Anonymous wrote:I think it’s nice to get the day off for different holidays. I use it to teach my kids about different cultures and their beliefs. I do think the makeup of America will be drastically different in the future due to immigration, decline in certain faiths, birth rates. What was once a majority may no longer be so in a few decades so we should be flexible to change the calendar as needed. What the founding fathers did for school closures is no longer relevant if the dynamics of the population change.

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Anonymous wrote:Hi All! Usually it was labeled as "Professional day". How come no holiday this year? Anyone know?

Why would it need to be a holiday off of school?

Why is Christmas?

Because it falls during a scheduled break. Just liket this.

Are you stupid? Or are you being deliberately obtuse?

The scheduled break has purposefully always been around major Christian holidays. Has it been a coincidence that winter break mysteriously always includes Christmas and Spring Break always mysteriously is around Easter????? Come on. Use common sense. This is an old tradition based on decades of predominantly Christian-based populations that's very antiquated.

The nasty tones here are completely unnecessary.

The false premise of your question was more unnecessary. Maybe when you stop behaving in bad faith, you might get good faith answers.

But since you just acknowledged that you were, in fact, being deliberately obtuse, allow me to break this down for you:

The American tradition is to have separation of church and state. This is well covered in the Federalist papers. As such, religious holidays have never been called such on the school calendar. For a very long time, Christianity was the majority religion in this country -- it still is, of course, but observers of other faiths have grown appreciatively, and so we now accommodate their holidays in our public schools in the interest of diversity, equity and inclusion (you know, those things that make America great!). Only, due to the tradition that we separate church and state, we don't actually call it those things.

Do you understand this now a little better? Or are you going to continue to act like an utter dipshit?

Actually your historical knowledge of government’s relationship with religion needs some work.

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi All! Usually it was labeled as "Professional day". How come no holiday this year? Anyone know?

Why would it need to be a holiday off of school?

Why is Christmas?

What percent of the US is Christian?
What percentage of the founding fathers were Christian?

We aren't just going to roll up our own traditions and start holding holidays for every small group of inhabitants.

Who is the us in "our traditions", and why aren't we (whoever "we" is) going to do that?

The existing traditions = we. But not just existing. Majority.
Less than 3 percent of mcps is Hindu.

You can understand how taking a day off for every minor groups holidays would eventually become problematic in a diverse area.

Traditions change.

I’m a middle aged Indian American living in MC with kids in school. (I’m the poster who noted that this was about the end of the marking period). Closing the school due to high level absence doesn’t make sense to me, because there won’t be a high level of absence. If my kids were younger and I was shuffling for care, closing would annoy me. Now that my kids are in HS and could use the extra sleep and studying time, I think all extra days off are fine.

But very few Hindus take the day off to pray, even fewer than those who say they celebrate Diwali.

So traditions change but not sure this one makes a ton of sense unless it’s tied to something else on the calendar.

Also south Asian here. However, Diwali isn't only about the prayers (most of which do take place in the evening), it's about the festivities, gatherings with friends/family, etc. It's akin to Christmas Eve mass vs. Christmas day. Ideally, we would get the day AFTER Diwali off because of the late nature of many of the festivities, which include lighting candles in the evening, eating elaborate meals with family, and taking prayers in the evening similar to Hannukah.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi All! Usually it was labeled as "Professional day". How come no holiday this year? Anyone know?

Why would it need to be a holiday off of school?

Why is Christmas?

What percent of the US is Christian?
What percentage of the founding fathers were Christian?

We aren't just going to roll up our own traditions and start holding holidays for every small group of inhabitants.

Who is the us in "our traditions", and why aren't we (whoever "we" is) going to do that?

The existing traditions = we. But not just existing. Majority.
Less than 3 percent of mcps is Hindu.

You can understand how taking a day off for every minor groups holidays would eventually become problematic in a diverse area.

Traditions change.

I’m a middle aged Indian American living in MC with kids in school. (I’m the poster who noted that this was about the end of the marking period). Closing the school due to high level absence doesn’t make sense to me, because there won’t be a high level of absence. If my kids were younger and I was shuffling for care, closing would annoy me. Now that my kids are in HS and could use the extra sleep and studying time, I think all extra days off are fine.

But very few Hindus take the day off to pray, even fewer than those who say they celebrate Diwali.

So traditions change but not sure this one makes a ton of sense unless it’s tied to something else on the calendar.

Also south Asian here. However, Diwali isn't only about the prayers (most of which do take place in the evening), it's about the festivities, gatherings with friends/family, etc. It's akin to Christmas Eve mass vs. Christmas day. Ideally, we would get the day AFTER Diwali off because of the late nature of many of the festivities, which include lighting candles in the evening, eating elaborate meals with family, and taking prayers in the evening similar to Hannukah.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s nice to get the day off for different holidays. I use it to teach my kids about different cultures and their beliefs. I do think the makeup of America will be drastically different in the future due to immigration, decline in certain faiths, birth rates. What was once a majority may no longer be so in a few decades so we should be flexible to change the calendar as needed. What the founding fathers did for school closures is no longer relevant if the dynamics of the population change.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi All! Usually it was labeled as "Professional day". How come no holiday this year? Anyone know?

