Religious Holidays in Public Schools

[JustJo]

Originally Posted by HowSoonIsNow

I have to say I am really surprised by the amount of responses who voted to add more religious holidays.

In public institutions, shouldn't the Christian names of existing holidays be phased out -- as opposed to adding more religious observance days to the school calendars?

I voted add more...not because I think we should be observing religious holidays in public institutions, but purely as a pragmatic thing.

I simply can't see our culture eliminating those days off from school over Christmas and Easter. We can call it whatever we like, but I don't see it changing anytime soon. We still take summer off in the public schools...even though virtually none of our children are needed for agricultural help. Kids do need breaks...and those times are traditional.

Since I think it's unlikely that we'll have kids going to school over Christmas and Easter any time soon, then I think it's better that we add in the major holidays of other faiths and recognize them all instead of marginalizing.

I guess what I'm striving for is equality. If they aren't going to all be out, then let's have them all be in. For many, those days off aren't going to be religious holidays, but maybe we can use that as a learning experience as my son's school does...and hopefully that will eventually increase our understanding of each other.

And, just a disclaimer, we don't adhere to any particular faith in our family...so they're all just days off to us. I am not concerned with my son being out of school for any religious holiday of any faith.