Reply to Holiday Arts and Crafts

Forum Index » General Discussion

Reply to "Holiday Arts and Crafts"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Only an extremely Conservative Republican would be opposed to crafts from all three (the whole inane "war on Christmas" crap).  [/quote]

Funny. I'm neither conservative NOR Republican and yet do not want to display things celebrating other religions besides mine in my home.[/quote]

Why?  [/quote]

I am not the PP, but agree that being accepting of other’s beliefs is not the same as essentially celebrating their holidays.  Here are some of my reasons:

Confusing for kids
Devalues my actual beliefs by equating all religions as being interchangeable craft opportunities
Confusing or offensive to friends and family who stop by
Cultural Appropriation

We are christian, and we’d be happy to have our kids attend, say, a child-oriented event meant to teach about Diwali or Kwanzaa or another holiday, and if they made a craft there then I would chalk that up to being part of them learning about another religion/culture through an event put on by members of that religion/culture and would display it alongside their other non-holiday art.  I would find it very odd for my non-jewish nanny to make a menorah craft with my non-jewish kids to display alongside our Christmas tree.  See the difference? [/quote]

We are Christian but I totally disagree.  Nothing devalues our faith and we respect that people worship God differently.  I would never have friends who find my Christian child making a menorah offensive!  Don't your kids know non Christian children?!  My kids are going to learn about other faiths so why not start with crafts?

[/quote]

Because I don’t want someone introducing my child to beliefs and traditions they (the adult) don’t follow.  That treats these deeply held beliefs as a shallow show—no more meaningful than making a turkey for thanksgiving.  I hold my own faith more dearly than that and give others’ faiths that dame level of respect.  Once you have a proper understanding of what you are doing, guided by someone who is an actual follower of that faith, then an art project is a fun way to illustrate your new understanding.  But if making latkes or playing with a dreidel is all you know and it was taught you with no real belief or culutural context behind it, by a non-believer who is doing it 100% recreationally, it is disrespectful and not how I want my kids to approach different beliefs.

My kids have many friends with different beliefs, and we learn about other faith traditions by going to festivals put on by mosques and synagogues and temples, and by celebrating other holidays with friends who follow those beliefs and by reading and watching media with characters from diverse backgrounds.  [/quote]

Whatever.  I think your explanations are nonsense.  [/quote]

I agree. But in the end, if parents don’t want their children learning about the culture of others, that’s their problems.[/quote]

Did you even read my post?  I am happy for others to teach my kids about their own culture.  But I would not want my nanny to teach my kids about cultures that are not her own.  Perhaps it is because my branch of christianity is often maligned and I know so many intelligent people with very false ideas about what we believe, or because my hindu SIL has had similar experiences with people spouting off “facts” about her religion that are false or misunderstood, but I very much want  my kids to “learn about the culture of others”—FROM THE ACTUAL BELIEVERS THEMSELVES.  OP’s statements that she knows all about these religions because she worked in a daycare do not exactly inspire confidence.  Bright Horizons is not a Divinity School.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics