Today is Rosh Hashana. Not being Jewish I have been thinking all day I'd like to find out what this holiday is for Jews around the world today. It must be important because we don't have school today! Growing up in Fairfield County, I feel like I should know what Rosh Hashana is, but I don't remember. So, I looked it up. Pretty cool website for people like me, who don't really know what we're observing by being home from school.
Really, this whole separation of church and school is fascinating to me. When I was growing up, we observed and CELEBRATED all holidays, except Kwanzaa, which I'm not sure even existed when I was in elementary school. We sang Christmas carols, Hannukah songs and just plain old winter songs. There was nothing religious about it!! We just had fun! We had a Christmas party that was very secular, no manger stories, just Santa and a tree. We had Hanukkah parties that were not religious, just dreidles and potato pancakes. It was fun. Not any more...
My first experience with public school holidays came as a room parent for my daughter's kindergarten class. Apparently, the word was out that I used to be a CHRISTIAN school teacher. In Maryland public schools this is apparently a red flag! I was warned not to say the word "Christmas", we were to say "winter" in it's place. There was not a single Christmas tree to be seen, as it was too "religious", however a huge menorrah covered an entire wall in my daughter's classroom. Hmmm... is that not religious?
I was given an assignment during the "winter party" that we were having the children make holiday cards and the teacher asked me (what was she thinking??) to write out expressions for the children to copy that one might find on a "winter card". This was a bit risky for a CHRISTIAN school teacher, don't you think? So, I asked, "Is there anything they aren't allowed to write on a card??" To which the teacher replied, "They may not use the word 'Jesus'!" Funny, I've never said "Happy Jesus" or "Merry Jesus" to anyone or even read it on a card. I wasn't sure how to respond to this.
On with the holidays we went. We all observed New Year, Martin Luther King's Birthday, Presidents Day, and we had a nice LONG break for "Easter", the other unmentionable holiday. We didn't even bother with a spring party, I mean we can't even mention the Easter Bunny, too religious! What??? Have we lost our minds??? And so it was finally explained to me by some parents I have met who very kindly let me in on the holiday scoop.
Everybody knows the Christian holidays and how to celebrate them, so there is no need to mention them or discuss them in school. The are "overcelebrated" and very well known everywhere. We are also not allowed to celebrate any "religious" holidays, so that leaves out any Christian holiday that might arise. Apparently, Christians and their holidays have just become far too offensive in the public arena so we are shunned.
Now, as a Christian who has chosen to place my children in public school, this is both alarming but also somewhat relieving to me. I don't want my children to be shunned in school for mentioning that they celebrate Christmas, but I don't necessarily want them learning about world religions through the public schools. To me, the most disturbing thing about this issue is the definition of "religious." How do these school officials, teachers, administrators determine what is "religious", therefore unspeakable, and what isn't, or is safe to celebrate, discuss and learn about? I'm totally fine with no Christmas in school, and I'm totally fine with a Menorrah on the wall - but I'm not OK with one of those being religious and the other not.
I might even go so far as to say that if we are cutting religion out of school, let's cut out politics. They have no place in elementary school classrooms if they are partisan, and in Maryland they totally are. My first grader was made to chant for a particular candidate in her art class. She was also given the assignment of writing about the losing candidate on the day after the election. All the first graders were made to sit through a long recession speech that they didn't understand at all, while they never even saw the acceptance speech of their own president. I think it's plain inappropriate, but being the good little Christian school teacher that I am I didn't complain. Maybe I should have!
T and I have chosen public school over Christian or homeschooling because we are choosing to be a light in a very dark world. I'm just surprised to find such darkness in the highly ranked suburban schools where we live. I understand it's not even scratching the surface of the oppression that many Christians around the world feel, but it's disturbing. I understand more each day why Christians in larger numbers are choosing alternate schooling to public schools, and maybe that's why I've seen such a huge shift since I was a child. With fewer Christian families it is easier to avoid anything Christian. The sad thing is that school used to be fun and now it's just work, work, work. Some of my fondest memories of school as a child revolve around parties, cultural activities, musicals and parents coming in and sharing about their religion or holiday. That will never be again, at least not in Maryland!
So here I sit, at home with my girls and their friends, celebrating a holiday that will never be mentioned, only observed, in Maryland public schools. It's a Jewish new year, and tonight at dinner I'll tell my girls all about it because they won't hear it at school, it'll just be another day off. Next week we'll observe but not learn about Yom Kippur in the school, so we'll have a dinner conversation again. And I'll go to my newly found website and read up on that holiday. We're skipping Columbus Day in Maryland these days. I guess he was religious!?!
