Nasty School Letter -- Other Way

[smfritz03]

Too many people associate Halloween w/ evil. Look back at where it began w/ the Celtics. Pagen back then was one who worshipped the Earth---very similar to our Native American Indians beliefs--it wasnt considered witchcraft. The term "wicken" meant wiseone also---the Catholic Church took Halloween into the extreme--calling it evil and that it promotes witchcraft. The Celtics celebrated in the beginning of Nov (the start of the new year for them--the death of the old year) and it was then that the dead were allowed to enter the city of the dead. Its as the years go by that people change the meaning----for all the non christians--why do you celebrate christmas? If you dont believe in God and his birth--then what are you celebrating? Holidays have been twisted and turned to mean whatever the next generation wishes them to mean. Halloween is only as evil as you make it--just as christmas is only about Christ as much as you make it.

 

[JPN4265]

THIS JUST IN! ALL CHILDHOODS HAVE BEEN CANCELED, FROM THE TIME OF YOUR BIRTH ALL CHILDREN WILL BE CONSIDERED ADULTS. NO CELEBRATIONS, ONLY PROBLEMS AND A 40+ HOUR WORK WEEK WILL BE ACCEPTABLE. NO TYPE OF FUN OF ANY KIND WILL BE TOLERATED!

 

[Mermaid02]

Were the rules published in advance to the contrary?

Otherwise this one calls for a parent teacher conference where you take the teacher aside and tell her you don't appreciate how she deals with children. The teacher's behavior is called destroying self confidence. No need for you to to reference any particular holiday or tradition.

I spoke with the teacher and told her she had no right to speak to a child that way- that I am Jack's mother and I dress him in the morning and if I want to give him a mohawk and dye his hair purple it's my right as a parent, and then I went straight to the principal. She said Jack's attire was fine (no rules broken)- she thought he looked cute. She spoke with the teacher (who happens to be the superintendent of schools wife). First grade was a horrible year for my son. I hated that teacher- did I already say that?

 

[minnie61650]

Yeah, my kids are celebrating "Fall Fun Day" at school today , and the teachers aren't allowed to put up any Halloween themed stuff in their rooms. They can have pumpkins, but not Jack o Lanterns. It's so ludicrous and arbitrary.

For us, Halloween is about the celebration of imagination and creativity, not about (using Dana Carvey voice here) Satan.

The whole point of children celebrating Halloween was to take the stuffing out of the original pagan holiday. If you've got kids dressing up at witches and ghosts, then it invalidates the power of the real thing. I feel bad for the fundamentalists who've gotten the whole thing wrong and are giving validation back to whoever takes Halloween seriously.

THat's what happens when you have no sense of humor, because Halloween's hilarious!

Very well said.
Halloween is about imagination, having fun pretending to be anyone or anything for a day. Most children have no idea Halloween stems from a
pagen holiday and they could care even less!

 

[kanga24roos]

Wow I actually read this entire thread...not usual for me. My sons schools changed the celebration which in years past was a celebration of reading and the children could go to school dressed as thier favorite character from a book to a harvest celebration which allowed for NO COSTUMES. We as parents were told that they would be having character dress up day later in the school year to coincide with Dr. Seuss' b-day. However I'm sure there will be some parents who feel Suess is the anti-christ...(howelse could he rhyme so well)...and that will be canceled as well.
Life is going to be hard enough for our children with all WE have done, do we really need to pick on school parties?

 

[Downrivermama]

disneyrsh posted:And every store this morning is going gonzo with Christmas stuff! What, has Thanksgiving become a mere blip in the tidal wave of Christmas stuff? I just can't keep the holiday spirit going that long! It's exhausting!

Sweetie where have you been? Some stores around SE MI started putting out Christimas things in August! LOL

I think the retail industry takes things way over the top any more. The week before Christmas they will be chomping at the bit to put out Valentine things!

Don't let the turkeys get you down. No pun intended!

 

[kakiegirl]

As a Christian mother I think this country has gotten way to politically correct. You have a very small group who do not want anything even related to Christians or God in school. They are offended by Christmas Carols and Nativity sets and want the name Christmas Holidays changed to Winter Break or Winter Holidays. Then on the other hand you have a very small group who don't want the secular holidays like Halloween and Easter Egg Hunts. What is sad is I don't believe that the majority of parents are offended by their children doing any of these fun things.

I had several friends tell me how wrong I was for letting DD trick or treat and celebrate Hallowen, as some of you other parents have I researched it myself and could not find anything I felt was evil about it. Now if you believe other wise that is your conviction and you should go with it of course. Then this same group of friends have now gotten on Easter and how that is pagan and you shouldn't let your children hunt eggs or have the Easter Bunny, and it should be called Celebration Sunday. I just said whatever .

