Reply to The response to MoCo's calendar change shows why the FCPS religious holidays will never go away

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Reply to "The response to MoCo's calendar change shows why the FCPS religious holidays will never go away"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Claiming that the 2 WEEK winter break around Christmas (the longest break of the entire year) isn’t specifically about Christmas is disingenuous. If we scheduled Christmas the way we did every other major religion’s holidays, it would be one day off- Christmas Day. And again for New Year’s Day a week later. Those are the only two days in that span that are federal holidays. But it gets 2 weeks in the calendar because it’s the major Christian holiday. Pretending otherwise is goofy. [/quote]

No.  It is not goofy. Yes, Christmas is a Christian holiday, but the two weeks off has been a tradition in our schools for many, many years.  Why?  Because people get together with family at that time to celebrate--and many are not even observant Christians.  Many people travel to be with family at that time.  There are festivities, parties, etc.

Many businesses and offices also shut down at that time.  Do you not realize how difficult it would be to staff schools that would be open at that time?

It is part of the culture of the United States.  Sorry you don't like it.
[/quote]

People get together at that time… because THAT is the time there’s 2 weeks off school! If we scheduled 2 weeks off at the beginning of Ramadan, that is when people would get together because that’s when they’d be off. Until about 10 years ago it wasn’t even called winter break, it was called Christmas break. Because that’s what it is. It doesn’t even occur at the natural point between semesters so it isn’t about marking a turning point of the year. It occurs in the middle of quarter 2 only 4 months into a 10 month year. It is functionally designed to give observing and cultural Christians lots of time for THEIR holiday. If we truly want to balance the calendar, knock it back to 2 days and boom, you suddenly have lots of instructional days to play with. [/quote]

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