subpar educational experience. That's equity for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope Montgomery County is stepping up to provide safe alternative ways to celebrate Halloween, since the schools no longer are.

Unlikely the County takes this on. Drag Queen Story Hour is allowed, but Halloween is off-limits.

https://montgomeryparks.org/events/drag-queen-story-time-6-2/

You realize the Parks Department has lots of Halloween events, right? https://montgomeryparks.org/montgomery-parks-announces-halloween-special-events-and-programs/

The library has even more, plus whatever city governments are doing. There's plenty of ways to celebrate Halloween at official county events if that matters to you, but it seems like it probably actually isn't that important.

LOL! Is the Tequila Talk and Bat Walk meant for kids?

Do you even live in the County? There are no ‘city governments’ except for Rockville, which is its own entity.

Do you? Takoma Park has a city government, so does Gaithersburg (both organize Halloween events, Takoma Park does a costume parade, for instance). There's also almost a dozen smaller incorporated areas with their own governments, as well. I have no clue what if any of them do anything official got Halloween.

There's also plenty of things on that list for kids if were interested in having an actual discussion, but you weren't. You wanted to make a comment about Drag Queen Story Hours, didn't bother to check whether your comparison was accurate. It wasn't. Halloween is not "off limits" in Montgomery County but I suppose I'm expecting a lot of someone who didn't know Germantown existed.

And you know quite well that there is a big difference between the County Parks departments offering a Halloween celebration and kids celebrating with a fun parade at school with all of their school friends.

Celebrating Halloween AT school, has been a tradition and it is a fun tradition.

Whether the County offers programs or not is irrelevant to the discussion. This is specifically about MCPS cancelling Halloween celebrations IN school.

And there has been no good reason provided as to why MCPS has done so.

Equally there's a big difference between a program you can choose to go to at a park, and being legally required to go to school where you then sit out the party doing word finds somewhere else in the school.

When MCPS allowed Halloween at school, nobody was forced to attend. Any child who chose to opt out was offered an alternate activity.

You're not forced to attend the Halloween event, but you're forced to attend school. "Alternative activity" - i.e., a pile of word finds and coloring sheets with a handful of other ostracized kids. Woot!

Would all parents let their children participate if it was a Book parade? I personally think that is a great alternative and solution. Our school was already doing a Fall festival and healthy snacks at parties. Might inspire more creativity and reading.

[Anonymous]

Halloween is so interesting to me. Halloween is really having its moment amongst adults and I can't help but wonder if it's because so many younger adults were never allowed to participate growing up.

My youngest is 14 and she's one of only a handful of her friends who have been allowed to participate in Halloween in a traditional sense (dressing up & going ToT). Most don't participate in any type of activity.

I was at Home Goods this weekend and younger people (20s) were going crazy for all of the decorations. One gal had two carts full of decorations! My oldest in college is 21 and her house with her roommates looks like Halloween threw up on it. They started decorating before October! Again, out of her 4 housemates, DD was the only one allowed to do a traditional Halloween growing up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Halloween is so interesting to me. Halloween is really having its moment amongst adults and I can't help but wonder if it's because so many younger adults were never allowed to participate growing up.

My youngest is 14 and she's one of only a handful of her friends who have been allowed to participate in Halloween in a traditional sense (dressing up & going ToT). Most don't participate in any type of activity.

I was at Home Goods this weekend and younger people (20s) were going crazy for all of the decorations. One gal had two carts full of decorations! My oldest in college is 21 and her house with her roommates looks like Halloween threw up on it. They started decorating before October! Again, out of her 4 housemates, DD was the only one allowed to do a traditional Halloween growing up.

Omg … my college DD has four costumes for Halloween events! She celebrated Halloween in all of our MCPS schools, did TofT and haunted forests etc. not to mention haunted forests, bonfires, fall festivals etc. so many great memories!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a Halloween party at our school.

Are you at an MCPS school?

Unlikely that is the case for very long. Over the past few years, MCPS is slowly eliminating Halloween and Thanksgiving from elementary schools. Teachers are not allowed to celebrate in the classroom and are not allowed to read books about the holidays.

I can celebrate if it’s part of my religion. It’s not, just showing the absurdity of telling people they can’t do something. No wonder there are no good teachers left.

The progressive liberals in Montgomery County support this perverse, strange form of censorship. I mean, really, that is exactly what they are doing. My kid’s 1st grade teacher told me that they had been explicitly instructed not to read any books about Halloween to the kids at school. Definitely a bit extreme.

Truly sorry to upend your super fun anti-lib narrative, but we don't celebrate Halloween at our ES, not because of "teh libs" or "progressives," but because we have a very large population of families that don't celebrate Halloween for religious reasons, to the point where the number of kids opting out was large enough that the school was essentially holding two events on the same day. That population is not "woke" -- in fact, it's pretty conservative. Now we do a fall festival that everyone can attend. It's just easier on the school.