I just think it is wrong for our kids to have to miss out on the fun because a very small minority of people are offended, maybe I am wrong. , but I don't think so.

 

[jojowentbyby]

I am a kindergarten teacher and I have had to curtail a lot of my activities for ALL holidays. I am getting tired of the tail wagging the dog.

pinnie

How is it wrong for parents to decide what is and isn't in their childs best interest? I celebrate Halloween but if it offends a number of people (which from the OP is what was happening) than how is the tail wagging the dog. I hope to God you are not implying that parental judgement is the tail and school wishes are the dog. The school didn't give birth I did.

What does halloween have to do with education anyway? I personaly think the schools waste kids time by trying to have holiday parties during class time when there is a mandatory requirement to be there to get educated not to celebrate holidays.

 

[Pinnie]

How is it wrong for parents to decide what is and isn't in their childs best interest? I celebrate Halloween but if it offends a number of people (which from the OP is what was happening) than how is the tail wagging the dog. I hope to God you are not implying that parental judgement is the tail and school wishes are the dog. The school didn't give birth I did.

What does halloween have to do with education anyway? I personaly think the schools waste kids time by trying to have holiday parties during class time when there is a mandatory requirement to be there to get educated not to celebrate holidays.

It ISN'T wrong for a parent to decide what is in the best intrest of his/her own child. What I object to is a couple of parents objections causing cancellation of activites for everyone. For instance, our pre-k students have been trick or treating for years at a local senior citizens residence and then were treated to donuts and cider afterwards. We had to cancel the activity this year because a few new parents found it against their religious beliefs. It was very disheartening to have to tell those poor old people that looked forward to seeing the kids dressed like princesses and superheroes that we wouldn't be there this year.

I am not allowed to wish anyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS in my building, nor am I allowed decorate my classroom with Santa.

Granted Halloween needn't be "celebrated" in upper el classrooms but I fail to see how counting candy corn for my math activity or sorting pumpkins (NOT Jack-o-lanterns) by size can't be done anymore in my school.

pinnie

 

[jojowentbyby]

And yet every day my kids are exposed to a concept of God I don't concur with when they say the Pledge of Allegience. There is a good chance they will be exposed to the concept of "Intellegent Design" and people are lobbying for prayer in public schools.

If people want to keep Gods and religion out of the public school system, it should be across the board. I'm not going to fight the pledge - what a waste of tax dollars! But if I pulled my kids because they were exposed to things I didn't agree with, they wouldn't be enrolled in school.

The across the board thing does not work. With that line of thinking schools would have never been integrated. Majority is not always in the right. School is for learning not celebrating holidays.

I now homeschool and not for religious reasons only because I think my kids need to be learning. We celebrate every holiday even those schools do not even acknowledge (like Grandparents Day) and holidays in other countries (Dia De Los Muertes). I just think if you are going to celebrate the kids should know the why of what they are celebrating and to only go as far as to have a party then the education of it is being over looked. There are ways to address Halloween with out having a party. There is the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and anything from Edgar Allen Poe. If more time were taken to be creative and actually educate then maybe parents wouldn't have so many issues. We will most likely never know.

 

[jojowentbyby]

I do agree with the obesity comment, that is sad too. However, children are not obese b/c of school. Our national PE program is very tough on physical fitness.

Where my child would go to school (in Massachusetts where the OP Lives) they have gym once a week for 1 hour taught by a man who is no less then 300 pounds. I have watched him heave like he is going to have a heart attack just standing around doing nothing. In this instance our national PE program has failed all 500 elementary students there.

 

[jojowentbyby]

All About Halloween


The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

I left out the spirit possession thing because my kids are young and scare easily but I willl eventually tell them when they won't come crawling into bed swearing that there is a possession possability.

 

[Tammi67]

I haven't read all through this thread but just want to add my opinion.

Since when did Halloween become a Christian holiday??? Ask any elementary school kid the meaning of Halloween and s/he will tell you "dress up in a silly or scary costume and walk around the neighborhood getting candy." So what if a gazillion years ago it had Catholic meaning. When was the last time that anyone took any of that seriously? All this political correctness put on little kids by adults only does one thing....ruin some fun for them. Can't we simply let kids be kids?

 

[bytheblood]

.............cut

It cracks me up how some people are threatened by Halloween - almost all Christian holidays are based on Pagan ones

I can see your point, but I do disagree with the generalization..........

