The principal of Bruce Vento Elementary School in St. Paul,
Minnesota, recently announced to staff members that the school is banning
celebration of all “dominant holidays,” including Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving
and Christmas. This is being done in an effort to strive for more cultural
sensitivity towards the school’s largely non-white student body. The
announcement was leaked on social media before parents were notified.
Many
schools around the country are pondering similar moves as student bodies in
many areas are rapidly becoming more diverse.
Scott
Masini, the principal of Vento Elementary, addressed a letter to students’
families in which he stated, “My personal feeling is we need to find a way to
honor and engage in holidays that are inclusive of our student population.”
Which ones are those, Scott? Arbor Day, Earth Day and International Peace Day?
Certainly not Labor Day anymore.
Valentine’s
Day and Thanksgiving aren’t inclusive? Really? You can be certain Independence
Day, Flag Day, and Veteran’s Day are out. President’s Day will be gone unless
replaced by President Obama Day. Columbus Day and Pearl Harbor Day have already
been given the boot. Constitution Day? Giggle, just kidding.
Masini
continues in his missive, “I don’t know what the right answer is, but, what I
do know is celebrating some holidays and not others is not inclusive of all the
students we serve.” The letter appeared Wednesday evening, January 27th,
on an invitation-only Facebook page started by parents two years ago in connection
with teacher contract talks.
School
board policy “discourages programs and festivities that celebrate observances”
unless mandated by law, according to a St. Paul Public Schools statement. Like
Martin Luther King Day, perhaps?
Numerous
schools around the U.S. have already eliminated Halloween celebrations because
of concerns for student inclusivity and to prevent any group from being
offended. The trend around the Twin Cities and other metro areas is towards
dispensing with specific holiday celebrations and towards having “seasonal”
ones. Wayzata Public Schools no longer observe specific holidays and only
engage in a few very generic celebrations. More and more schools around the
nation are having “harvest” parties around Halloween and “Winter” parties in
place of Christmas or New Year’s observances. Easter is verboten in many
districts, though some have a spring party. (Do other countries stop acknowledging/ celebrating their traditional holidays if a bunch of
Americans move in? Do we expect them to?).
Obviously,
there will be no acknowledgement of Mother’s or Father’s Days going forward,
though there will likely soon be an “All-Gender” celebration. Is Groundhog’s
Day okay for schools to celebrate? I’m not sure if there are groundhog’s in the
Middle East or not. And the “hog” part of the animal’s name could prove
problematic.
Thankfully,
our schools are showing some heart and dispensing with Valentine’s Day. But I
know of one holiday that should be celebrated- with ever more
vigor, pomp and ceremony- in all our
public schools. April Fool’s Day.
No comments:
Post a Comment