I am in the 11th grade at Bromfield, and I was present at the assembly described in last week’s article about the decision to hold school on Dec 24. I thought that the assembly was conducted poorly, and that the article didn’t accurately describe what happened.
The video we were shown was repetitive, saying many times that Christmas Eve was going to be treated like any other religious holiday, and many students felt that it was condescending. The article mentioned that we were given cards to write questions on, but it didn’t say that the questions were hand-picked by the adults, and many were completely ignored. I and many others submitted one of the ones that was reported on in the Press, “Why is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving a travel day but the day before Christmas is not?” By the way, the applause was not “sporadic,” as reported. Nearly everyone was clapping. Part of the answer (that wasn’t printed) contained the exact words, “This has nothing to do with Thanksgiving.” I beg to differ. Thanksgiving and Christmas are both federal, secular holidays, regardless of the religious basis of Christmas. This fact was barely mentioned at the assembly, and certainly no one addressed the fact that many families and teachers who celebrate Christmas do not treat it as a religious holiday. Also, many of the questions chosen had already been addressed, and seemed to many students to be less relevant than questions that were ignored.
Before this assembly, no one really cared that we had school on the 24th, because we aren’t being forced to attend school. But after hearing a shoddy justification of the decision and a Q-and-A session with no satisfactory answers, many of my classmates and I are angry. The school can make whatever scheduling decisions it wants, but calling an assembly to defend a decision and evade questions did nothing but waste time and frustrate the student body. I’m very disappointed in Bromfield and the School Committee, and I think this situation is being handled terribly.
Eleanor Willard
Still River Road
