Q: should public schools celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 2, 1996 | by Eric Buehrer, | Edd Doerr

In 1980, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the Sioux Falls, S.D., school district's religious-holidays policy. The policy stated that "music, art, literature, and drama having religious themes or bases are permitted as part of the curriculum for school-sponsored activities and programs if presented in a prudent and objective manner and as a traditional part of the cultural and religious heritage of the particular holiday."

In explaining its decision the court wrote, "School administrators should, of course, be sensitive to the religious beliefs or disbeliefs of their constituents and should attempt to avoid conflict, but they need not and should not sacrifice the quality of the students' education."

Unfortunately, in many schools neither the Supreme Court's admonition to avoid hostility nor the federal court's urging not to sacrifice the quality of students' education have been heeded.

Whether through ignorance, fear or intent, public-school officials who restrict honest academic teaching about the religious nature of Thanksgiving and Christmas are engaging in the systematic denial of America's culture.

I often hear from educators the excuse that they don,t teach about the religious nature of these holidays because they don't represent all children in their classroom. But that could be said of any subject - let alone any cultural celebration. The other day I spoke to an audience of parents about the discrimination against Thanksgiving and Christmas in public schools. A teacher raised her hand and objected to my assertion that it is reasonable that the public schools should teach about American culture. "American culture is multicultural," she responded. As we talked it occurred to me that she was confusing the fact that people from all over the world live here with the fact that the majority of Americans - even with diverse racial backgrounds - do have common traditions and values.

The irony of this supposedly open and tolerant multicultural view of education is that, when it comes to Thanksgiving and Christmas, some schools practice their own form of cultural genocide - denying Americas children an understanding of their nations unifying traditions.