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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 17587
[Schools/Ed]
Date Posted:
4/3/2007
11:24:22 am EDT
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Views: 7,710
RSS: 24,771
Comments: 13
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Editorial: Eliminate All School Holidays
Author: The Baltimore Examiner Newspaper Source: Baltimore Examiner (MD)
Title: EDITORIAL: ELIMINATE ALL SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
Here’s a simple solution to the controversy in Baltimore County public schools about which religious holidays to officially recognize: Eliminate them all.
The question comes up because the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee wants to add at least one Islamic holiday to the 2008-09 school year in Baltimore County. Members say schools have closed for two Jewish holidays since 1997. And of course, winter breaks and spring vacations coincide with Christmas and Easter.
School board President Donald Arnold has said closure for the two Jewish holidays is a practical matter, based on court decisions allowing official holidays when absences by enough students and personnel would affect operations.
However, he doesn’t have data to prove it. Neither does the AAADC.
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Community Thoughts: There are 13 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Let The Kids Decide | Apr 5th. at 12:44:45 am EDT
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antares (fort scott, Kansas) - Email Me
I agree it should be decided county by county. I doubt the kids in NY, NY need to take deer hunting off, but the kids in northern Wisconsin definately do. Most systems require x number of days per year. Let the kids decide when they want to go to school.
I remember getting to vote (small, one room school with 14 students in 8 grades) wheather we wanted a spring vacation, or get out a week earlier for the summer. We voted to skip spring vacation. Why? Because one boy said it was not a vacation for him, that his Dad would have him working in the fields all day long. He rather get out at the end of the school year when all the fields were done! We accommodated him. I've never forgotten the freedom of being able to make the choice. I was in the second grade.
Power to the people, especially the oppressed.
Antares
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| No Way | Apr 4th. at 11:18:25 pm EDT
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Sam (Merrick, New York) - Email Me
I came from a very Jewish neighborhood, I could jsut imagine what would happen if we hadn't had off for Yom Kippor or Rashashana (sp?? ) No one would be in class and there would be mass amounts of make up work to be done. It would take more ttime then giving the day off in the first place.
I think it should be done by county. If it seems like the majority of students would need that day off then major holidays should be taken into consideration. Im my old district, for example, we had maybe one or two Muslim students so it wouldn't make any sense to cancell a whole day of school for Muslim holidays. We did have DRO days. "Day of Religiois Observence" where the teachers couldn't give tests or plan a feild trip for that day. Like with any other absence, the student was responsible for making up the missed work. I think that is a fair system.
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| Fair, Right?? | Apr 4th. at 1:17:17 pm EDT
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Mysteries Child (Garfield, Arkansas) - Email Me
"Unless the school system wants to grapple with accommodating every interest group, the best way to end the controversy is to get rid of all holidays. That’s fair, right?"
I suppose it is fair...
...to the self-righteous adults who seem to feel it their bounden duty to engage in stupid power-struggles.
The better question to ask would be, What is fair to the kids?? You know-- the ones for whom we adults are supposed to be advocates and representatives. The ones we're supposed to be using these holy days-- whatever they are-- in which to foster a sense of awe, respect, and love for some Divine Being or another.
Personally, I'm not against kids getting a few more days off every year-- or against them being taught about the traditions behind the holy days those days off are supposed to accomodate.
That would probably necessitate a year-round schedule...
...but with so many parents relying on school care to enable them to make ends meet, that's not necessarily a bad thing any more.
I don't know what the solution is, but I do know that, if we continue this idiotic bickering, the end result is going to be that no recognition or accomodation of any religion can be made or suggested in any form. That may be fair...
...but I don't think it's right.
And this time, the kids end up being the ones who pay. Sheesh.
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| German Holidays | Apr 3rd. at 10:18:00 pm EDT
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Ben'elat (Helensburgh, New South Wales) - Email Me
I'm not sure where this idea of German kids not getting summer off is coming from. When I was a schoolkid in Germany we got 6 weeks off for summer. Also the schoolday only went till lunch, and for me on Tues only till 10am, on account of my being taken out for scripture. We did get a mountain of homework though.