We do not observe/celebrate/acknowledge halloween, but I would never say I feel threatened by it. It is true that Christmas and Easter are from pagan traditions, formed by the catholic church into Christian practices, (like All Hallows Even was) but when I observe Easter, I celebrate the Risen Lord and when I observe Christmas, I am observing a Holy birth that occurred months earlier. The application in my heart is right, but I personally would not feel like I was observing anything of significance and meaning by observing halloween.

I am not threatened by halloween, but to outwardly observe something that is blantantly observed as a pagan practice, does not interest me. My child goes to church for "Night in the Light" and has more fun than she would trick-or-treating and it works for us. I do know many Christians that allow their children to go trick-or-treating and I think none the less of them for it. We each do our own things for our own reasons.

 

[bethbuchall]

Where my child would go to school (in Massachusetts where the OP Lives) they have gym once a week for 1 hour taught by a man who is no less then 300 pounds. I have watched him heave like he is going to have a heart attack just standing around doing nothing. In this instance our national PE program has failed all 500 elementary students there.

I agree that there needs to be more emphasis on physical fitness. I don't know what the "national PE program" is, but it can't be particularly strict. Here the children get about 40 minutes of PE every other day, and it's not all active time. Our school discourages outside/active recess all winter long. They really do need more. (Though parents also need to get the kids moving more when at home.)

Beth

 

[tink2]

Where my child would go to school (in Massachusetts where the OP Lives) they have gym once a week for 1 hour taught by a man who is no less then 300 pounds. I have watched him heave like he is going to have a heart attack just standing around doing nothing. In this instance our national PE program has failed all 500 elementary students there.

Wow- that is bad! I guess my statement was based on what my school does and thinking most others were like that. Our school is big on fitness- every PE class at my school has 20 minutes (I think) of exercises every day, run laps one-two times a week, and play a 'sport' two or three days a week (volleyball, soccer, basketball, etc.), and have a free day outside every Friday. They do stay in a little more in the winter, but still are heavily active in our gym. My dd comes home showing ME new exercises they do. They also do the national fitness test a lot and the state stuff- heavy emphasis on those. DD6 is now participating in the '50 mile club'- where they use their free time on Fridays to run laps and gain 50 miles by the spring of the year. They have to run each mile in a certain amount of time. They have 2 very fit PE teachers and 2 aides.
Anyway, I guess not all PEs are this way. I'm sorry they aren't.... I think they should be...

 

[BBGirl]

People forget that we are a country FOUNDED on the rights of the ONE not the many. People have died to defend this--the right of an individuals personal freedom. Is this right any less important to a child. We do halloween in our house but it's not brought up in DS's school because other parents do not want their childern taught, exposed whatever in school. Are they many NO but even if they are the ONE they have the right to expect their beliefs or lack there of to be respected. It's not fun if your the one left out or taken out. I take the time to explain this to my DS when he asks why there was no halloween party a school. I think of it as learning process for him not taking the FUN out of a holiday. Just as everyone does not celebrate Christmas not everyone does Halloween. I agree the only holdays school should celebrate are those that EVERYONE feels are approriate to celebrate not just the ones I celebrate with my family. It teaches TOLANCE when we as parents take the time to explain to our childern why the Halloween or practices that go with Holloween are not done in school. I believe that this teaches my DS more then any Halloween party ever could.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I agree the only holdays school should celebrate are those that EVERYONE feels are approriate to celebrate not just the ones I celebrate with my family. It teaches TOLANCE when we as parents take the time to explain to our childern why the Halloween or practices that go with Holloween are not done in school. I believe that this teaches my DS more then any Halloween party ever could.

Ommission does not teach tolerance.

And I'm not meaning this negatively--but can you think of ONE holiday that won't be problematic to at least ONE person.

By ommitting practices b/c of offense--we are not teaching tolerance. We are teaching "My way or the highway". By cancelling the activity--they caved to students who would be missing school. And then offered a substitute day.

But substituting the day does not change why they are having the day. They modified and moved it--but they are still doing it. This is not showing any bit of tolerance at all.

This isn't about rights at all--this isn't about being unified. This is about--let's not offend someone "so we don't get sued."

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Schools can celebrate Thanksgiving and New Years. If more diversion is deemed necessary, more secular holidays can be introduced.

But there are some Native Americans and some citizens who celebrate Chinese New Year that might have a problem.

And then the Jehovah's Witnesses...

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

So? Celebrations like that have educational value, and as secular holidays there is no conflict.

You are wrong. They do have conflict and the origination of one is certainly Godly. And a holiday can be made educational. Most classrooms don't just say--wow--it's a holiday...let's do.....NOTHING!