Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised. Is the Indian or Hindu population that large in MoCo? Where in the county do Diwali celebrants live?

Wow - are you in a white bubble or what???

My kid goes to BCC and celebrates. Is that good enough for you?
I don't care if they get the day off but your complete ignorance is shocking.

I agree the other poster was ignorant, but you are equally ignorant to assume the poster is white without any evidence.

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised. Is the Indian or Hindu population that large in MoCo? Where in the county do Diwali celebrants live?

WE ARE *EVERYWHERE*. Muwh-ha-ha!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised. Is the Indian or Hindu population that large in MoCo? Where in the county do Diwali celebrants live?

Wow - are you in a white bubble or what???

My kid goes to BCC and celebrates. Is that good enough for you?
I don't care if they get the day off but your complete ignorance is shocking.

Why do you think the above poster is in a “white bubble”? My kid has exactly one white kid in her class, and one Hindu, rest are black, hispanic, mixed, Jewish and Muslim. We still had to take the day off to accommodate the holiday and I couldn’t be happier.

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised. Is the Indian or Hindu population that large in MoCo? Where in the county do Diwali celebrants live?

Wow - are you in a white bubble or what???

My kid goes to BCC and celebrates. Is that good enough for you?
I don't care if they get the day off but your complete ignorance is shocking.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they schedule professional days to accommodate religious holidays.

We didn’t have a PD day on any of the Jewish holidays. Doesn’t seem fair. Either we are off for holidays or not.

MCPS has been off for the Jewish holidays since I think the 60s or 70s because of the high number of teacher/staff who would need to take off on those days. There were not enough subs to accommodate. Ten years ago when other groups wanted to raise awareness for their holidays mcps initially threatened to do away with all religious holidays (except not really of course, certain ones would always be off). In the end the PD days have been the compromise.

Anonymous wrote:No school for students and minimal to no work for teachers.

LIES! We had an electronic leash on us all. Required online PD for the first half of the day and then various department and PLC ME
meetings in the afternoon. I couldn’t meet with any other teacher in our cluster because they were also tied with an electronic leash.

The entire Rockville cluster did PD together in person. Paint Branch had meetings all day. Sherwood cluster was in trainings.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they schedule professional days to accommodate religious holidays.

We didn’t have a PD day on any of the Jewish holidays. Doesn’t seem fair. Either we are off for holidays or not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No school for students and minimal to no work for teachers.

I wouldn’t describe what teachers need to do today as minimal. Many of us have had to do coverage during our planning periods for weeks and see no end to that in sight. Not holding classes today is a godsend if you need to plan for MP2, which starts in a couple weeks.

It’s probably school by school workload. and I shouldn’t generalize, I just know two of my friends who are teachers, and work at different elementary schools, are off having fun today (I’m slightly jealous).

Maybe grow up? I dont know how many times/how many different ways someone can tell you this until it sinks in: schools are in session 180 days. Districts can take whatever days they want within that range during the school year. Teachers arent paid during the summer. Get over it.

Anonymous wrote:The requirement for staff varies WIDELY by school. Today my school has full school mandatory workshops for 7 hours. We'd rather be grading or planning.

Yikes. Our principal said, "Use this time as you wish." Insane how different buildings can be.

Anonymous wrote:There are always 2-3 days off a month, besides the federal or national holidays.

Not always. February and May 2023 have only Presidents' Day and Memorial Day, respectively.

There are always 2-3 days off a month, besides the federal or national holidays.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised. Is the Indian or Hindu population that large in MoCo? Where in the county do Diwali celebrants live?

How much is enough? If they can arrange the schedule to make this easier on people I think it's worthwhile.

+1 I don’t celebrate Diwali but I’m also not the center of the universe. Have a little respect for those who do.

Thanks for this comment. I agree! I wish my child’s private school followed the same logic. Despite lots of South Asians, school occurred as usual today.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised. Is the Indian or Hindu population that large in MoCo? Where in the county do Diwali celebrants live?

How much is enough? If they can arrange the schedule to make this easier on people I think it's worthwhile.

+1 I don’t celebrate Diwali but I’m also not the center of the universe. Have a little respect for those who do.

I'm Hindu and am super excited to live somewhere my kids get a holiday for Diwali. I appreciate MCPS for the effort.

I'M happy to live in a place where your kids get the day. <3

The haters automatically get their 2 holidays and plenty of time before and after to plan and travel and don't look at the calendar anxiously each year to see whether or not they'll be able to spend any of their holiday time with family.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised. Is the Indian or Hindu population that large in MoCo? Where in the county do Diwali celebrants live?

How much is enough? If they can arrange the schedule to make this easier on people I think it's worthwhile.

+1 I don’t celebrate Diwali but I’m also not the center of the universe. Have a little respect for those who do.

I'm Hindu and am super excited to live somewhere my kids get a holiday for Diwali. I appreciate MCPS for the effort.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised. Is the Indian or Hindu population that large in MoCo? Where in the county do Diwali celebrants live?

How much is enough? If they can arrange the schedule to make this easier on people I think it's worthwhile.

+1 I don’t celebrate Diwali but I’m also not the center of the universe. Have a little respect for those who do.