Religiously-based holidays like Christmas and Easter are too deeply ingrained in the American school system to remove the breaks they offer for students; it would be daft to try to eliminate them, even though, I suppose, you could make a legal case that it’s favoring religion. Those holidays also offend some of those of other faiths, like Jews and Muslims. (Some schools now let students off on Jewish holidays like Yom Kippur.)
Muslims, though, don’t get a break. They asked the Montgomery County, Maryland school board to give time off (and highlight) their own religious holiday of Eid al-Adha, the “Feast of Sacrifice” that, bizarrely, honors Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son Isaac on orders of Yahweh (or Allah). In other words, this is a holiday celebrating the brutality and solipsism of the Old Testament God, and humans’ submission to insane divine orders.
But that wasn’t a concern for Montgomery County, for the school board had to deal with the problem of religious equality and Muslim anger.
The solution: they just kept the holidays but struck the religious names off the calendar. According to the Washington Post:
Montgomery’s Board of Education voted 7 to 1 Tuesday to eliminate references to all religious holidays on the published calendar for 2015-2016, a decision that followed a request from Muslim community leaders to give equal billing to the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha.
In practical terms, Montgomery schools will still be closed for the Christian and Jewish holidays, as in previous years, and students will still get the same days off, as planned.
Board members said Tuesday that the new calendar will reflect days the state requires the system to be closed and that it will close on other days that have shown a high level of student and staff absenteeism. Though those days happen to coincide with major Christian and Jewish holidays, board members made clear that the days off are not meant to observe those religious holidays, which they say is not legally permitted.
Here are the new names:
School officials said the time off in December would become “winter break,” while the time off around the Easter holiday would be called “spring break.” Other days, such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, would be simply listed as a day when there is “no school for students and teachers.”
That, of course, is meaningless. For the holidays will always fall within the break. Yom Kippur and Easter move from year to year, and the “breaks” will always move with the movable holidays.
Of course the Muslims are peeved: they still get no days off for their holidays, only “excused absences.” As one Muslim leader observed, correctly,
“They would remove the Christian holidays and they would remove the Jewish holidays from the calendar before they would consider adding the Muslim holiday to the calendar,” she said.
And Christians are angry, too: how dare the county “cancel Christmas”? Of course, the kids will still be home for Christmas, but the holiday won’t be officially named “Christmas.” There are over 2600 comments on the Post piece. The Post took a poll asking readers “Do you support the decision to remove religious holiday names from the calendar.” The results as of today (I had to vote “yes” to see the results):
God bless America!
I don’t have a solution, nor do I want to offer one, but the problem will become more pressing as our nation becomes more multicultural. Right now I just want to snicker at Montgomery County’s perspicacious solution to the problem.
h/t: Stephen Muth
In a strange way it’s also making the case for secularism because people argue over religion but not holidays. I wish we did just have a “winter break” & a “spring break” officially and actually have a couple of weeks off. But I’m probably kind of socialist so of course I like holidays. Canadians & Americans don’t get enough of them & I wish we were more like Europe in this regard!
If I recall correctly, Egyptian slaves got more holidays than we do.
More gods, more holidays.
Plus free beer, though it was made from fermented bread.
More gods, more holidays, indeed. Consider Iraq. Iraq recognizes 150 official vacation days, a result of the many different religious, sectarian and ethnic components that all want to celebrate their own holidays. Schools and universities often can’t complete their curriculum and the holidays have a huge, adverse effect on the economy.
My elementary schoolers get 1 week in October for teacher training, 2 weeks at Xmas/New Year, 1 week in February, 1 week at Easter, and 10 weeks for Summer. In between, it’s Federal holidays only, though they do not get Columbus Day off.
I wish there were another Monday holiday or two, but religious holidays are dumb. What’s wrong with excused absenses? Montgomery is denying the children of the observant the joy of being out of school when everyone else is in. Party poopers!
I just had to go off and vote “Yes”, too.
