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][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]

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]
So you think by breaking up the one consistent and prolonged break of the school year that the calendar will magically be fixed? Hardly. We’d probably start and end on the same dates and the 8 instructional days we get back would be used to implement more random early releases and cultural observances.

Also, FCPS would lose accreditation due to chronic absenteeism from people pulling their kids from school to spend time with family when the entire rest of the country is on winter break.

Thanksgiving break and winter break are untouchable. Spring break is also untouchable but they could at least tie it to the end of the quarter. FCPS isn’t the only district with a floating spring break. In my NY school it was tied to Passover. Some schools do the week before or after Easter. Some have a fixed week. [/quote]

I disagree about Thanksgiving. My public school (in NY) break was Thurs-Fri. Weds could be a teacher work day if absenteeism is really the risk. [/quote]

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