Defenses against jealousy

sjmom2329
Sun, 17 Sep 2006 12:41:47 +0000

The position statement and guidelines of the National Council for Social Studies, as posted by Overseas, seems like the right approach to me. It sounds as if many schools are just not adhering to this policy.

The safest path, as discussed by Susan, would be to refrain from celebrating any religious holiday in public schools, or to include all the faiths represented by the student body. The latter choice could be problematic, in that I would think even questioning students about their religious life is borderline.

For those who want religion in the schools, there is the option of parochial schools. I wanted our children to celebrate Christmas as a Christian holy day, along with Easter and the various Holy Days throughout the year – so we opted for Catholic schools.

When we moved to Massachusetts I actively researched the various Catholic HS’s, but I didn’t even look at secular private schools. I was interested in a Catholic education, not a private one. At my son’s Catholic HS, they have students from 20 or more different faith traditions, including some of which I hadn’t heard of before my older son enrolled. They have religion class every day for four years, but they include study of the world’s major religions, along with ethics, interpersonal relationships and philosophy.

Given our strong preference for religion in our sons’ schools, I’m still not in favor of having it taught in public schools. Unless it’s covered in some depth by a minister/rabbi/priest then it’s unlikely to present the full picture. It’s safer to just leave it up to the families.

The only exception is if I get to eat the latkes and any other special foods!