Why would it need to be a holiday off of school?

Why is Christmas?

What percent of the US is Christian?
What percentage of the founding fathers were Christian?

We aren't just going to roll up our own traditions and start holding holidays for every small group of inhabitants.

Who is the us in "our traditions", and why aren't we (whoever "we" is) going to do that?

The existing traditions = we. But not just existing. Majority.
Less than 3 percent of mcps is Hindu.

You can understand how taking a day off for every minor groups holidays would eventually become problematic in a diverse area.

Traditions change.

I’m a middle aged Indian American living in MC with kids in school. (I’m the poster who noted that this was about the end of the marking period). Closing the school due to high level absence doesn’t make sense to me, because there won’t be a high level of absence. If my kids were younger and I was shuffling for care, closing would annoy me. Now that my kids are in HS and could use the extra sleep and studying time, I think all extra days off are fine.

But very few Hindus take the day off to pray, even fewer than those who say they celebrate Diwali.

So traditions change but not sure this one makes a ton of sense unless it’s tied to something else on the calendar.

Also south Asian here. However, Diwali isn't only about the prayers (most of which do take place in the evening), it's about the festivities, gatherings with friends/family, etc. It's akin to Christmas Eve mass vs. Christmas day. Ideally, we would get the day AFTER Diwali off because of the late nature of many of the festivities, which include lighting candles in the evening, eating elaborate meals with family, and taking prayers in the evening similar to Hannukah.

Anonymous wrote:They do their best each year to fit these holidays in with the professional days in the calendar. Some years it works well (in terms of the holidays aligning with how the quarter unfolds) and sometimes it doesn't.

A PP is right that in our county, the Jewish holidays are prioritized in that process because of the sheer number of those observing. Essentially, the classes in many schools would have no content on those days due to either substitute teachers or so many vacant desks that teachers would choose not to cover new content.

I'm none of these religions, and I personally am disappointed that we no longer get the day after halloween off! We got that for years! It's not religious, but a very practical day to not send kids to school!

Everyone-- consider advocating for year round school and all of these could be accommodated!! (YRSchool doesn't necessarily have more instructional days than we currently have, but they are spread through summer with a few long breaks during the year rather than a long summer and then few holidays during the school year.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi All! Usually it was labeled as "Professional day". How come no holiday this year? Anyone know?

Why would it need to be a holiday off of school?

Why is Christmas?

What percent of the US is Christian?
What percentage of the founding fathers were Christian?

We aren't just going to roll up our own traditions and start holding holidays for every small group of inhabitants.

Who is the us in "our traditions", and why aren't we (whoever "we" is) going to do that?

The existing traditions = we. But not just existing. Majority.
Less than 3 percent of mcps is Hindu.

You can understand how taking a day off for every minor groups holidays would eventually become problematic in a diverse area.

Traditions change.

I’m a middle aged Indian American living in MC with kids in school. (I’m the poster who noted that this was about the end of the marking period). Closing the school due to high level absence doesn’t make sense to me, because there won’t be a high level of absence. If my kids were younger and I was shuffling for care, closing would annoy me. Now that my kids are in HS and could use the extra sleep and studying time, I think all extra days off are fine.

But very few Hindus take the day off to pray, even fewer than those who say they celebrate Diwali.

So traditions change but not sure this one makes a ton of sense unless it’s tied to something else on the calendar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi All! Usually it was labeled as "Professional day". How come no holiday this year? Anyone know?

Why would it need to be a holiday off of school?

Why is Christmas?

What percent of the US is Christian?
What percentage of the founding fathers were Christian?

We aren't just going to roll up our own traditions and start holding holidays for every small group of inhabitants.

Who is the us in "our traditions", and why aren't we (whoever "we" is) going to do that?

The existing traditions = we. But not just existing. Majority.
Less than 3 percent of mcps is Hindu.

You can understand how taking a day off for every minor groups holidays would eventually become problematic in a diverse area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi All! Usually it was labeled as "Professional day". How come no holiday this year? Anyone know?

Why would it need to be a holiday off of school?

Why is Christmas?

What percent of the US is Christian?
What percentage of the founding fathers were Christian?

We aren't just going to roll up our own traditions and start holding holidays for every small group of inhabitants.

Who is the us in "our traditions", and why aren't we (whoever "we" is) going to do that?

The existing traditions = we. But not just existing. Majority.
Less than 3 percent of mcps is Hindu.

You can understand how taking a day off for every minor groups holidays would eventually become problematic in a diverse area.

Traditions change.