Holidays’ names stricken from next year’s Montgomery schools calendar

I'm glad so much time and debate was devoted to this very important issue, which will serve to improve the lives of the people of Montgomery County.

 

The way many people publicly celebrate Christmas and Easter are not very Christian, but how we name those holidays is. If we were able to rebrand those holidays as Santa Day and Bunny Day (or whatever), schools probably wouldn't have pressure to take their own actions. Generally, I agree with you -- I'd rather leave cultural markers intact so we know where we come from -- but this is a natural outgrowth of the separarion of church and state that we devised and it's really not that hard or that damaging to do. There are other venues at which we can proudly pronounce Christmas or Rosh Hashanah or Eid al-Adha, so let's be content with that.

 

Montgomery Country is in suburban maryland, and is one of the richest counties in the country. the school district is very good (my wife was a product of Mont Co schools), and the area is heavily democratic. i'm not sure how big the muslim population is now, but the asian population has exploded in the past 20 years.

 

It's a broader question. But if Christians and Jews holidays result in school closings, why shouldn't other religions have a day of school closing for their important days?

 

America is a jewish christian nation. the moselm religion is a false one. that's why we don'tallow them days off. i cant believe these Arabs took away the names from these kids holiday

 

Your lack of understanding about our nation and it's history continues. In the other thread you claimed that it was okay to eat all the food prior to the FDA, and now you claim that America is a Jewish Christian nation and badmouth the Muslim religion.

This is contrary to what our founding father believed as evidenced by what Thomas Jefferson wrote.

You could not be more wrong. I'm not sure if your lack of knowledge regarding this nation's history is something you are just pretending, or something that is real.

 

The argument of the district addresses this well, I think -- if it's a holiday that will result in uncommonly high absenteeism from students and staff, they'll take the day off instead to minimize the disruption. If you go by the religions, you get yourself into trouble when the Rastafari and the Satanist and the Zorastrian all want days off too. Where I think they fall off the rails is that they don't seem to me to be vigorously testing which days these are where they really get absenteeism.

The nice thing is that it makes the calendar somewhat democratic. If kids want to stick up for their Muslim friends (if...), they skip school on Muslim holidays to force the district's hand.

If this is trolling, it's genius. If it's sincere though....

 

Because historically a large percentage of the religious people in the United States have been Christian and it is reflected in the culture of the United States.

How can it be Christian and Jewish?

The United States at it's founding did not have a unified opinion on much. For every Thomas Jefferson or Alexander Hamilton quote, you can find one from John Adams or other Founding Fathers that viewed the United States as a Christian country.

Honestly I think it is hard to argue that the United States is historically a Christian nation in the sense that we did not simply adopt Christian rules promulgated in the New Testament. However, "Christian culture" certainly is pervasive throughout the history of the USA. Almost all of the Founding Fathers were at a minimum nominally Christian and were raised as Christians.

 

I agree that almost all of the founders were nominally Christian but I don't think that matters in the establishment of the nation and it's Freedom of Religion.

There may have been some disagreement about it all, and certainly disagreement to the degree, but I think by and large the founding fathers meant to establish a govt. that was secular. Not only the two you mentioned by others such as Richard Henry Lee and George Washington himself wrote about it and supported the freedom particularly of Muslims.

I completely agree that the culture has been largely Christian since the beginning of the nation, but I don't think the idea was ever that the government be a Christian one.

I am always open to references about other founding fathers that shine a different light than what I've seen.

 

The separation doctrine sprang from the fact that no denomination would let another have control. Colonies before gradually grew as oppressive as the conditions they fled from in Europe (Puritan v Quaker v Lutherans v Anglicans). Rhode island carried the nickname Rogue Island for its reputation of letting in religious castaways from neighbouring colonies.

Ironic though not surprising those first colonists became as big a dick as the European countries they fled but at least that lesson was learned upon the country's founding.

 

i share what I been teached in public school. you have a problem with that complain to the state capital and the governor. I didnt go to fancy pants private schools like you liberals. I never said it was okay before fda. Just that most of us are alive today because our ancestors were mostly fine. How is telling the truth on Islam bad mouthing it?

 

I get it now. It's a troll attempt.

Carry on.

 

I'm guessing the public school is not teaching kids that the muslim religion is a false one and therefore we should discriminate against adherents. That's the sort of thing that attracts letters of complaint from the ACLU.

 

I SHARE WHAT I BEEN TEACHED!!!


hahahahahahahahaha

 

This is an amazing post.

 

He been teached good.

 

Corporations have solved this with the "Floating Holiday" that can be used whenever and for whatever. Each student should get a floating holiday, problem solved.

 

Heh. I live in Montgomery county, MD.

Interesting cross-section of church and state here.

 

The school has already said it'd be an 'excused absence' if its due to a religious holiday, which is like a floating holiday. But, class time is not as flexible as most work. Students will miss material if the don't show up. It's not the end of the world -- kids stay home will illness sometimes without throwing away their futures. If it was me in this spot, I'd just keep my kids home and catch up later, but I'm in a better position to do that than most people. But, if this would be the policy, they should just stop with the days off.

Which is the other side of this issue -- every day that school isn't in session is a day that parents have to provide alternative childcare. If 10% of the school is Muslim and the school takes Eid off, that means the parents of 90% of the kids -- who weren't planning to take the day off work -- have to do something to fill the gap.

 

Some simply give a certain amount of PTO which can be used whenever desired, vacation, sick, and holidays are all lumped into one bucket and used at the employee's (and their manager's) discretion.