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There's plenty of fun stuff to do. Kindergarten is pretty much geared toward fun. It's pretty ridiculous to suggest that if the school doesn't take the kids to sit on Santa's lap (which is something I've never heard of any school doing, it's not exactly common, and other kindergarteners don't appear scarred by going, say, with their parents) that their kindergarten year is bleak and no fun.
Again, given that it's the kids' first year of school, if they didn't go they wouldn't know the difference.
This year my kid's public school had a school wide gingerbread house competition, they made snowflakes to hang on the school fence, they colored in a menorah, kwanza candles and made a Santa ornament. There are Jewish and Muslm kids, Christians and a lot of non believers. There was something for all of them, and each class had a feast on the last day. Just not specifically a Christmas feast.
That would bother me way more than not seeing Santa. Santa, snowflakes, and gingerbread are in no way a comparison to a menorah and Kwanzaa candles. A more apt comparison would be either Jesus or a Nativity, but we can't have that. The Jewish kids get a menorah, and the Christian kids get Santa (a secular figure).
Please take your anti-Protestant bigotry somewhere else!
There is no anti-Protestant commentary in my post. I specifically used Faith A and Faith B because the dynamic is the same between ANY two religions. In India, there have been repeated serious clashes between Hundus and Muslims. In Israel, the tensions are between Orthodox Judaism and Conservative and Reform Judiasm (and of course, between Judiasm and non-Jewish faiths). Here it's Christianity that is currently Faith A - but for how much longer? The fastest rising demographic group right now is "nonreligious." In the not-too-distant future THEY may be Faith A and Christians Faith B.
And the links I posted are quite inclusive, pointing out historical instances of discrimination aganst Mormons, Quakers, Jehovah's Witnesses, Athiests, Baptists, Jews, etc., as well as Catholics. That's why I posted them; I suspect a lot of folks participating in the thread really have no idea just how much of this stuff went on here, and how recently.
I doubt anyone posting in this thread believes that. But people don't have to be evil to perform acts that hurt others. Unintended hurt is still hurtful.
Now that the Christian parents of that school district have learned that not everyone views Christmas and Santa as purely secular, let's see what they do with that knowledge next year. I suspect they'll choose to make the school activities more inclusive.
As I have said multiple times in this thread, not all Christians are big fans of the Santa story, either. I am really getting annoyed at these sweeping generalizations.
I thought I was reading an article from The Onion or some other satirical magazine. Sadly, this is a sign of the times. What are we coming to where Santa is off limits in school? Kudos to the parents for taking the stand that they did and ensuring that their children had a solid learning experience.
Note: even the NYC school system considers Santa to be a "secular" figure in our modern times.
As I have said multiple times in this thread, not all Christians are big fans of the Santa story, either. I am really getting annoyed at these sweeping generalizations.
Presumably they weren't among the ones who staged the walk-out protest because the field trip was cancelled (the original point of this thread, remember?).
There's plenty of fun stuff to do. Kindergarten is pretty much geared toward fun. It's pretty ridiculous to suggest that if the school doesn't take the kids to sit on Santa's lap (which is something I've never heard of any school doing, it's not exactly common, and other kindergarteners don't appear scarred by going, say, with their parents) that their kindergarten year is bleak and no fun.
Again, given that it's the kids' first year of school, if they didn't go they wouldn't know the difference.
This year my kid's public school had a school wide gingerbread house competition, they made snowflakes to hang on the school fence, they colored in a menorah, kwanza candles and made a Santa ornament. There are Jewish and Muslm kids, Christians and a lot of non believers. There was something for all of them, and each class had a feast on the last day. Just not specifically a Christmas feast.
I don't promote or advocate this trip. otoh, I'm finding the crazed reaction by some on this thread way, way overboard, far, far out of proportion to the trip itself.
I just have a few thoughts:
1. I personally don't care if this is how money is spent, whether fully funded by the parents, the PTA, the teachers, or the school itself since they all have discretionary money to use as they see fit.
2. Not all field trips are mandatory. My own kids stayed home on days their schools were doing things they didn't want to do, like go to a swimming pool/water park (my son hated water activities) and that was ok...not everything is liked by everyone and there is no way in hell we can ever get around it. Jewish mom could have not signed the permission slip for that particular outing and kep her child home.
3. In a perfect world schools wouldn't even be thinking about doing stuff like this, they are schools and should stick with what their job is, teaching. Fun stuff is not their job. In this same perfect world parents would agree with this idea too.
A couple of points:
1. In most states, keeping a child out of school because you don't like a particular activity is actually illegal.
2. I agree that "fun stuff" in and of itself is not a school's job, although learning activities can be fun. Sometimes as a school administrator you just give in...for example allowing night dances...but school official ought to keep their eyes on the real target.
1. In most states, keeping a child out of school because you don't like a particular activity is actually illegal.
2. I agree that "fun stuff" in and of itself is not a school's job, although learning activities can be fun. Sometimes as a school administrator you just give in...for example allowing night dances...but school official ought to keep their eyes on the real target.
What states are those? I'm interested in reading the laws too.
I'm usually troubled when people tried to shut down Christmas. But I don't understand why a public school is hauling kids to see Santa on school time. Never heard of such a thing.
Seriously. When I was a child, they used to bring Santa to the school at Christmas and set him up in the gymnasium.
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