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They weren't going to a church to see a nativity layout here..it was Santa at the mall with their Dear Santa letters.
Wait what? when did this happen? When did Santa move away from Christmas and Christianity? Actually to think of it, is Christmas part of Christianity? After all Jesus was not even born in December
Well it IS a public school. They were on shaky ground with that anyway.
Sounds like the principal should have called everyone in to try to work something out before canceling it though.
No, they weren't on shaky ground. They were going to see Santa, not a creche. And Christmas is a federal, secular holiday, BTW.
What's really rich are the people in that article blabbing about including all religions. When they start "doing" religions, then, they'd better include that creche, because I'm sick and tired of seeing Christmas trees and Santa alongside menorahs.
That said, I can't believe that any child wouldn't be allowed to opt out of such a trip.
LOL..Santa Claus is now inappropriate for kids at Christmas time.
It's something for their PARENTS to do with them. I'm not Jewish and I agree it's an inappropriate field trip for a public school. Field trips taken as a substitute for normal classroom instruction, for which taxpayers foot the bill, are supposed to be EDUCATIONAL. They normally teach science or culture. I don't know what's educational about sitting on some old guy's lap telling him what kind of material objects float the child's boat. I've never in my life met a child who needed to be taught about Santa Claus.
If parents want their child to meet a Santa Claus they should do it on their own dime and in their own time.
This cracks me up. When my youngest son was in kindergarten (he's 42 now), he came home one day and said, "The teacher wants to know if you would have a problem if I sang something Jewish". I asked him what that meant and he replied, "I don't know. She just said to tell her tomorrow."
Next day when I dropped him off at school, I asked the teacher what this was about and she told me that the "Christmas program" was featuring as many holiday-themed songs and recitations as possible and while the school had several Jewish students, there were none in the k'garten class. She hoped to have a trio sing "The Dreidel Song." We had a good laugh at "something Jewish" and I agreed that it was fine for my son to participate. (None of the Christian parents objected)
To this day, my Catholic son and his Catholic children will occasionally burst into "dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made you out of clay."
On a side note, I worked for an interior decorator and she told me a story about being on a vacation with her husband during the Yuletide season. They missed being at home with their families and so they bought an evergreen wreath from a street vendor and some trinkets from the hotel gift shop to decorate it. Seems they both came from families that volunteered to work on Christmas so that the Christians could be at home for the day. After the shift(s) ended, the families always gathered for a big dinner. While these Jews didn't "celebrate" Christmas, they certainly knew how to get into the spirit of it.
When my kids were in kindergarten, (years ago), it was "to see the decorations, and maybe a side trip to see Santa". If you didn't want your child to go, you just kept them home that day. There were two little girls, one in each of my daughters' classes, that were Jehovah Witness. The grandmother babysat while Mom worked, and she was adamant that the girls sit in the office during any celebration, someone bringing cupcakes for birthdays, parties, etc.
We finally figured a way around it. When the girls would return from the office, they would have a goodie bag for "just being good in class". Towards the end of the year, Mom brought them, and gave permission for the girls to participate. No one ever told Grandma when it was party day. A few times, Mom took her lunch hour to bring them to school on party days.
And as far as it being educational, it is. We took public transportation and each kid put in his own bus token. Public buildings, like city hall, were pointed out, and explained what went on in there. Some of the kids had never ridden a bus, or had been downtown, even tho we were an inner city school not far from downtown. It was a real learning experience for them.
Whatever. It's been known for a while what the standard is for a public school lest they leave themselves open to law suits. You don't have to like it but it is what it is.
If they wanted to have a field trip to Santa they needed to figure out a way to cover multiple religions so that the trip doesn't elevate one religion over the others. The parents seemed to have worked something out, my point is THE SCHOOL could have done the same or similar thing and implemented it ahead of time. It was only a matter of time before it became an issue.
Santa is not part of a religion......
Not sure why they needed to go see Santa and not have Santa come to the school. Santa is not a part of Christianity! Santa is for all people, why would this Jewish woman be offended?
I'm an agnostic, but I was raised Methodist and I still love Christmas and all its accoutrements.
However, I firmly believe that ALL religion should be kept out of public schools except as is necessary to discuss history and current events -- and then there should be no religious "celebrations" of any kind, no matter how "secular" those celebrations have become.
(Btw, I think that the comments on the first page of this thread are spot on, for the most part, and I think that the comment about Talia now possibly making her child a target of bullying is a good point. She definitely could have handled the situation MUCH better. I just hope that the kids will actually show the lessons that Jesus taught.)
Whatever. It's been known for a while what the standard is for a public school lest they leave themselves open to law suits. You don't have to like it but it is what it is.
If they wanted to have a field trip to Santa they needed to figure out a way to cover multiple religions so that the trip doesn't elevate one religion over the others. The parents seemed to have worked something out, my point is THE SCHOOL could have done the same or similar thing and implemented it ahead of time. It was only a matter of time before it became an issue.
And that is another problem gone wild with our society....lawsuits. Please explain to me what DAMAGES are there in a trip to see Santa? Everyone did know ahead of time about the field trip. No one EXCLUDED the girl from going. If the mom doesn't want her child to go, have at it....keep the kid home for the day
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