SO. I'm asking this with all sincerity because I just don't know ....

[Audrey]

Yep. And unless you are one who isn't participating you probably give it little thot.

 

 

So very well said.

[gingersmom]

. Wasn't familiar with that previously, or (as Audrey said) maybe I've had blinders on because of my Christian background.

 

I am so sad for you.

[beaners]

I am so sad for you.

 

:confused:

[milovany]

I am so sad for you.

 

:confused:

 

Seriously -- :confused:

 

I live where I live, I grew up how I grew up (in a predominately Judeo-Christian based community). No need for sadness on by behalf. Not sure what your statement is getting at, but really, I turned out fine. ;)

 

I am curious what you meant, though.

Edited September 27, 2012 by milovaný

[gingersmom]

Seriously -- :confused:

 

I live where I live, I grew up how I grew up (in a predominately Judeo-Christian based community). No need for sadness on by behalf. Not sure what your statement is getting at, but really, I turned out fine. ;)

 

I am curious what you meant, though.

 

It saddens me that someone would be okay living their lives with blinders on. There is a whole world out there for you to learn about.

[Bluegoat]

It saddens me that someone would be okay living their lives with blinders on. There is a whole world out there for you to learn about.

 

Um, wow.

 

Lots of times people see small things - like a school calendar - done only one way, and never give it much thought. Who spends a ton of time thinking about school calendar names?

 

Then when you see it done differently, it can strike you in an odd way, or seem nonsensical, or the reason doesn't seem obvious.

 

I would have thought this sort of thing happens to everybody, and it isn't a big deal. There is really nothing to do about "being alright with it" in the sense of worrying about it. How can you worry about things that have never come to your attention?

 

Anyone imagining that he has none of these odd little blind spots is very likely just fooling himself.

[Word Nerd]

It saddens me that someone would be okay living their lives with blinders on. There is a whole world out there for you to learn about.

 

Condescending much?

[Scarlett]

Condescending much?

 

:iagree:

[Ellesmere]

It saddens me that someone would be okay living their lives with blinders on. There is a whole world out there for you to learn about.

 

Where did you get the idea she is okay with living her life with blinders on?

[cathmom]

LOL. Nevermind the 2-3 weeks of Christmas Trees, stars, presents, Santa stories, letters to Santa, Christmas spelling lists, gifts exchanges, etc talked about, drawn, colored, made, done before the "winter break?" Christmas parties the morning before is a tip off that it still is a celebration of one holiday.

 

In my Spanish classes, we have a traditional New Year's Eve party. I bring grapes for each student and I ring a bell for each stroke of midnight. It's fun and the students like it.

[serabi]

LOL. Nevermind the 2-3 weeks of Christmas Trees, stars, presents, Santa stories, letters to Santa, Christmas spelling lists, gifts exchanges, etc talked about, drawn, colored, made, done before the "winter break?" Christmas parties the morning before is a tip off that it still is a celebration of one holiday.

 

Yep.

 

and if you live where I live, you can't celebrate Halloween in school, but the December field trip is to a CHRISTMAS tree farm. :001_huh:

[gingersmom]

Where did you get the idea she is okay with living her life with blinders on?

 

I think this is precisely why it confused me initially. It just seemed unusual for me to see these religious holidays name on a public school calendar as the reasons for the day off. Wasn't familiar with that previously, or (as Audrey said) maybe I've had blinders on because of my Christian background.

__________________

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. - Philo of Alexandria

- - -

I'm an Orthodox Christian homeschooling mom of seven who also works from home as a remote speech-to-text transcriber for deaf/HOH students.

I'm winging a homemade curriculum (for all age groups) based on the CM-influenced but now-defunct Ages of Grace program. (Me ---> )

Homeschool Used Curriculum & Book Swap on FB - Got its start based on a post/want mentioned here at WTM. Come on by!

[gingersmom]

Condescending much?

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. :001_smile:

[NittanyJen]

One of the schools I attended had a large Jewish student population, and later I attended one with a large Catholic population. If the school didn't schedule the day off, enough kids would miss class to cause the teacher to have to re-teach the lesson. I imagine that areas with large populations of any religion would face the same issue (I'm thinking of Detroit, isn't there a large Muslim population there?).

