| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
according to the news article, this policy has been in place two years, and no one seemed to care until now. In fact the one solid news story I have found seems to be one parent complaining. How is this political correctness gone too far?
thejeff, I don't really care about Mother's day in school or out. It falls into the category I call "Hallmark Holidays" that were literally lobbied for by the greeting card industry.
However, this does fit into the general realm of the tyranny of good intentions. Which is what political correctness is all about. Which is why it's on topic to post that quote.
Are you claiming that banning Mother's Day is worse than say... the working conditions on the railroad construction crews of the mid-1800's?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm more bothered about books that switch genders on every other paragraph, to be honest.
As for Mother's Day, the celebration is technically pretty ancient, dating back to Classical times. The current version was instated in the XIX century, before Hallmark was founded. It was officially adopted as a holiday in the early 1900's, but with Hallmark having about 100 employees back then according to Wikipedia, I really doubt it was all a corporate conspiracy.
On this Mother's Day, children had to write down the names of the family members that made the most difference in their lives and hang the notes up in a tree in the gym.
That's what this school did this year. How horrendous!
Why are there so many offended Hama threads these days?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
While i understand the notion i have several gripes about this.
1. Those holidays happen on weekends AFAIK. How can a school forbid students to do things outside of it?
2. Banning a specific holiday because it might offend someone is ridiculous. If we do that we must ban all religious holidays then. I'm sure that someone finds Easter or Ramadan offensive.
3. Because a kid has two moms or doesn't have a dad, other kids with dads shouldn't celebrate father's day? Really? That is stupidity of highest order. I have broken all relations with my father (long story, irrelevant to the discussion), and thus i should get miffed at my neighbor who celebrates father's day by taking his awesome dad out for a night of fun?
4. You just cannot appease everyone, because you are trying to appease humanity, and that is impossible.I see nothing wrong with a school not celebrating holidays. Frankly, if I had children, I'd rather have them spend their time in school learning and leave celebrating holidays to their time with their families.
The school isn't banning people from celebrating at home, as far as I can tell. It's saying the holidays aren't going to be celebrated at the school.
I prefer what they do at my children's school, they celebrate everything, Easter, Diwali, Ramadan, Passover, Chinese New Year(and so on). They teach tolerance and respect for all cultures and most of these celebrations are lots of fun.
My children's school is a typical Australian government run primary school. Not teach children about the other cultures that you live with and not participating in and sharing your culture is a good way to breed racism, mistrust and ignorance.
I am an atheist (its up to my children to make thier own decision on what they believe) but I also acknowledge others believe differently to me and I am happy to participate if invited especially if its going to be fun, like Diwali or Chinese New Year, or be respectful if it is Easter or Passover.
Besides all these days are great fund raisers for the school, it lets them buy extra epi pens, interactive white boards, vegetable gardens and so on.
I'm not saying don't teach *about* holidays, I'm saying don't *celebrate* them. There's a difference between learning about something and participating in it.
Participation is different. In the case of in-school Mother's Day celebrations or projects, why should a child who's lost her mother have to sit in a classroom where everyone is making things for their mother as a school activity? (I would hope, for goodness' sake, that she wouldn't be forced to participate if she objected, but then again one of the reasons school programs fall under fairly strict scrutiny is because we don't expect children to have the same level of understanding of and confidence in their freedom to object or refuse to participate.)
I'm not saying don't teach *about* holidays, I'm saying don't *celebrate* them. There's a difference between learning about something and participating in it.
Participation is different. In the case of in-school Mother's Day celebrations or projects, why should a child who's lost her mother have to sit in a classroom where everyone is making things for their mother as a school activity? (I would hope, for goodness' sake, that she wouldn't be forced to participate if she objected, but then again one of the reasons school programs fall under fairly strict scrutiny is because we don't expect children to have the same level of understanding of and confidence in their freedom to object or refuse to participate.)
No a child who has lost thier parent/s would not be forced to participate and appropriate steps are taken by the teaching staff and the child would be treated with sensitivity and empathy.
You can not cottonwool people either because they do not learn to cope with loss. Should we stop mums and dads picking up thier children from school because it may make children without parents sad.
My daughters are taught, that families are all different, some kids have 2 mums, some have Aunts and uncles, some are grandparents, some are extended families, some are 2 dads, some are just one mum or one dad and so on.
They are taught my uncles (my uncle and his partner) are are men who fall in love with men and mums best friend is a lady that loves ladies and that's the way the world turns and we should love them and respect them for who they are.
