Religious Holidays in Public Schools

[blush]

Originally Posted by Unndunn

I voted "I Don't Care" because none of the other options were close to what I think.

I think each school district should set their calendar based on the members of the community they are providing for. They have the data, and I don't think it would be that difficult to build the schedule around the needs of that particular community. If you know that 75% of your students are muslim, it would make sense to schedule that day off since all of those students would be missing the lessons taught on that day.

It was never an issue in my hometown because there was very little diversity. In my senior class in high school (class of '83) there were two jewish students out of 180 students. I know this because we were in the same home room and they would talk about when they would be out for high holidays, etc. I know that the school didn't count the days they took off for high holidays as absences. It wouldn't have been practical to have school on Christmas when about 99% of the student body would be home celebrating.

It's late and I'm way over tired so I shouldn't even be posting. I don't have any kids, but I do work with children, so school schedules do affect my work schedule.

I have to disagree. In a private school, polling a family's religious beliefs and catering to the majority is plausible. In the public school district I teach in, we do not know the religion of our students(unless the student or parent tells us.)

Furthermore, it is public education, not majority education. It is an easy answer to say, majority rules, but does that teach diversity or acceptance? A break schedule that removes ANY religious acknowledgement separates public schools from favoring one religion over another. Public schools should give students days off without penalty for religious observances.