Muslims don’t get Ramadan off but my employer excuses them duties answering the phone during the fasting period in case it damages their voices.
The only religious festival I follow religiously is St Patrick’s night – which also causes me dehydration the day after. I book the day off to recover rather than expect lighter duties.
The school board decision seems pretty practical to me. It is certainly the case that there are predictable times when lots of students will be absent, and those times largely correspond to religious holidays. It seems silly to not have time off at the school for those periods, as otherwise it just gives teachers extra work. But it’s also a good nod to secularism to remove the religious names from those holidays.
Of course, if not holding school during large absences was the principle being used, I’d also expect that if the school board schools had a lot of students who were Muslim, or Hindu, or Zoroastrian, or Bahá’í, those religious celebrations would also get secularly-named holidays. Perhaps I’m being too generous in presuming that, however…
I’ve always been somewhat torn about this issue as well. From a practical standpoint of getting the highest attendance rate for the year, breaks should be at times when the most people are going to take off. Of course, there is an argument to be made that if we did away the observing religious holidays and just made breaks every so often at arbitrary times, people may start following that schedule.
The spring break at least would be easy enough to solve — fix it to a particular week rather than the March equinox.
Here in Germany they get all these weird xian holidays off. (I refer to them all as Black Coffee Day, because the shops are suddenly unexpectedly closed.) Then they complain that Muslims don’t “integrate” (i.e. assimilate) into German culture. But these institutionalized Christian state structures make it clear to all non-Xians that they don’t really belong.
There is no particular reason not to tie it to the vernal unless they would be looking for warmer weather than want Maryland typically gets at that time of year. Easter would be as likely to hit the Spring break in early April. If I counted on my fingers correctly, Easter could occur as late as about the 24th of April for the Catholic and protestant churches.
George
School calendars have changed radically from what I remember — at least, here in Maricopa County today is radically different from Northern California in the 70s and 80s.
There’s basically no more summer vacation; just a couple weeks off. But there’s also a couple weeks off around Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter and, I think, at other times as well, such that the number of days off over the course of the year remains the same as when there were summer vacations.
I know teachers who love it. I remain unconvinced, but, since I’m not part of the system, I don’t worry about it.
Seems to me an equitable approach may well be to, once a year, survey parents as to when they would most like to take their kids out of school and for how long. Then, let the statistics of the responses plan the school calendar. It’s all but guaranteed that that will mean extended periods off for Christmas and Easter, but, if Muslim populations are big enough, there’d be time off for Eid as well.
Couple that with a reasonable number of no-questions-asked excused absences (if requested in advance) for those who, for whatever reason, are going to be absent no matter what the school calendar says, and nobody should be left with reason to complain.
b&
Alright, Ben. How’s the weather in AZ today?
Cloudy and cold! Only 72°F, and it’s not getting any warmer today — headed overnight for a low in the mid forties, dipping to the lower forties this weekend!
But the clouds are supposed to clear after sunset and stay away for at least the next week, so it won’t be too bad. But we might not even make it to 70°F early next week…brr….
b&
I think a report in July would balance things for us here in the Northeast. What you describe is tempting, but buyer beware.
Oh, July is loverly here. It’s usually only towards the end of the month that it starts getting over 110°F during the day, and it often cools off to the 70s and 80s overnight.
August, on the other hand….
b&
Weren’t there weeks this last August when Phoenix stayed above 90°F all night? Good for news for bars I imagine.
Oh, that’s pretty common. Always seems like forever before it’s down to the lower 80s at bedtime so you can open the place up overnight.
b&
*blinks* 72 degrees F is COLD?!?!
That’s about as warm as it can get and have me still be comfortable.
It should be noted that most colleges and universities do not take the week before Easter off. They have what is referred to as spring break which occurs considerably earlier then Easter.
The university where I work has a “reading day” two days before Easter. We’re open, but classes don’t so the students can “catch up on their reading.”
