So long, actually, that the last blog post I made, I was patiently awaiting my over-due daughter (Ryan Alexandra), who is now two, and in a few months going to be a big sister! Some women "nest" when they are expecting, but apparently, I write.
This is us - Kevin, Ryan and I, announcing the growth of our tribe. Photo compliments of Open Shutter Photography by Rebecca Kalp.
The last couple of years have been the best of my life, and I mean that. I've learned so much about myself; learning who I am as a Mother has forced me to also learn who I am as a Christian, who I am as a wife, and who I am as an individual - something that any mother will tell you is usually the first aspect of ourselves to go out the window when we enter the raw, real, beautiful, challenging, life changing world of motherhood. But this is a little deep for a re-introduction to the blog. So, I will get into some of those details in posts to come, when I need to unload my thoughts onto someone other than my husband, who *bless his heart* has had to deal with my never-ending curiosity and middle-of-the-night epiphanies for the last 8 years.
It's November! And what that means, if you are a fellow holiday-lover like myself, is that we are smack dab between two festive seasons. I can thank this stretch in the calendar for my most recent (actually, my first-ever) "Letter to the Editor" of my local paper, The Chatham Daily News. I believe in what I wrote in that letter, even the chopped up, character-maxed version which was submitted to the paper, and so I share it with you.
Dear Editor,
With the holiday season fast approaching, I believe this letter to be quite timely. Everyone, whether they are a parent of a child attending a local public school or not, has their own opinion on how public schools should go about celebrating holidays.
On one end of the spectrum, you have those who believe that all Christian holidays should remain in public schools; there should be Christmas concerts and Easter egg hunts, and everything in between. On the other end, there are those who believe every holiday – religiously founded or otherwise, should be removed from every public school in order to avoid the possibility of offending anyone who’s cultural and religious beliefs do not condone their participation.
I am not sure if I belong on that spectrum at all. Here is why:
I whole heartedly believe that it is important for my children to take part in festivities that celebrate our Christianity. So important, in fact, that I would never leave it up to the school they attend to lead those festivities. Yes, it is a matter of such significance, that I would (and do) take the time, every single day, to educate them on Christian heritage, teachings and tradition so that they are sure to never solely equate Christmas with presents, or only associate Easter with chocolate treats in baskets. Celebrating their Christianity is not the responsibility of the public school that I send them to, nor do I rest it on the shoulders of the educators employed by those public schools, whose own personal beliefs may (or may not) reflect our own.
However, I have a difficult time wrapping my mind around the fact that washing our public schools clean of any religious holidays is the right answer. We say it is in the name of progression, for the purpose of diversification, but is it? I attended public elementary school in Chatham for 9 years. Some of the memories that stand out to me, are:
-Spinning dreidels and singing along to what we learned were traditional Jewish songs used to celebrate “Hanukkah”, as one of my Jewish classmates gave a speech on how the holiday came to be.
-Attending an annual assembly in our school gym, where if we sang the lyrics to “Christmas in Killarney” loud enough, our Principal would run through the aisle and “click his heels” in the air to the lyric “how grand it feels to click your heels” while the entire auditorium of children roared.
-A guest speaker visiting my second grade class, bringing with her a large drum and teaching us 7 different African greetings. We learned this was a Kwanzaa tradition, and although I couldn’t reiterate those greetings verbatim for you today, I do recall being so interested in this celebration that had existed for hundreds of years, one that I knew nothing about.
Those school memories differ greatly from the home memories I was making at the same time each year, those consisting of packing Christmas Shoeboxes in our church basement to send to those less fortunate overseas, participating in my churches Christmas concert, setting up our living room nativity set and reading the story of Jesus’ birth. Never did I feel offended, though, to learn of how other cultures across the world celebrated their holidays.
So my questions is, is removing these celebrations, and in turn the corresponding lessons and teachings that invoke thought, wonder and exploration of cultural differences the answer? Or instead of taking holidays out of our public schools, should we be making the necessary changes to include more? Should we be less invested in making sure that nobody is offended and more concerned with the idea that everyone is involved, trying harder to guarantee that each student is given their own stage (in an environment free from judgement) to educate their classmates and teachers on the customs and traditions that they and their families take part in, whether those families be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Agnostic, Atheist or otherwise?
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