Religous Related Question

[ImpishAngel]

Do you think that the school systems should honor other religious holidays (Example : Ramadon) Or do you think it should only be Christmas and Easter.

And part two: Would school systems do it? Or would they just wipe out all vacations planned around Christian holidays?

[KeVinK]

Do you think that the school systems should honor other religious holidays (Example : Ramadon) Or do you think it should only be Christmas and Easter.

And part two: Would school systems do it? Or would they just wipe out all vacations planned around Christian holidays?

I think they'd leap at the chance to celebrate Ramadan. Think of how much money they would save by not feeding the children for a month.

[Spacebeard]

Do you think that the school systems should honor other religious holidays (Example : Ramadon) Or do you think it should only be Christmas and Easter.

And part two: Would school systems do it? Or would they just wipe out all vacations planned around Christian holidays?

Er, what makes you think that school systems only honor Christmas and Easter? When I was in school, we had off for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

[ImpishAngel]

Do you think that the school systems should honor other religious holidays (Example : Ramadon) Or do you think it should only be Christmas and Easter.

And part two: Would school systems do it? Or would they just wipe out all vacations planned around Christian holidays?

Er, what makes you think that school systems only honor Christmas and Easter? When I was in school, we had off for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

If we have those off...i am unaware of it....and therefore feel stupid...
but I don't believe we do.

[Darth Raptor]

Public schools shouldn't observe any religious holiday, Christian or otherwise. Secularism is so much easier and practical than pluralism.

[Spacebeard]

Do you think that the school systems should honor other religious holidays (Example : Ramadon) Or do you think it should only be Christmas and Easter.

And part two: Would school systems do it? Or would they just wipe out all vacations planned around Christian holidays?

Er, what makes you think that school systems only honor Christmas and Easter? When I was in school, we had off for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

If we have those off...i am unaware of it....and therefore feel stupid...
but I don't believe we do.

I don't know about any other school districts, but here and here are some calendars that Google turned up for school districts in areas with which I'm familiar. The "vacation days" on October 4th and 13th correspond to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, respectively.

Your real point, or at least what I think is your real point, does stand. I imagine that school districts will observe whichever holidays are observed by a population large and powerful enough to have numerous and vocal representatives on the PTA or the board, either openly or by having secular "vacation days" on the same day.

I don't really see any alternative system that wouldn't produce essentially the same outcome, however. Having a day off for every single religious observance in the world would leave little time left for learning. Forcing students to attend school on religious holidays would probably be a violation of the First Amendment. Giving students a limited allotment of days off to use for religious observances would be fair, but would produce a similar outcome to closing school on the holidays celebrated by a majority of the students. If a hypothetical school had, say, 1,500 Christians and 10 Jews, then school would effectively be closed on Easter because no teaching would take place with the vast majority of the students gone. Christian students who took off on Easter would not risk falling behind because no teaching would take place with the vast majority of the students (and teachers, probably) gone, but Jewish students who took off on Rosh Hashanah would risk falling behind because classes would proceed on schedule with only ten students missing.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Spacebeard, try looking at Alabama, Wyoming, Texas, or Louisiana schedules. Do you find a Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur on them?

[Spacebeard]

Spacebeard, try looking at Alabama, Wyoming, Texas, or Louisiana schedules. Do you find a Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur on them?

I said:

I imagine that school districts will observe whichever holidays are observed by a population large and powerful enough to have numerous and vocal representatives on the PTA or the board, either openly or by having secular "vacation days" on the same day.

I never claimed that every school district celebrated Jewish holidays, only that a school system will observe non-Christian holidays if there are enough parents to demand them, which answers the question posed by the OP here:

Do you think that the school systems should honor other religious holidays (Example : Ramadon) Or do you think it should only be Christmas and Easter.

And part two: Would school systems do it? Or would they just wipe out all vacations planned around Christian holidays?

[AK_Jedi]

In elementary school, my jewish friend was unable to even get an excused absence for a holiday. (I can't remember which one it was) Schools like to say that they at least recognize most holidays, but they really don't.

[Zero]

In my school district, celebration of non-mainstream holidays are given excused absences. It seems to work well. Breaks are designed around mainstream holidays, but they don't specifically let us off for christmas, or easter, or shit like that. We just have winter break, fall break, spring break (W00t!), and summer break.