That seems to be a reasonable way to do it, as long as you are fairly sure that the absenteeism is sincerely religious and not a consciously adopted pressure tactic.
But that’s clearly not what they are doing, since Easter always falls on a Sunday. You don’t need any days off school to go to church service on a Sunday. Secondly, if the county was sincerely worried about religious absenteeism during Easter week, okay, I can see them maybe giving Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday off. Do those dates coincide with Mo.Co.’s spring break? Not the first two. In fact, Mo. Co. gives people the week after Easter off, not Easter week. That makes no sense.
Now look, if you’re not linking sping break to religious absenteeism, then just make it easier on everyone, pick a week, and make it the same week every year. Or heck, justify your choice by saying “we picked our sping break week to coincide with the break weeks of the surrounding counties, so that our students could go to the beach etc. with their friends and so our schools can more easily coordinate inter-county sports competitions and the like” That’s a perfectly good secular reason for picking one week over another.
This is nothing new. My kids are nearing 40, and they had winter and spring breaks. Also summer vacation.
Yes, I think some districts have been using those labels for quite a while now
They probably made the change before Christians got so wrought up about “persecution.”
Oh, the solution here is easy — and American Atheists is leading the way with their billboards! You Don’t Need Christ in Christmas. Jesus is Not the Reason for the Season. Or — from South Park — “Christmas for everybody!” Muslims, atheists, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, pagans and sure, why not — Christians too.
There’s no wrong way to celebrate. Make it obvious that, like Valentine’s Day, it’s no longer a religious holiday (assuming it ever really was.)
Then everyone — even Christians — could be happy. Joy all around!
There’s a very good book, The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas, edited by Robin Harvie and Stephanie Meyers, filled with fun stories, articles and short essays, including a real knee-slapper by Richard Dawkins, and a full section on science. Highly recommended and, as one reviewer noted, this is the one atheist book you can give to your grandmother (that is, it’s a very pleasant book, not polemical at all).
In Minnesota it’s been “Winter Break” and “Spring Break” (varies very widely by district) for ages. Who cares?
They are pretty serious here about not doing anything religious in schools. Most of the time. A few of my wife’s colleagues were egregious violators (telling Xian stories in school!!!) but they have all retired now.
Fairfax County, Virginia (DC suburbs) did this in the mid-1970s. Classroom Christmas references (crafts, decorations, music) were strongly discouraged. “Spring Break” was fixed at the same time each year, rather than moving with Easter. In this case the complaints came from Jewish and secular families who were trying to remove Christian trappings from the public schools. I thought it was silly and trivial at the time, but began to appreciate their efforts a few years later when evangelical churches began to spring up in the area.
As someone that grew up in Fairfax county in that period, I am sure my parents were part of the ‘crowd’ that pressured for the change. Even as a little kid I remember being very thankful that all the religious garbage was removed.
I think many Xians would concede that Jesus probably wasn’t born on Dec 25, and they also are always complaining about the commercialization of Xmas. So they should decide spontaneously that one day a year is Jesus’ birthday, and observe it quietly themselves in a heart felt and private manner.
That would be more sincere and I think meaningful for them, but of course it would rob them of the massive free publicity and the confirmation of political power from the conventional Xmas season.
And don’t forget the feigned victimization! Lots of Xians love to pretend the month-long American Xmas “season” is no proof that they are not under attack! People have been saying “Happy Holidays” and “Seasons Greetings” since Dickens rewrote the Xmas script but now all of a sudden it’s a huge sleight (and to be fair I have known Jews who are insulted by “Merry Christmas”). What a bunch of needless drama.
I suppose it’s arguable, except for the Christian names, that these holidays really support pagan rites. Christmas is Yule, Easter is Ostara, Halloween is Samhain.
Since we aren’t a primary farming country anymore, the entire “summer off” is essentially useless. Personally, I think that we should go with a 9 week on, 2 week off schedule for schools (and everyone else). During the two weeks off is when football camps, band camps, UIL competitions, etc happen. Each school district can vary their start time by a week either way, but we keep the year-round schedule. Trust me, as a teacher, getting kids back from summer break is the second most painful two weeks of school. With the first being the two weeks before summer break begins.
