<p>I just checked the local high school awards for our area- funny how there is overlap in productions done at the same time-. Music Man, Little Shop of Horrors, but several religious themed shows, Children of Eden, Godspell and some others that I haven’t seen performed before, Working,The Pajama Game & The Scarlet Pimpernel.</p>
<p>I miss attending school productions. I loved working on the costumes and doing the makeup/hair for older Ds school, it was a nice way to touch base with the kids on their level.
& I really enjoyed their fall plays at younger D’s school- always Shakespeare and set the stage for the middle/high school to take alternative trips to the Oregon Shakespeare festival. The year D went, she was in 8th grade, and one of the productions was a modern ( with guns ) Romeo & Juliet.</p>
<p>Think about it, however: What musicals exist that expose students to nonChristian points of view? I can’t think of any. Consequently, I think that when it comes to public education, religious education belongs in history class.</p>
<p>There are plenty of ways to learn about the arts without having to sing about Jesus or other Biblical figures.</p>
<p>When it comes to school winter concerts, it’s fine if Christmas songs are included with songs about Hanukkah , Kawanza, Chinese New Year, etc., but not if the only cultures/religion represented is Christianity.</p>
<p>BTW, I like “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and took my kids to see those performances even though I wasn’t practicing any faith. I just don’t think that public schools should perform them because of the religious nature of the musicals.</p>
<p>Well, for instance, on the MT forum, there was a thread discussing a school that canceled their production of La Cage Aux Folles and that the themes in the show were not Christian points of view and it was a parochial school. Homosexuality is not a Christian point of view, I don’t think. And so some religious groups have also protested productions of The Laramie Project. </p>
<p>As far as school concerts, I agree with you that songs associated with all holidays should be sung or else avoid religious songs in the first place. It was not balanced at our school and my kid would bring that up a lot when in Chorus she had to sing only XMas songs and ones that are more religious in nature such as Silent Night which is not like Deck the Halls. Exposure to other religions’ holidays is a good thing. Focusing on just one is not and my kids have had to deal with that. As well, I think songs of religious holidays can be chosen that are not of the type where one heralds Jesus but more sings of the holiday cheer so to speak. I think there are other ways to handle winter concerts such as singing on themes of joy and peace without being celebratory of particular religious holidays. But if a school really wants to focus on religious holiday music, it needs to be balanced. My daughter had to do Christmas caroling, the whole works. She didn’t want to do XMas caroling and have her teacher completely ignore that she was not celebrating that holiday. She tried to bring it up and the teacher made her find materials for her holiday if she wanted other songs in class.</p>
<p>Exposure to other religions’ holidays is a good thing</p>
<p>( I also was in a public school choir which sang Christmas carols & I am more pagan/Buddhist than anything )</p>
<p>I really don’t mean to divert the thread- but for instance my daughters 3rd grade teacher loved parties and they celebrated all the time. While they did study Xmas and how it is celebrated around the world, they also studied the pagan origins as well as other non-Christian holidays.</p>
<p>Then in 4th grade, apparently there was a Jehovah Witness student in the classroom so no holidays were celebrated, not even birthdays.</p>
<p>But put me down in the squeamish category re: Sweeney Todd- although I would have loved to have seen Angela Lansbury in it.</p>
<p>Whoa… that is overboard. When our kids were young and they had a Jehovah’s Witness student in their class, the parents just asked that he be excused from participating in these parties (this included Halloween parties and Valentine’s Day parties as well). And really, the Christmas parties had become Winter Holiday parties, so it wasn’t even the issue of Christmas. I think for birthdays, he would stay in the classroom, but would not partake in any of the treats brought in. There really were no ‘celebrations’ of birthdays other than if a child chose to bring in treats for the whole class.</p>