 

Anyway, ime, it wasn't really about the school honoring any particular religious preferences. It was more pragmatic, so the teachers could keep all students on pace.

 

This. It's really no different from schools being closed on the first day or two of hunting season, in particular regions. It isn't any type of endorsement; it's just facing the reality of high rates of absenteeism.

 

(yes, I grew up in an area where kids routinely brought their hunting rifles to school-- they were just checked in at the school office or left locked up in the pickups in the parking lot. Nobody was ever injured or threatened, and it was not considered any kind of a big deal to bring a gun to school-- you just didn't take it to class, of course :) ).

[MrsBasil]

This. It's really no different from schools being closed on the first day or two of hunting season, in particular regions. It isn't any type of endorsement; it's just facing the reality of high rates of absenteeism.

 

(yes, I grew up in an area where kids routinely brought their hunting rifles to school-- they were just checked in at the school office or left locked up in the pickups in the parking lot. Nobody was ever injured or threatened, and it was not considered any kind of a big deal to bring a gun to school-- you just didn't take it to class, of course :) ).

 

If a kid brought a hunting rifle to school when I was in high school, even if it was left in their car, the entire building would have been on lockdown for a couple of hours.

 

The regional differences often amaze me. I guess some of them are differences in time though? My son's godfather was born in 1968, he remembers a smoking lounge at his high school. I was born in 1981 and remember that, technically, having cigarettes on you at school meant a detention. :lol:

[NittanyJen]

If a kid brought a hunting rifle to school when I was in high school, even if it was left in their car, the entire building would have been on lockdown for a couple of hours.

 

The regional differences often amaze me. I guess some of them are differences in time though? My son's godfather was born in 1968, he remembers a smoking lounge at his high school. I was born in 1981 and remember that, technically, having cigarettes on you at school meant a detention. :lol:

 

Yes, time matters. We not only had a smoking lounge, but a "10:10 smoking break." Yes, an official school break time for kids to go to the lounge specifically to get their nicotine fix in. You heard that right.

 

Thank goodness, of my siblings and I, only one of us ever picked up the habit, and that sibling is still hooked to this day :(. One of us was more than enough-- my parents were pretty well connected in education, and as soon as practically possible, my Dad started getting his colleagues (from a neighboring district that did not have that kind of nonsense) appointed into superintendent, high school principal, and various teaching positions, and not long after I graduated, 10:10 break and other "traditions" similar to it were abolished.

 

Back when I was in school, though, nobody had ever heard of a school being in "lockdown." To this day, the thought horrifies me. I was volunteering in a PS one day when the kids had to do the drill, and as I was crouched on the floor of a supply closet with the kids, the martial artist/self defense instructor in me kept thinking, "I want to be out there, taking down the gunman. In here, we're just fish in a barrel if he opens the door and starts shooting! Who thought up this protocol????" It was terrifying to me, and I was an adult!

 

It is an age difference thing, I think. We were raised, think, to think more independently than our kids, to question things. If any of our teachers had ever told us to sit in a supply closet while a gunman roamed the hallways, I think half the school would have looked at them oddly, and headed for the parking lot and loaded up, or just left campus, or gone to tackle the guy. Just sitting around and hoping for good luck to take care of everything would have felt pretty weird.

 

And in an area where pretty much every kid above age 10 owned a gun of some type, and almost every kid above age 12 owned a rifle for hunting, bringing a gun to school was not considered alarming absent unusual behavior (such as doing so outside of hunting season, or behaving oddly-- everyone knew who 'shouldn't have a gun' and it was just taken care of socially).

 

I wasn't really trying to turn this into a "gun debate."

 

The point was that different areas will have different days off from school for geographically appropriate reasons, the idea the OP was trying to get a handle on.

[milovany]

It saddens me that someone would be okay living their lives with blinders on. There is a whole world out there for you to learn about.

 

Um, what? LOL. This cracks me up. You know hardly anything about me and you're able to intuit this somehow?