When I went to corporate America instead of being a teacher, I lost two months in the summer, three weeks at Christmas and the week at Thanksgiving. I like my job (most of the time), so I don’t miss the days off that much. I end every year with a surplus of vacation time.
Once we go to a more personalized instruction (via computer) system. Where each student is actually learning at their own pace (instead of goofing off for two months, then cramming for a test), then holidays won’t matter as much for students either and they can have a set number of vacation days and take them when they want (with parent approval).
Heck, give them a “personal holiday” each year like I get. My personal holiday is “Marvel film release day” and I take it when a new Marvel movie is released.
I dunno, my kids get a lot out of their summer camps. Their ballet school does a marvelous all-day program. If there was a more camp-like atmosphere I’d be down with that; the break from intensive academics is nourishing, at least for my over-achievers.
Indeed, time off is essential. Summer is a time for trying out new sports, new hobbies, going on new adventures (an extended bike tour perhaps, or a visit to the old country), earning a bit of one’s own money for the first time, etc.
As the child of a teacher, I can say with some confidence that they too enjoy many of these same benefits.
Nine on, three off
Here in our school districts in New York, the Jewish population is significant. Yom Kippur is recognized as a holiday.
It seems to me this Maryland county, this change, though evincing a wince, prepares the way for gradual secularization. Good.
I like the photos of animals obviously playing. We see it with mammals and birds, but not with reptiles and insects, unless I’m mistaken. These photos and videos connect me to the minds of these creatures, reminding me that they’re not so different from us, and that they enjoy their lives.
After Uruguay secularized & separated the Catholic church from the government in 1919, they kept the traditional religious holidays but gave them secular names: January 6 (feast of the visitation) became Children’s Day, Holy Week became Tourism Week, December 8 (feast of the Immaculate Conception) became Day of the Beaches (start of the summer season) and December 25 became Family Day. So there is a precedent for the nudge-nudge wink-wink approach
I never gave much thought to holidays during the working years, religious or not, but I understand that being with the family on Thanksgiving or at other times is important to many. Yet here we are in this shop and shop Xmas season already and it’s not that good for workers in the retail industry.
Already K-Mart is saying come to work or you will be fired and several others in that holiday spirit will be doing the same. Lets just rename all of it the greedy season.
I wonder if the CEO’s of these bloody retail outfits are on the job on holidays.
Probably they are, though not necessarily with their own wives…
I think the school board got it about right. They kept the customary holidays that everyone’s used to and just took the names off so they can’t be accused of practicing religion. That doesn’t stop anyone else who wants (including all the idiots who voted ‘No’ in the poll) from calling them by their traditional names.
Mind you, I think Easter should be rationalised so it stops lurching around the calendar like a drunk dog in search of a lamppost, but that’s a separate issue.
In my young days (in England), OF COURSE we all celebrated Christmas. It was a holiday off school, with Christmas presents and parties and Santa Claus stuff, that was what mattered to us, the occasional Xtian cribs-and-stuff were just some slightly weird religious thing that didn’t seem to have much connection but were fairly easy to ignore.
And Easter was Easter eggs and bunnies and another welcome few days off school and the vaguely distasteful christ-on-a-cross stuff could equally well be ignored. If we had to tolerate that for the sake of a week off school then it was a small price to pay…
Easter is on a Sunday, but Good Friday is not. GF is a state/school holiday here in Hawaii. HI has a pretty relaxed attitude on these things, but does tend to try to accommodate every group.
Almost 25 years ago, I was the senior vice-principal of Moanalua High School, and was acting-principal for five weeks. My biggest “crisis”: the Senior Prom was scheduled on GF! Three Catholic girls and their parents came to see me. Their first amendment rights were being trampled upon; of course, their lives would be ruined if they missed the prom.
