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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am Jewish and very much appreciate having Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off but giving time off for Passover is crazy. Kids can totally go to school and still celebrate Passover!!

In terms of "where does it end?", The same holidays have been off for several years now, seems like there is no need to add more or take some away, unless demographics change dramatically.

For those who don't celebrate, this seems like a good chance to talk to your kids about being respectful of different religions and making reasonable accommodations (ex not serving pork when a Muslim friend comes over).[/quote]

You can be respectful of different religions without contorting a school calendar to privilege the exercise of them. Excusing the absences and making them no-test days is a reasonable accommodation. [b]Not letting kids get 5 straight days in school for months on end is not reasonable.[/b] [/quote]

Kids love days off. This is about you needing childcare. That's fine, it's a valid need, but let's stop trotting out nobler-sounding needs rather than say "I have ES kids and a full-time job"[/quote]

It doesn’t matter either way. Being able to work to pay your bills is an immensely greater priority than the optional celebration of a holiday. Heck, me wanting to use my PTO and money to go get my nails done mid-week should be a greater priority than burning my leave/disposable income on getting kids to/from school break camps so other people can celebrate their holidays. I shouldn’t have to give up my limited time off and money so someone else can feel warm and fuzzy about their special little holiday.

But even more so, kids need a predictable schedule, especially young kids and those of us who have kids with special needs who thrive with routine. This needs to be the ultimate priority. Every day my kids wake up they ask whether they have school today because they’re so confused about when is a school day and when isn’t. I try to go over it with them the week before, but it constantly changes, no wonder they can’t keep up. Sprinkle in some sick days and they basically haven’t had a full week of school yet. It’s not as hard on my neurotypical kid as it is my neurodivergent kid, but it sucks for both of them.

People should exercise their religious freedoms on their own time. There are A LOT of other priorities that are way more important than religion. And if we’re going to bend over backwards to rearrange the school calendar for this nonsense then we may as well open ourselves up to pruning the library of books that are “offensive” to certain religions. Because clearly we’ve decided to be non-secular at this point. [/quote]

How are we non-secular if we're observing all the religious holidays?[/quote]

That’s the point. We’re basically becoming non-secular if we’re deciding to prioritize religion. The hypocrisy though is that liberals want to give days off for non-Christian holidays to score progressive brownie points, but dismiss things like complaints about books in the library (largely made by Christian conservatives) even though restricting some books in the library is certainly less disruptive and a lesser accommodation than making the entire school district resolve their calendar around these days off. I’m not saying we should ban books (in fact I don’t think we should be catering to religion is a mistake). But let’s be real about how APS is picking and choosing which religious beliefs to accommodate based on liberal politics instead of just focusing on education.[/quote]

You are equating these things, saying, APS is picking one over the other due to politics? If you don't understand why one would choose accommodation of minority religious beliefs vs censorship, I don't know what to tell you.

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I’m a NP, and I don’t want any religion or any religious beliefs in my taxpayer funded schools, period. Maybe for the high schoolers who are old enough to study it objectively. You get accommodated as the law requires, you get the same respect any human is entitled to, and no privilege. That goes for every religion out there from the Christians to the oppressed minorities. It’s not safe for one (or the “nones”) until they’re all out. [/quote]

It's not "safe?"!
Your anti-religiousness shouldn't dictate for everyone else, either. At least by accommodating the various (major/significantly observed) religious holidays, everyone is in the same boat and there's something to be learned about respecting different cultures and beliefs and customs - including non-religious people who get no religion or other offensive celebrations for the vast majority of the school days.  Get over it.
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We can readily accommodate the religious holidays by excusing the absence for the people who CHOOSE to observe them. Not by punishing everyone else by forcing them to spend out the nose on one off childcare or forego wages for the day. And I wholly disagree that we are respecting different cultures by shutting down our PUBLIC schools to observe their RELIGIOUS  beliefs. We are privileging the exercise of religion. And not all religions, as you’ll notice there are no East Asian or purely Catholic or Wiccan holidays on the calendar. [/quote]

You still didn't explain your "safe" comment.[/quote]

The public schools are picking winners and losers among the religions whose holidays they are “celebrating”. You don’t see how that could be a slippery slope for a publicly funded institution that should be taking no position on religious exercise whatsoever? [/quote]

Did none of you grow up in areas where you got certain religious holidays off in public school?  My public school had the Jewish holidays off when I was there 30 years ago and last I checked my hometown has not become a theocracy.  [/quote]

We had one Jew in my entire high school class in Fx County.  359 students in my class.  No my school did not get Jewish holidays off.

There were almost zero Jewish students in my kids’ Arlington elementary school.

[/quote]

Yes. That's how religious days off were traditionally decided: based on proportion of population observing and therefore whether or not the level of absence would be disruptive. It sucks for the minority religious; but people aren't willing to change to a year round school calendar that facilitates every dang thing off.[/quote]

Isn't that what they are doing now? I assume the Jewish holidays, Eid and Diwali weren't picked out of a hat but instead represent the non-christian holidays most commonly observed by APS students. Of course that doesn't mean that all three religions are represented at each school. [/quote]

Yes and no.  What proportion of the student body actually celebrates the lunar new year? The gripes are out there for APS not observing it; but when it lands mid-week, they will.  What proportion actually celebrates Diwali? (I honestly don't know).  Unfortunately, essentially noone "celebrates" Veterans' Day or some other federal holidays.  So why not convert those to school days with focused civic lessons and activities?  There should be a decision made as to what constitutes a "significant portion" and subsequent "significant disruption due to high absences" and then days off determined accordingly. [/quote]

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