We plan to keep our children home from school on Dec. 24. We are not traveling that day; we are doing it to make a statement. We feel that the School Committee made a mistake when it decided to send the kids to school on Christmas Eve.
I appreciate that we need to squeeze in as many days as we can during the school year so that we don’t go deep into the summer. At the same time, the education of our children should be about quality and not quantity. It is clear that the day will not be a serious education day, despite the assurances we have been given. All of the usual festivities and things that are planned this time of year are not being done on that day for a reason.
I appreciate that some folks feel that by going to school on the 24th it sends a message that we don’t favor any particular religion. And I agree that we should not favor any particular religion in our schools. But I think we should be bigger than this and celebrate all religions and all cultures in our school rather than take this vanilla approach. Do we really want to teach our children that rather than standing for something, they should stand for nothing?
I am aware that one year we did a trial of celebrating a Jewish holiday and that the school year went late that year and so we scrapped that approach and have gone back to the bland approach. Surely in a community with this many intelligent people we could come up with a creative way to celebrate the various customs and teach our children a thing or two about respect and tradition. I know other people I have spoken to agree.
Please, School Committee, reconsider your decision for next year’s school calendar and let’s reopen the discussion how to embrace our collective beliefs and not dismiss them.
Hugh Silk
Ann Lee Road
