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][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.
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That tradition dates from a time when the default was the five day school week and the long summer. FCPS will need to choose to embrace one or the other going forward but the swiss cheese calendar, short summer, and long breaks pleases no one.[/quote]

The tradition dates from when the US was very much a predominantly Protestant Country and families were traveling for Christmas. Yes, there was a separation of Church and State but so many people were taking vacations over that time period, it was turned into a long break at school. Christmas is a federal holiday because so many Govies were taking that day off of work. The reality is, you would still have a high level of kids and teachers and staff out of school at that time period so we keep the break and the Federal Holiday for that day. Today, the holiday is more secular then anything but the timing makes sense for vacations and in the school calendar. It remains a staffing issue.

FCPS goes the extra mile and turns it into a 2 week break, no diea why. It was a week when I was a kid, you got off on the 23rd and came back on the 2nd or 3rd. Suggest shortening the Winter Break around here and you may as well be suggesting executing Santa.

And none of that really has anything to do with the addition on all the religious holidays and cultural events. FCPS could send kids to school on Federal Holidays, which would reduce the ridiculousness of the calendar, or use those as teacher work days, which would reduce the ridiculousness of the calendar. Instead it opts to give everything off, have a calendar that is totally ridiculous, and extend the school year by close to 2 weeks. [/quote]

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