I am very proud of the school my kids go to, the teachers are excellent, and the P&C group work very hard to make it a welcoming place where difference is celebrated and where people are encouraged to participate as much as possible.
Not some sterile joyless place where you do nothing but" learn".
Teacher: "All right class, put down your books, today we're going to trace outlines of our hands and turn them into turkeys for Thanksgiving!"
Class: "Yay! Learning sucks, makework projects involving construction paper and paste rule!"
In the corner, a little fat kid is eating the paste...
While i understand the notion i have several gripes about this.
1. Those holidays happen on weekends AFAIK. How can a school forbid students to do things outside of it?
2. Banning a specific holiday because it might offend someone is ridiculous. If we do that we must ban all religious holidays then. I'm sure that someone finds Easter or Ramadan offensive.
3. Because a kid has two moms or doesn't have a dad, other kids with dads shouldn't celebrate father's day? Really? That is stupidity of highest order. I have broken all relations with my father (long story, irrelevant to the discussion), and thus i should get miffed at my neighbor who celebrates father's day by taking his awesome dad out for a night of fun?
4. You just cannot appease everyone, because you are trying to appease humanity, and that is impossible.I see nothing wrong with a school not celebrating holidays. Frankly, if I had children, I'd rather have them spend their time in school learning and leave celebrating holidays to their time with their families.
The school isn't banning people from celebrating at home, as far as I can tell. It's saying the holidays aren't going to be celebrated at the school.
I prefer what they do at my children's school, they celebrate everything, Easter, Diwali, Ramadan, Passover, Chinese New Year(and so on). They teach tolerance and respect for all cultures and most of these celebrations are lots of fun.
My children's school is a typical Australian government run primary school. Not teach children about the other cultures that you live with and not participating in and sharing your culture is a good way to breed racism, mistrust and ignorance.
I am an atheist (its up to my children to make thier own decision on what they believe) but I also acknowledge others believe differently to me and I am happy to participate if invited especially if its...
Did you catch the part about what the school that banned Mother's Day did for Mother's Day?
Here is again:
On this Mother's Day, children had to write down the names of the family members that made the most difference in their lives and hang the notes up in a tree in the gym.
I'd love to hear the exact nature of the harm that this policy is causing, which we're so up in arms over.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Its a good idea.... I am not up in arms
- Some people were saying we shouldn't celebrate anything in schools just "learn" about it.
We can homogenize the world to sterile boring no anybody offending gruel...
Or we can share and participate and have a good time.
I am on this planet to have a good time with the people I inhabit it with. The more holidays, parties and festivals I can attend the better.
Even if its as simple as making a card for somebody, I am there.
I am not here to crawl in into a safe room for fear of offending everybody.
I hear ya, but I don't think anyone has suggested or done that. Efforts to make environments more inclusive are often painted as being horrific, but they almost never actually are.
For example, look at the OP, then look at the actual implementation in the school, and it's extremely obvious that what he imagines is going on is not the truth.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm also not clear on how "... in this isolated case in a small primary school somewhere in Canuckistan" became "...all the time" in the thread title.
While i understand the notion i have several gripes about this.
1. Those holidays happen on weekends AFAIK. How can a school forbid students to do things outside of it?
2. Banning a specific holiday because it might offend someone is ridiculous. If we do that we must ban all religious holidays then. I'm sure that someone finds Easter or Ramadan offensive.
3. Because a kid has two moms or doesn't have a dad, other kids with dads shouldn't celebrate father's day? Really? That is stupidity of highest order. I have broken all relations with my father (long story, irrelevant to the discussion), and thus i should get miffed at my neighbor who celebrates father's day by taking his awesome dad out for a night of fun?
4. You just cannot appease everyone, because you are trying to appease humanity, and that is impossible.I see nothing wrong with a school not celebrating holidays. Frankly, if I had children, I'd rather have them spend their time in school learning and leave celebrating holidays to their time with their families.
The school isn't banning people from celebrating at home, as far as I can tell. It's saying the holidays aren't going to be celebrated at the school.
I prefer what they do at my children's school, they celebrate everything, Easter, Diwali, Ramadan, Passover, Chinese New Year(and so on). They teach tolerance and respect for all cultures and most of these celebrations are lots of fun.
My children's school is a typical Australian government run primary school. Not teach children about the other cultures that you live with and not participating in and sharing your culture is a good way to breed racism, mistrust and ignorance.