[Molyneux]

In my school district, celebration of non-mainstream holidays are given excused absences. It seems to work well. Breaks are designed around mainstream holidays, but they don't specifically let us off for christmas, or easter, or shit like that. We just have winter break, fall break, spring break (W00t!), and summer break.

See, that seems to me like it would work fairly well.
Any system that does not allow students time off for religious observances will necessarily have negative impact on those students that MUST miss some days of school for, say, Yom Kippur or Easter.

[Qwerty 42]

In my school district, celebration of non-mainstream holidays are given excused absences. It seems to work well. Breaks are designed around mainstream holidays, but they don't specifically let us off for christmas, or easter, or shit like that. We just have winter break, fall break, spring break (W00t!), and summer break.

That's what my school does too. We have a break named after every season, except fall where they make no allusions that it's Thanksgiving, since that's a national holiday. We do have off for Rosh Hashona and Yom Kippur, but that's more for practical reasons than religious ones. We have a large Jewish population among our teaching staff, so we'd need to get an unwieldly amount of substitutes for those days.

[RogueIce]

The Hillsborough County School District tried to do away with that, only having summer break, spring break, and a winter break (IIRC). All other religious holidays would be non-penalty absences. But there was such a huge freaking uproar about it that they backed down.

[Sarevok]

Do you think that the school systems should honor other religious holidays (Example : Ramadon) Or do you think it should only be Christmas and Easter.

And part two: Would school systems do it? Or would they just wipe out all vacations planned around Christian holidays?

You do not need to have a 1 month holiday for Ramadan actually. Over here we go to school and carry on with our lives as before during most of the Ramadan. Actual holiday is for Eid celebration and usually begins in the final days of the Ramadan. In western countries I suppose a 1 day holiday on Eid day will suffice.

[ImpishAngel]

Do you think that the school systems should honor other religious holidays (Example : Ramadon) Or do you think it should only be Christmas and Easter.

And part two: Would school systems do it? Or would they just wipe out all vacations planned around Christian holidays?

You do not need to have a 1 month holiday for Ramadan actually. Over here we go to school and carry on with our lives as before during most of the Ramadan. Actual holiday is for Eid celebration and usually begins in the final days of the Ramadan. In western countries I suppose a 1 day holiday on Eid day will suffice.

Aye, I understand that, but even for one day, it is not reconized her at all...nor are jewish holidays (yes i checked, and no we don't have off)

[Kwizard]

Do you think that the school systems should honor other religious holidays (Example : Ramadon) Or do you think it should only be Christmas and Easter.

And part two: Would school systems do it? Or would they just wipe out all vacations planned around Christian holidays?

It would depend on the prevalence of a religious group. For instance, if only 15% of a school's kids were Christian and the vast majority of the rest were Muslim, it wouldn't make sense to just have Christmas break and Easter on the calendar.

That said, I would seriously doubt that anyone here knows about Hanamatsuri or Bodhi Day without Googling them. Thus, I don't get any days off from school on those major Buddhist holidays.

[Jew]

Do you think that the school systems should honor other religious holidays (Example : Ramadon) Or do you think it should only be Christmas and Easter.

And part two: Would school systems do it? Or would they just wipe out all vacations planned around Christian holidays?

School systems should recognize holidays celebrated by the communities they serve. For example, in the United States a school system should recognize

• Federal holidays
• State holidays
• Non-offical holidays celebrated by a large percentage of the local population

The important thing to remember is that schools should not be a venue to fight political battles. A school's job is to teach students the basic skills of reading, writing, math, science, and critical thinking. School holidays should be taken pragmatically in the manner that best facilitates the students' learning, not in a manner that is politically correct. Of course, pragmatically means that sometimes it will be most pragmatic to appease a particularly vocal minority group (or majority group, for that matter.) If that's what it takes to teach the students, so be it.

By the way, I'm not sure that public schools in the United States celebrate Easter. You see, Easter always falls on a Sunday, so there is never any reason to take a day off. I guess you could take off Good Friday and Maundy Thursday but I don't think most American public schools take those holidays.

From a pragmatic perspective, I would say that Muslim holidays are not widely celebrated in the United States and thus it is not in the students' best interest to celebrate them by cancelling classes. However, if a particular school district has a lot of Muslim students then it might be a good pratical idea to incorporate them into the school calendar.