Reply to Do they have Halloween parties at Oakland Terrace ES?

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Do they have Halloween parties at Oakland Terrace ES?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]It really has little to do with Title I/Focus, and more to do with the staff/student religious population, and the principal.  I've worked with 7 Title I schools and they all had traditional Halloween celebrations with costumes, and alternate activities for non-celebrants. Poor kids can get costumes, or teachers provide them.  Once I made a kid a SpongeBob costume on the fly with a big piece of yellow construction paper, markers, and string.  I've never seen a kid with no costume due to not being able to afford it.

When I was a teacher at one school, we had about 1/6 of the kids either not come to school, or participate in the alternate activity (which was run by the PE and art teachers, so it was fun stuff).  The admins really did not like the hassle of Halloween parties, so they pretended to get input from the PTA and then switched to a fall festival with no costumes and "fall learning" activities.  It was awful, and the parents complained.  A lot.  And attendance didn't improve--the parents who kept kids home on Halloween didn't care if there were no costumes.  After two years, we went back to Halloween.

There is one school in the county that doesn't have Halloween, solely due to the principal's personal view.  I understand looking at your student population and having a policy that reflects them, but while Halloween is not celebrated by several cultural/religious groups, it is also a huge deal in others.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics