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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I do find the aversion and censoring of Halloween in MCPS elementary schools to be very odd. Getting to dress up for the day and having Halloween classroom parties was a fantastic experience for me as a kid.[/quote]

Same!  And I grew up poor, so it’s not like I always had a ‘cool’ costume.  It was whatever I could get my mom to help me put together.

Wish my kid’s ES allowed Halloween.  But they are not allowed to even read books about it.  Let along have a Halloween parade.  [/quote]
May this be the worst thing that ever happens to your child.[/quote]

Is that your argument?  Things could be worse for my kid, so I can’t express my disappointment that our ES has banned any mention of Halloween during school?  Nah, sorry, it doesn’t work that way.  [/quote]

Expressing disappointment: [i]I have fond memories about Halloween in school, so I am sad that my kid won't have that. Oh well. I'm looking forward to trick-or-treating tonight![/i]

Is that what you're saying?[/quote]

+1
I have a ton of cute/fond memories of Christmastime at school where our school PTA would set up a Santa’s Secret Shop in the cafeteria and we could buy inexpensive trinkets for members of our family (junky stuff ranging from 25 cents to $5–kind of like things you might find in the oriental trading catalog) And then the moms would gift wrap it for us. It was such fun to pick out a gift to give that was just from me! 
As an adult, of course I realize now that there were probably a few kids in the school who didn’t celebrate Christmas (it was the Midwest) who might have felt excluded by this tradition, so it’s not a terrible thing that it no longer exists. But yes, it’s a fond memory for me that I wish my kids had.
(We also watched the Charlie Brown Christmas episode IN SCHOOL the morning of the Christmas party for at least three years in a row. And that one is very religious. Public school. Times have definitely changed.)[/quote]

I grew up in another part of the country and am not Christian.  We used to do this in school also, and I enjoyed it and it was a fond memory for me also.  No, we didn't celebrate Christmas, but everyone was allowed to participate, so I certainly did not feel 'excluded'.

Honestly, I do think it's a terrible thing that this kind of thing doesn't exist.  It was a fun, well-intentioned idea.

We don't have to get rid of everything because of 'diversity' or because someone *might* feel excluded.  That's not good for anyone.

If they are banning Halloween parties because kids can't afford costumes, then keep some extra easy costumes in the counselor's office.  If we're banning Valentine's parties because kids can afford Valentine's, then have parents send in extra cards to the teachers (our ES used to do this before they outright banned Valentine's day parties).  Our ES also used to have a rule that ALL kids had to send valentines to ALL the other kids, so that nobody was excluded.

There are ways to make the celebrations MORE inclusive instead of banning them altogether.

-a non-Christian immigrant who has fond memories of singing Christmas carols with my ES chorus[/quote]

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