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| Ok, If Anyone Can Forward This. | Apr 3rd. at 6:56:47 pm EDT
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Friday Scott (Middleton, Wisconsin) - Email Me
I wrote this as a reply, but couldn't seem to get it through.
So I'm putting it here. I know it's to the choir, but.
Just in terms of the recent editorial entitled "Eliminate all school holidays, " it was said,
"And what about pagans, if there are any? "
As a matter of fact, there are. Actually, quite a number of us. Probably more than there are Muslims in America. We're often accused in absentia of being 'grinches' about public holidays and the like, ....while separation of church and state is a real concern for us, and we often have to fight in court just to stop our kids from being penalized for pulling them out on our holidays for religious reasons...
Well, anyone who presumes that we begrudge anyone a Christmas holiday or any other, 'if we exist,' is putting words in our mouths. ''If we exist.''
I mean, OK, the muzak gets annoying, but the lights are pretty. :)
Yes, in a lot of towns, they give the first day of deer season off. Why not. Kids probably learn more on those days than they do in a month of school.
Pagans included. If not especially.
There's a media-manufactured idea out there that religious minorities are asking for disproportionate consideration, or else we want to spoil things for everything else.
How about we just drop the idea that every darn holiday is about some 'control' to be exercised, and *ease up,* already?
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| Meh | Apr 3rd. at 5:37:13 pm EDT
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Ravenowl (Amboy, Oklahoma) - Email Me
Pagan holidays are observed.. they just dont realize it... so meh dont really care at all either way.. other then there is no way you could observe everything.. im for the German method anyhow
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| All Or None. | Apr 3rd. at 4:29:48 pm EDT
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
The biggest seasonal holidays of our year are not even on the books as Federal or State Holidays-and I fear that adding holidays would not allow for education unless something gives. It would not be a bad idea for schools to eliminate holidays altogether and either extend the summer-or drop summer vacation and add the holidays.
That way, somehow, somewhere, something will get taught.
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| It's Really Not A Religious Issue... | Apr 3rd. at 4:25:15 pm EDT
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Serenity Joy (Glen Burnie, Maryland) - Email Me
it's a NCLB issue. Here in Maryland, schools and school districts get points taken off our rating for yearly attendance rates. Low rates= low scores= the possibility of take over by the state. Baltimore county has a large Jewish population. Keeping schools open on Jewish holidays there is just shooting yourself in the foot on NCLB.
It's also a staffing problem. Our school (not in Baltimore county) is doing without a school counseler all this week because of Passover- a lot of the school support people don't have substitutes when they are out, kids just go without those services. And my one Jewish child who is out is missing several days of instruction that can't easily be made up in 20 minute recess blocks... and who do you think is responsible for making sure he knows what he needs to pass the NCLB tests?
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| Double Edged Sword | Apr 3rd. at 2:53:38 pm EDT
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me
This is very much a double-edged sword issue.
It's impossible to honor all religions equally when some are secretive about practices, and others don't follow the same styles of structured practices those now favored in many government operations do, in any way other than denial of special recognition or privileges based on any religion. The same is true of catering to languages like Spanish, but not hundreds of others now present among immigrants, or catering to any immigrant langauges when many of our ancestors learned English on coming to America.
Another approach would be to honor every holy-day of every religion represented by citizens, which according to my Pagan Daybook is most days as major holidays to some faction, and all days as at least minor holy-days, before considering Abrahamics, or legal religious rights of non-sectarian atheists, humanists, vegans, et al. That would in effect close down schools and government.
The court endorsed practical approach of scheduling holidays based on common absense trends cannot meet Constitutional ideals, and so can only be justified if such practices are narrowly tailored and reflect some compelling interest, which may not be supported in all school systems. That still leaves issues of common practice stamping on less prolific minorities.
Perhaps xtian based holy-days are overdue to be eradicated from US legal status, and some new secular plan of historic and arbitrary seasonal vacation break based days is needed?
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| Or Handle It The German Way | Apr 3rd. at 1:02:12 pm EDT
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Randgríðr (Glen Cove, New York) - Email Me
German schoolkids get LOTS and LOTS of holidays... and do not get the summer off. This is one of the reasons that Europe has been cleaning America's clock for decades when it comes to public education. A German high school graduate has the equivalent educational level of an American college sophomore.
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