Reply to MCPS Removes Religious Holiday Designations from School Calendar

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]New poster here. There is so much emotion surrounding this issue, and the decisionmakers failed to see that. They thought it was about listing a Muslim holiday (which was the modest request) but the slippery-slope people said, "But if we do that, we have to list every holiday..." so they took everything off, thus stirring up more anger and even prejudice than anyone anticipated. In DC, the calendar just reads, "No school--HOLIDAY" and perhaps Montgomery County should have gone that route. You can explain until you're blue in the face that the schools close for financial reasons--about 15 percent absenteeism among teachers, principals and staff on the Jewish High Holy Days--so that it makes financial sense to close rather than pay so much for substitute teachers. But I feel for those who don't have childcare on the Jewish holidays, and who might not have a lot of Jewish kids in the school (it's about the teaching staff, not the kids) and are greatly inconvenienced. Starr's suggestion that we just wipe the Jewish holidays off the calendar (but not the Christian ones) was very poor, and opened the door to this "fix."

I'm Jewish, and attended DC public schools, which couldn't care less about Jewish (or any other minority religious) holidays. I missed exams, field trips, important outside visits. When Muslims say, "it's hard when our kids miss school" I HEAR them. I've been there. I do think that Montgomery County acknowledges Muslim holidays by not scheduling important educational events on the holidays (assuming the teachers have sufficient advance notice), but it is a hardship on the kids and you feel ignored and disrespected. I felt that way in DC, and some years, when I heard teachers joking about how few students came to class, I felt that ignoring our High Holy Days was intentionally disrespectful (though it probably wasn't). I wish the board of ed had addressed this, and explained or laid out clear criteria going forward for the level of absenteeism required to close the school. Sure, it will be an arbitrary percentage. Yes, there will be some "fakes" who say they are observing the holiday when they are not. But the criterion for closing can and should be clear. The Smithsonian museums close on one day: Christmas. This doesn't mean they are "observing" Christmas. It means that so few people will come to the museums on that day that it doesn't make sense to open. They're not closing FOR Christmas--they're closing ON Christmas.

Finally, I'm so sorry that the board of ed has unintentionally stirred up so much religious animosity against  Muslims, who face enough as it is. And every year I feel defensive and uncomfortable as I explain that the school isn't closing FOR the Jewish holiday, but ON the holiday for financial reasons. Maybe the county should do a survey asking which days the teachers plan to be absent, for religious reasons. Then there would be some data. There would be a little light. As it is, I don't think the heat will die down. The timing doesn't help, either. This becomes folded into the "war on Christmas." Ah, America. [/quote]

Thanks for your post.[/quote]

Yes, thanks.  It has been depressing reading this thread and all the crap vomited up by the bigots in our county..especially the Italian poster who has graced this DCUM forum with her anti-immigrant bile for a long time.  Everything bad, for her, is the fault of brown people -- "illegals" or Muslims.  Nice to read a reasonable, thoughtful post in the midst of all the hate.[/quote]

Weird.  The anti-immigrant poster wrote some angry, hateful response to this earlier today and now it's gone.  Where did it go?[/quote]

I was wondering the same thing. I assume it was reported and removed.[/quote]

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