I called in the SP committee advisor, Raquel Kennedy, a very fine young teacher, and asked her to look at this with her committee. It is not unreasonable to try to schedule the prom so as to not interfere with any significant segment’s forbidden days. The answer was: “Are you nuts? Ballrooms in Waikiki have to be booked a year or more in advance.” (I’m inferring the eye-rolling and “are you nuts” part.)
Abounding ironies alert: the atheist secular-humanist principal, me, was once a RC monk, with 17 years of Catholic schooling, elementary to graduate school. Plenty theologizing there. Raquel was the daughter of Bishop Kennedy, a highly respected local divine; not RC, of course.
My decision to not change the prom date was not taken well. They demanded I change to date, even if we must use the school Cafetorium (that is a word). They went over my head, of course. The Deputy District Superintendent did his thing (call me and ask me to take another stab at pleasing everyone). They went to our state Civil Rights Commission to file a formal complaint. And they deployed their most desperate weapon, their Chaplain (the girls were military dependents, Army, I think), Father Mulcahy (not his real name, but had the brogue). He pleaded and cajoled. I just had to mention Ms. Kennedy’s religious antecedents. Any RC or former RC reading this will know exactly what he said, “Well, he’s not a REAL bishop!” He ended with his ultimate argument: “but, but, but it’s THE DAY OUR LORD DIED!! Here you get to infer the smiling and eye-rolling.
Did I read that correctly? You were once a monk and made your way from there to secular humanism?
I’ve been teaching in NJ for going on 25 years. Most of the names were changed in my district about 20 years ago. The community is about 40%, 40%, 20% Xian, Judaic, and other. Interestingly enough, the name that stuck is Yom Kippur. We are now getting some shifting of days based on the ‘too many people out’ model, as the traditional local populations are proportionately reduced, with Muslin and several Indian religions becoming more prominent.
One side note: Before the calendar names were changed, I was called down by a parent as an anti-Semite because I referred to the break leading to new years day as ‘Christmas break’, the name on the calendar. Half an hour of her yelling before I finally got her to say my name. Then she hung up. (my name is VERY Jewish, though I am not)
Second note: If it hadn’t been for 9 to 10 weeks off in the summer, I would never have been able to stay in education. That time allowed me to carry an extra job to pay my rent and pay for continuing education (required, but not reimbursed at a meaningful rate– $25 per college credit? Not even 25 years ago), to take classes and do training not available in the evening (pretty much anything at the graduate level that isn’t oriented toward MBA or teaching credential), and not die of heatstroke in the un-air-conditioned schools. Every time A/C comes up, the idiots come out of the woodwork crying about a waste of money and ‘coddling’. I doubt any of them have ever tried to function in a 45 degree room at near 100% humidity.
Curiously, Eid al-Adha bizarrely, honors Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son Ismael, not Isaac.
Correct. And according to some research I did once, (some?) Muslims maintain that it wasn’t god but Satan who told Abe to do the deed. Abe only thought it was god but it couldn’t have been because it killing your child would be evil and god doesn’t do evil. Therefore, went the argument, it must have been satan. God was the one who stopped Abe.
That Abraham, what a guy.
“Curiously, Eid al-Adha bizarrely, honors Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son Ismael, not Isaac”
Is that the only holiday local Muslims want honored by a public school holiday? Why not (also) Ramadan instead?
Sub
Mathematical conundrum: how many religions would we need before we would need 365 religious holidays a year. I quite fancy only working one day every leap year, or would there be one religion that believes you only need to celebrate its special day every four years?
You, my friend, need but to welcome the pointedly loving embrace of the Invisible Pink Unicorn (May Peace Be Upon Her Holy Hooves). For to us Unicornitarians, every religion’s holy days are ours, when we are called upon to engage in the sacred sacrament of mocking the religious beliefs being celebrated. And, of course, April First is the holiest of holy days, when we mock ’em all with reckless abandon.
Cheers,
b&