The Crazy Rants of Samantha BurnsChristmas Cancelled?
With the approach of Christmas, comes more questioning about the relevance of Christian holidays in schools.
Dust My Broom shares some information on Florida's Hillsborough County School Board's ban on Christmas at public schools after a Muslim group, CAIR, attempted to get their religious holiday recognised as a day off. The result was a complete ban on all religious holidays.
Lost Budgie Hyscience,and Outside The Beltway duke it out over the issue.
Lost Budgie and Hyscience are contradicted by Outside the Beltway, who claims that Christmas and Easter aren't being cancelled, despite what the news suggests.
It's an interesting discussion and one that I don't exactly have the answer for. The school calendar shows that time is being taken off for "winter holidays", but the school board attorney claimed that was only because "so many people celebrate Christmas that businesses can't operate on that day".
Good Friday, is however, no longer on the list of days off, and the only reason Easter isn't taken off the list is because it falls on a Sunday, which makes it a mute dilemma.
I don't know about others, but I've never considered Good Friday
Update: I meant to finish this article by saying that I never considered Good Friday as anything other than religious, and if the school were to cancel it as an important day, then I would likely take it off regardless. In all reality, kids take off so many sick days that another one, as a religious day off, wouldn't hurt. The schools don't need to make it time off because families can choose that for themselves. As for the teachers who respect it as a holiday, they should not be persecuted for taking the day off, similar goes with other religious holidays that teachers want to take off.
In addition, I had a great public school experience growing up and I fully support them, and I know that it is the responsibility of the governments of those systems to make them better, but I'm not getting into that rant here.
Comments
"Never considered Good Friday"?
I think it is a very important celebration, eclipse only by Easter. I personally believe Easter is more important than Christmas, especially since the only reason Christians celebrate it now is because of pagan traditions.
Posted by: theprisoner6 | October 31, 2005 10:40 AM
The solution is to get rid of public schools entirely.
The problem for Christians is that their religion is losing its dominance in American culture, which means that they have to "share the road" as it were. This may explain their "persecution complex," meaning their desire of many Christians to view themselves as a persecuted minority. What is in fact is competition.
Posted by: Castillon | October 31, 2005 10:41 AM
Let's do everything we can to expunge the value system that made this country great so we can become a third world islamic country.
What a great plan!
Posted by: Wayne M | October 31, 2005 12:00 PM
Even though I find Good friday important, I have never thought of it either. But as for Christmas, it's something everyone has celebrated and a part of our culture, not only for Christians. Those end of year Christmas plays were always fun and it's nice to know that they still go on.
As for muslim holidays, I don't really know, but I think that their holiday is really not a traditional holiday and we cannot start taking all these new holidays on for every religion on earth (no offense to mulisms at all, I think their celebrations are just as important as anyones). I would hope that the schools stick to Christmas celebrations whether it's from a Christian view or a non Christian view. :D
Posted by: Carmel | October 31, 2005 12:25 PM
So strange... I grew up in Hillsborough County FL. I remember going to school and being surrounded by kids from Christian/conservative families. It's odd that that area has become so PC.
And for the record, I do think it's sort of pushy to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in public schools. Sure, Santa Claus and present swapping is fun, but "Merry Christmas" means "Happy Birthday Jesus," and as much as the majority would like us to believe, not everyone celebrates Christmas.
Posted by: JJ | October 31, 2005 02:10 PM