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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm a teacher who has taught Kindergarten, although I currently teach older kids.  I feel very strongly about keeping religious indoctrination outside the classroom. I am also a Christian and a parent. So, I'm answering from that perspective.

I think that understanding the basics of what, and when, and how people celebrate at this time of the year is appropriate curriculum.  That's core knowledge that everyone should have, and one of the reasons why we have public schools is so that children can learn to live in our diverse society.

But, if we're going to teach kids about holidays, I think we need to be careful.  We need to be careful, that every holiday that kids in the class is included, not just the holidays celebrated by kids whose parents have free time during the day.  We need to be careful, especially in our current climate where families may be afraid of having their kids publicly identified as Muslim, or as immigrant, that kids can see their holidays represented without needing to associate themselves with it.  We also need to be careful that we aren't giving more time to one religion (e.g. classrooms that do 10 Christmas crafts, and read one Hanukkah story.)  Finally, we want to be sure that there is no message that one religion's teachings are "true", or that kids "should" believe them over another.  Because many Kindergarteners look up to their teachers, it's important that teachers don't identify beliefs as "theirs".

Given all that, I think that a teacher presenting a single lesson on Christmas, given that there was a single lesson on Hanukkah, and perhaps other religions.  Whether the particular video was acceptable, I don't know.  I think that referencing the birth of Christ is OK, especially given that you were allowed to read a book that referenced the miracle of the oil, which is also a religious belief.  But it's hard to know whether the video was 30 minutes on the birth of Jesus (inappropriate), or whether it was just a part, in the way that the miracle of the oil is a small part of the book you read.  It's also hard to know whether the teacher referenced it as something she herself believes, which would be inappropriate.

I would probably start out by saying "my daughter is asking questions about the video you shared in class.  Could you send a link so I could watch and answer her questions?"  Then you'll know more, and know how to reply.  [/quote]
Thanks for this perspective. I should point out that I sent the book in and the teacher read it; I didn't go in myself. But this is really helpful framing. Thank you.[/quote]

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