Anonymous wrote:School supply drive, can food drive, and coat drives = ok with because these are necessities for learning.

Gift/toy drives at school - not ok with especially with the religious content associated with the drive. I agree with OP that it isolates people of different faiths

At our school the gift drive for the teachers at this time of year is ridiculous. The room moms want $30 per kid for the teacher gift card. Teachers are government workers and should not be able to accept gifts from students.

Teachers in MCPS are actually prohibited from accepting gifts worth more than $20 from a single family. They can lose their jobs if they are caught doing otherwise. Not to say that they don't do it and no one reports them, but it's explicit in their contracts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school has been doing the same thing for as long as I remember. No objections, the community supports it, and the presents go to a local charity which in turn identifies needy students.

What is the big deal?

This. I don't really have skin in the game since we're not in MCPS, but our schools have done toy drives, Adopt-a-child, etc. The world needs MORE charitable acts, not less.

PP's do have a point though, that there should be oversight. Hopefully there is an organization overseeing this so that it can be assured that the gifts are going to the right place.

The school's counselors do this. They are the only ones in the school (besides principal) who the families in need are. The PTA can help facilitate the action "spread the word" to get families to help. But the wrapped gifts go to the counselor and she is very good about getting them to the families without anyone in the school knowing.

Okay so there are kids in the school that are poor. They probably get very little for Christmas, if anything. The counselor talks with the families and gets some ideas on what they would like. Sends out a flyer to ask if anyone is interested in helping out. What is wrong with that? This is not about faith. This is about helping those in need.

My child's school does this every year and every year, we help a family. The counselor sends me home with the ages and mini wish lists. I take the kids out shopping, they help pick the gifts, we wrap together. It is a nice selfless deed that many kids sadly have never done. They KNOW it is helping a family in their own school. They have no idea who, they don't care to know. They just know that there are kids in their school that get very little if anything under the Christmas tree.

Do you think those families enjoy giving their wishes to a school counselor? Do you know how humiliating that must feel? Have some compassion. Maybe they are atheist, protestant, roman catholic. Who cares. The majority of kids celebrate a form of Christmas. This is a way to make their holiday a little brighter.

And by the way, the wish lists are sad. The mom wanted a fleece coat and gloves, kids wanted warm socks, maybe a barbie, small lego set, matching gloves/hat. They aren't asking for high priced merchandise. Just a few items.

So yes, go ahead and be that scrooge that goes in and demands this awful idea that has been going on for years, to end. Because I guess it will make YOU feel better that you changed a rare "not politically correct" deed in MCPS and make a lot of other people will feel like shit? Kudos to you.

School supply drive, can food drive, and coat drives = ok with because these are necessities for learning.

Gift/toy drives at school - not ok with especially with the religious content associated with the drive. I agree with OP that it isolates people of different faiths

At our school the gift drive for the teachers at this time of year is ridiculous. The room moms want $30 per kid for the teacher gift card. Teachers are government workers and should not be able to accept gifts from students.

I worked at a school in MCPS that did something similar to this. The counselor would identify students / families in need, and the teachers and staff would donate appropriate gifts, the counselor would the. De,over the gifts to the parents of the children. The names of the students were never revealed and teachers would buy for a child not in the teacher's grade. It was more of a holiday event in that the religion of the child was irrelevant.

Are you sure this is sponsored by the school? My guess is it's supported by the PTA. Our PTA has done this, but it is a holiday drive not a Christmas gift drive. Also-they did not have very expensive gifts on the list. They did work with the school counselor to get the wish list.

^In my mind it sounds sort of worse now? The idea that this is a majority wealthy school and the presents are only for 25 kids and "everybody " knows who they are?
That sounds very Inappropriate to me. And someone is sending out emails pressuring parents to buy very specific gifts ?
Maybe the idea is nice but it sounds like the execution of it is flawed.

Just because the school has done it for years doesn't make it legit. Only the oversight of an outside org would make it legit.

Fwiw, the mcps principal who sold candy did it for years (before she was caught when a disgruntled employee turned her in).

Well, Muslims and Jews wouldn't do such things, now would they? Otherwise, we would have charitable orgs that addressed those populations.

But let's pretend that was the case. I'd have zero issues with any well run charitable activity like that.

Anonymous wrote:Oh, if your only beef is the NAME Christmas drive rather than a beef with the actual drive, then I think you are a tool.

I have a beef with a school-sponsored drive without any oversight coupled with the degradation of having poor kids essentially get gifts from their wealthier peers...yuck.

But if your beef is solely with the word Christmas, then you are just a busybody whiner IMHO. I would love to watch you raise THAT issue with the principal.

op here: this is obviously another issue, too. i have no idea about the oversight, either. i am just asking about whether raising a religious holiday issue is appropriate or not.
i feel out of my league with the other issues, honestly - clearly, if they've been doing this for years, the principal thinks the oversight is ok and thinks its ok to have the majority wealthy population give to the only 25 kids who eat breakfast at school. It could not be more obvious who the presents are going to, but it must be ok with the school...

Can you explain why I'm a tool to object to have a religious holiday as part of a school fundraiser? How would you feel about an Eid holiday collection for Eid presents for needy Muslim kids? Or a drive for costumes for Purim? That's what I'm getting at.

Oh, if your only beef is the NAME Christmas drive rather than a beef with the actual drive, then I think you are a tool.

I have a beef with a school-sponsored drive without any oversight coupled with the degradation of having poor kids essentially get gifts from their wealthier peers...yuck.

But if your beef is solely with the word Christmas, then you are just a busybody whiner IMHO. I would love to watch you raise THAT issue with the principal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school has been doing the same thing for as long as I remember. No objections, the community supports it, and the presents go to a local charity which in turn identifies needy students.

What is the big deal?

This. I don't really have skin in the game since we're not in MCPS, but our schools have done toy drives, Adopt-a-child, etc. The world needs MORE charitable acts, not less.

PP's do have a point though, that there should be oversight. Hopefully there is an organization overseeing this so that it can be assured that the gifts are going to the right place.

OP here: I'm actually torn about whether to talk to the Principal about this or not. The above really resonates with me; it's so true and so important for our children to learn to give. I just wish it could be called the "Holiday Gift Drive" or "Holiday Present Drive" - I still feel weird about exclusively calling it a Christmas drive. Also, I find it interesting that the school keeps emailing saying that there was very low participation in this over the past 2 years, so they are starting early this year... Isn't that just a sign that this particular charity project is not working in this particular population?

Anonymous wrote:Our school has been doing the same thing for as long as I remember. No objections, the community supports it, and the presents go to a local charity which in turn identifies needy students.

What is the big deal?

This. I don't really have skin in the game since we're not in MCPS, but our schools have done toy drives, Adopt-a-child, etc. The world needs MORE charitable acts, not less.

PP's do have a point though, that there should be oversight. Hopefully there is an organization overseeing this so that it can be assured that the gifts are going to the right place.