School Eliminates Holiday Parties

WNBC Television ^ | 09/09/04 | Puppage

[ladylib]

Well, they've already taken away recess in many schools. I guess the kids could do without lunch. They're too fat anyway. Yeah, that's the excuse the school adminstration could use.

I would hate to be a kid today.

[tje]

what about Halloween, or Thanksgiving?

I don't think the schools should have parties for these occasions. They can recognize them and discuss why they exist in teaching situations, but I think partying is not what school is for.

Schools need to get back to their core function. That is teaching and learning. I am so glad to not have children in school anymore. And I wish I could have afforded private school when I did.

[oyez]

Do away with them all but Mayday.

[Puppage]

Substantial minorities oppose the celebration of certain holidays, notably Halloween, Christmas, and Easter, for religious reasons.

Per the article...that "substantial" amounts to 15%. That leaves 85% who do NOT oppose. Explain to me why the minority overrules the majority?

You have the right to pursue happiness...you do NOT have the right, NOT to be offended.

[ladylib]

Time for a little payback, right?

[Toespi]

I am not sure that Groveport has a lighted stadium. Groveport is not a farming community, as it is fringe Columbus and a low income community that does not appear to place too much importance on education.

[Aquinasfan]

Can we just blow them all up please? No schools at all is preferable to the status quo.

[Happygal]

No Halloween?
Boy, there are going to be some pissed off Wiccans casting spells on that school principal! ;-)

[ladylib]

Raising those scores is the only thing that's important today. People's jobs depend on it.

[silverleaf]

"Our teachers came together to make sure our test scores come up this year, and this is what they came up with," Sternberg said...."

Attention students: The holiday parties will resume when morale improves! No "A", no play!

[TheBigB]

When I was in elementary school, we had actual CHRISTMAS parties, with a decorated tree and exchange of presents. Also Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Valentine's Day parties. We still had plenty of time for studying and learning. We even...*gasp*...said grace before lunch and my 2nd grade teacher read bible stories to the class. Nobody ever complained.

[gortklattu]

Got to stop the liberals from dictating their beliefs upon children.

[Happygal]

You musta been in school before the ark! ;-) *LOL*

When I was in school I went to the teenage bondage parties.

Oh, no, wait a minute - that was detention.
I was educated by the nuns. ;-)

[Not just another dumb blonde]

And don't forget staff development day every month in grade school here in Ca. They always manage to make sure it falls on a Friday. Now I ask you, couldn't they develop their staff before they're let in the classroom to teach? They even have teachers who aren't credentialed to teach. How can one day in Oct., Nov. and Dec be so crucial to teaching. Can one day make that much difference? I don't think so. My son's now in the eighth grade and I'm concerned because he can't do any critical thinking on his own. I try to get the ball rolling but it's hard. I want him to think ouside the box, all the while they are trying to force him to think inside the box.

[TheBigB]

HAR-dee-har-har. :)P I was in elementary school in the late 70s and very early 80s. Of course, none'a that PC crap really flew in Alabama (and it mostly still doesn't.)

[SoothingDave]

Raising those scores is the only thing that's important today. People's jobs depend on it.

You say that like it's a bad thing. All we're asking for is that schools exhibit a core of competency.

SD

[Dust in the Wind]

bump

[Happygal]

Yup! :-)
Growing up in Catholic Ireland, there wasn't much time for none of that old PC guff either.

And, while the State run the schools over here, the Catholic influence is still pretty much the same as it always was (minus the beatings! *L*)

[Wallace T.]

Agreed that there is no right not to be offended. I do not like left-wing or sexually explicit movies or publications. They are offensive, but I am not forced to spend my money to see "Farenheit 911" or to read Playboy However, the opponents of celebrating certain holidays are taxpayers. Taxpayers either pay their taxes or they suffer increased civil penalties or even go to jail. These taxpayers are compelled to subsidize the celebrations of holidays they oppose. Frankly, I despise the generic "Holiday" parties that most schools use to avoid the mention of Christmas. More importantly, I dislike having my tax dollars spent teaching history that denigrates the Founding Fathers and glorifies left-wing radicals, or sex education that rejects abstinence and encourages promiscuity (heterosexual or otherwise).

Majority rule can be as tyrannical as minority rule. Better that governmental reach be limited, and that the education of children become a function of the marketplace.

[twigs]

As a conservative Christian, I would never allow my daughter to participate in the Halloween parties. Instead, we took the day off and did something together. One year, I got a letter from the school saying that children who would not be participating must come to school or it would be noted as an unexcused absence. I wrote back a letter saying that I was not trying to deprive children who wanted to participate from doing so. Why were they trying to insist that my child sit by herself in a classroom while others did participate? I didn't get a reply. And I think that's the way it should be. If a majority want to do something like that, then do it. But don't penalize the children who don't participate.

I think the bit about not having individual birthday parties is totally ridiculous. The schools are doing all they can to do away with the concept of individuality as it is.