Really, this whole separation of church and school is fascinating to me. When I was growing up, we observed and CELEBRATED all holidays, except Kwanzaa, which I'm not sure even existed when I was in elementary school. We sang Christmas carols, Hannukah songs and just plain old winter songs. There was nothing religious about it!! We just had fun! We had a Christmas party that was very secular, no manger stories, just Santa and a tree. We had Hanukkah parties that were not religious, just dreidles and potato pancakes. It was fun. Not any more...
My first experience with public school holidays came as a room parent for my daughter's kindergarten class. Apparently, the word was out that I used to be a CHRISTIAN school teacher. In Maryland public schools this is apparently a red flag! I was warned not to say the word "Christmas", we were to say "winter" in it's place. There was not a single Christmas tree to be seen, as it was too "religious", however a huge menorrah covered an entire wall in my daughter's classroom. Hmmm... is that not religious?
I was given an assignment during the "winter party" that we were having the children make holiday cards and the teacher asked me (what was she thinking??) to write out expressions for the children to copy that one might find on a "winter card". This was a bit risky for a CHRISTIAN school teacher, don't you think? So, I asked, "Is there anything they aren't allowed to write on a card??" To which the teacher replied, "They may not use the word 'Jesus'!" Funny, I've never said "Happy Jesus" or "Merry Jesus" to anyone or even read it on a card. I wasn't sure how to respond to this.
On with the holidays we went. We all observed New Year, Martin Luther King's Birthday, Presidents Day, and we had a nice LONG break for "Easter", the other unmentionable holiday. We didn't even bother with a spring party, I mean we can't even mention the Easter Bunny, too religious! What??? Have we lost our minds??? And so it was finally explained to me by some parents I have met who very kindly let me in on the holiday scoop.
Everybody knows the Christian holidays and how to celebrate them, so there is no need to mention them or discuss them in school. The are "overcelebrated" and very well known everywhere. We are also not allowed to celebrate any "religious" holidays, so that leaves out any Christian holiday that might arise. Apparently, Christians and their holidays have just become far too offensive in the public arena so we are shunned.
Now, as a Christian who has chosen to place my children in public school, this is both alarming but also somewhat relieving to me. I don't want my children to be shunned in school for mentioning that they celebrate Christmas, but I don't necessarily want them learning about world religions through the public schools. To me, the most disturbing thing about this issue is the definition of "religious." How do these school officials, teachers, administrators determine what is "religious", therefore unspeakable, and what isn't, or is safe to celebrate, discuss and learn about? I'm totally fine with no Christmas in school, and I'm totally fine with a Menorrah on the wall - but I'm not OK with one of those being religious and the other not.
I might even go so far as to say that if we are cutting religion out of school, let's cut out politics. They have no place in elementary school classrooms if they are partisan, and in Maryland they totally are. My first grader was made to chant for a particular candidate in her art class. She was also given the assignment of writing about the losing candidate on the day after the election. All the first graders were made to sit through a long recession speech that they didn't understand at all, while they never even saw the acceptance speech of their own president. I think it's plain inappropriate, but being the good little Christian school teacher that I am I didn't complain. Maybe I should have!
T and I have chosen public school over Christian or homeschooling because we are choosing to be a light in a very dark world. I'm just surprised to find such darkness in the highly ranked suburban schools where we live. I understand it's not even scratching the surface of the oppression that many Christians around the world feel, but it's disturbing. I understand more each day why Christians in larger numbers are choosing alternate schooling to public schools, and maybe that's why I've seen such a huge shift since I was a child. With fewer Christian families it is easier to avoid anything Christian. The sad thing is that school used to be fun and now it's just work, work, work. Some of my fondest memories of school as a child revolve around parties, cultural activities, musicals and parents coming in and sharing about their religion or holiday. That will never be again, at least not in Maryland!
So here I sit, at home with my girls and their friends, celebrating a holiday that will never be mentioned, only observed, in Maryland public schools. It's a Jewish new year, and tonight at dinner I'll tell my girls all about it because they won't hear it at school, it'll just be another day off. Next week we'll observe but not learn about Yom Kippur in the school, so we'll have a dinner conversation again. And I'll go to my newly found website and read up on that holiday. We're skipping Columbus Day in Maryland these days. I guess he was religious!?!
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