I am an atheist (its up to my children to make thier own decision on what they believe) but I also acknowledge others believe differently to me and I am happy to participate if invited especially if its...
I agree wholeheartedly.
Tolerance comes from embracing diversity, not from neutralizing it.
I'm also not clear on how "... in this isolated case in a small primary school somewhere in Canuckistan" became "...all the time" in the thread title.Because it's just one example of the insidious spread of the evil of Political Correctness.
There's no need to mention the other cases in which it really does go too far because they're happening all the time.
[High fives the ghost of Herbert Marcuse]
We needed a second thread on this topic.
Yeah the one bizarre school you hear about in Canada/Texas/Oklahoma/Arizona/etc. is hardly a cause for "EVERYTHING IS RUIEND FOREVER!".
I hear about one of these odd cases every now in then, while in the meantime I have attended/know people who have attended/simply live near many more schools that have no such bizarre policies.
I think it's a safe assumption, based on the number of cases I've seen in the news and the number of schools I know of that have no such policies, that the number is actually drastically small. The thousands of schools that don't have bizarre policies just don't make it on the news.
I'm not saying don't teach *about* holidays, I'm saying don't *celebrate* them. There's a difference between learning about something and participating in it.
Participation is different. In the case of in-school Mother's Day celebrations or projects, why should a child who's lost her mother have to sit in a classroom where everyone is making things for their mother as a school activity? (I would hope, for goodness' sake, that she wouldn't be forced to participate if she objected, but then again one of the reasons school programs fall under fairly strict scrutiny is because we don't expect children to have the same level of understanding of and confidence in their freedom to object or refuse to participate.)
No a child who has lost thier parent/s would not be forced to participate and appropriate steps are taken by the teaching staff and the child would be treated with sensitivity and empathy.
You can not cottonwool people either because they do not learn to cope with loss. Should we stop mums and dads picking up thier children from school because it may make children without parents sad.
My daughters are taught, that families are all different, some kids have 2 mums, some have Aunts and uncles, some are grandparents, some are extended families, some are 2 dads, some are just one mum or one dad and so on.
They are taught my uncles (my uncle and his partner) are are men who fall in love with men and mums best friend is a lady that loves ladies and that's the way the world turns and we should love them and respect them for who they are.
I am very proud of the school my kids go to, the teachers are excellent, and the P&C group work very hard to make it a welcoming place where difference is celebrated and where people are encouraged to participate as much as possible.
Not some sterile joyless place where you do nothing but" learn".
Really? I had some teachers who had empathy, and some who didn't. I had a few who I think would have thought, basically, "Shut up and do the activity so I don't have to figure out something else for you to do."
As far as "cottonwooling" people, apparently you missed my comment about the distinction between learning (or, for that matter, observation) and participation.
I'm still waiting to hear what educational value school activities celebrating Mother's Day provide (if you want to talk about appreciating your parents, that could just as easily be done through activities that aren't tied to a holiday, or a specific gender parent).
Not some sterile joyless place where you do nothing but" learn".
I have been in many places in my life where I did nothing but learn. None of them were sterile and joyless (our science classes were anything *but* sterile, literally or metaphorically), although if you view learning as not having any engagement and fun value by itself, I can see why you'd want to fill up children's days with a lot of distractions.
Part of a teacher's job is to make learning fun and engaging. And frankly, my social studies teacher setting up a temple in which we went to visit the oracle while learning about Ancient Greece and my science teacher having us build rockets were things my friends and I enjoyed and talked about and remembered far more than the various holiday activities we had to participate in.
|
Now, now, Hama, what you probably meant to say was that political correctness often struggles with boundary issues... surely you never meant to insinuate that politically correct people "go too far" - that wouldn't be fair, since you don't know most of them. I'm sure this is all a case of you being verbally challenged, however.
As to my thoughts of the actual subject at hand - I think that teaching about father's and mother's day, while taking the time to explicitly explain that some kids have two of one kind and zero of the other, is a far better solution than just ignoring the fact that mothers and fathers are parts of the most basic family cell. There are variations on that structure, every one of them as legitimate as the others, but it's not like people who grow up with two mothers should be offended that there is a father's day. I mean, why would they be? it's just not relevent for them. It's exaclty like unemployed people in labor day - they may not feel that it's a special day for them, but that dosen't mean the day should be canceled or ignored...
I don't suppose they could get rid of Festivus while they're at it?