<p>Back to musicals…I remembered that I did complain to the school principal on one occasion (complaining to the director would do no good as he’s always right), and my son’s been in dozens of musicals (community, high school, summer camp, and college). He was a Jet in West Side Story and the director wanted them to get aggressive with Anita and asked them all to apologize to her before they began practicing that scene. My son told me he felt uncomfortable grabbing her breasts, holding her down for the rape, etc. I was proud of him for speaking up. The funny thing is that I think the director thought Anita complained, as Anita and her mother were at school the next day with the director. Anita was the kind of girl who was probably disappointed the scene wasn’t more explicit.</p>
<p>“When it comes to school winter concerts, it’s fine if Christmas songs are included with songs about Hanukkah , Kawanza, Chinese New Year, etc., but not if the only cultures/religion represented is Christianity.”</p>
<p>Your comment made me laugh. Our schools are pretty diverse, but in our district, there are a lot more Hindu and Muslim kids than there are Jewish students. Nevertheless, at every middle school winter choir concert, of the three songs each choir sings, one of them is a Hanukkuh carol…they probably sing more Hanukkuh carols each year than there are Jewish kids in the school.</p>
<p>As for performing Godspell, I love the show, but don’t really feel it’s appropriate for a public school production, given that there are so many other musicals with nonreligious themes. (With that said, every year of high school, Son would hope they would do Godspell.)</p>
<p>I don’t see the problem about singing Christmas song or performing religious or controversial plays. This is all part of our culture. However, there are differing opinions about this as even this thread shows. We all draw our lines in different places.</p>
<p>The problem is that when you start calling a play religious, controversial or politically incorrect, you can extend that line awfully far. I, for one, think it’s a shame that they stopped singing Christmas carols at school. Many of the kids in our area who are immigrants now do not know the words of the most well known carols which are truly part of our culture. In our independent high school, Christmas songs, even deeply religious ones are sung in concert along with any other piece that goes with the theme of the concert. It’s the music, not the religion that is being showpieced. There have been some lovely pieces from other religions performed as well. That is something I do like about the private schools; that they do not have to worry about these things as much.<br>
I don’t see the problem with Godspell, JC Super Star, Christmas Carols, Hindu celebrations, Jewish holidays, etc.</p>
<p>In our school choir programs, it seems like only the elementary schools and middle schools are self consciously PC. In high school, they sing a lot of Christian music because that is what so much of the classical music was…no one complained when they preformed the Mozart Requiem.</p>
<p>An aquaintance was kicked out of a professional choral group because she refused to sing a song that had a bit of “Praise to Allah” to it. I thought that was pretty amazing, given that she’s sung Christian choral music along side non-Christians for decades.</p>
<p>I’m not Christian, but did grow up with Christmas Carols. Our schools do the a little bit of everything approach, but they only do the more secular Christmas songs. It’s too bad in a way, because I really think the best carols are the more religious ones. On the whole, I think Godspell and to a lesser extent Jesus Christ Superstar are too Christian for a public school.</p>
<p>As we can see, the opinions differ greatly on this, and public schools have to take this into account. We are very open, but many are not. We do a Christmas Tree trim party every year and get Jewish, Muslim, other religions represented at this bash, and we do sing Christmas carols during the thing without adding any other holiday songs. We get full house each year. We also have gone to more bar and bat mitzvahs than I can count, and my older kids had off every single jewish holiday. As the old cliche goes, some of my best friends are Jewish, (and that is the absolute truth) and some have their kids in catholic school. About 40% or our neighbors are Jewish. Some of them put up Christmas lights.</p>
<p>Back to Godspell…I think it is not appropriate for public schools because, if done well, it has a terrific Christian message, meaning that it truly is promoting a certain religion. While Fiddler on the Roof shows the Jewish characters in a positive light, I don’t think it promotes Judiasim.</p>
<p>A local playgroup run by Jewish directors has done an astounding job on a number of Christian and Jewish plays. (don’t know about other cultures). Also does youth plays based on Hair and other controversial pieces. It can be done right.</p>
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