 

:lol:

 

Lots of times people see small things - like a school calendar - done only one way, and never give it much thought. Who spends a ton of time thinking about school calendar names?

 

Then when you see it done differently, it can strike you in an odd way, or seem nonsensical, or the reason doesn't seem obvious.

 

I would have thought this sort of thing happens to everybody, and it isn't a big deal. There is really nothing to do about "being alright with it" in the sense of worrying about it. How can you worry about things that have never come to your attention?

 

Anyone imagining that he has none of these odd little blind spots is very likely just fooling himself.

 

Exactly.

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. :001_smile:

 

And "everyone" could be wrong in their opinion, too. ;)

Edited September 28, 2012 by milovaný

[MrsBasil]

I wasn't really trying to turn this into a "gun debate."

 

The point was that different areas will have different days off from school for geographically appropriate reasons, the idea the OP was trying to get a handle on.

 

I know you weren't and I'm sorry if my post lead into. I did get your point. I was honestly more interested in the regional differences that would have allowed for hunting rifles to be taken to school. Not whether it's OK. I got your point, it was an easy take off for a random thought I had about how different things are in different areas. Didn't mean to hijack your post and I wasn't wanting a debate. :001_smile: It just caught my eye that at one point, in one place taking a personal weapon to school was the norm.

 

Lockdowns or lockdown drills as a student are pretty awful too. I can't imagine having to be an adult in charge in that situation. I remember how stressed the teacher's got when we had bomb threats and those were pretty much guaranteed to be a hoax.

 

BTW, a smoke break? Wow! That's a new one. Ewww!

[NittanyJen]

And I was not trying to shut you up :D I just didn't want the conversation to take a bad turn. We have some ah, very conservative people on this board :). Wonderful, lovely, people, to be sure, but sometimes folks forget that their way of viewing the world isn't the only way of seeing things. Except of course when I am right, and people really should let ME set them straight on how things ought to be, naturally :D

 

 

Yes, really, an institutionally sanctioned smoke break at school. Complete with indoor senior smoking lounge, and outdoor everyone smoking lounge (interior courtyard). Those of us who didn't smoke hung out in the band room. I don't know where the kids who didn't smoke or play an instrument went, really-- there were a few in the art department, and some who worked on the newspaper . . . I guess everyone found a niche somewhere. However the overwhelming majority headed downstairs or outdoors to either smoke or hang out with the smokers so as to look cool :tongue_smilie:

 

 

The really mind-blowing thing was that in that state at that time, it was illegal for minors to purchase tobacco products (there was technical loophole; it was not, I believe, illegal for minors to POSSESS tobacco products, just to buy them). But the school was absolutely defying the spirit of the law on that one, not to mention good common sense and health.

[Jenny in Florida]

The regional differences often amaze me. I guess some of them are differences in time though? My son's godfather was born in 1968, he remembers a smoking lounge at his high school. I was born in 1981 and remember that, technically, having cigarettes on you at school meant a detention. :lol:

 

Yep. I was born in 1964, and, although my school was techincally smoke free, the "continuation" school from which my husband graduated had a smoking lounge.

 

You were BORN in 1981? Wow, this is one of those moments when I feel really, really old.

[Jenny in Florida]

Well, officially, you do. It's in the Constitution. However, in PRACTICE, you do not. That's where the muddiness arises.

 

Actually, although please understand I'm a HUGE fan of the separation of church and state thing, that phrase isn't in the Constitution. It's a common misconception. The phrase comes from a letter Jefferson wrote 25 or so years after the Constitution.

 

The closest thing we have is in the Bill of Rights, which says that Congress can't make any laws establishing or controlling religion. And the courts over the years have interpreted that separation idea. But, no, it's not in the document.

[Jenny in Florida]

I didn't get Good Friday off until I moved to Massachusetts. There are so many Catholics here, it's a pretty common holiday. On year, I even worked at a company that gave it off!

 

Easter isn't tied to spring break here, but public schools have February break tied to MLK day and April vacation tied to Patriot's Day.

 

I just checked our local public school calendar. Spring break this year is Monday, March 25 through Friday, March 29. Good Friday is on the 29th, and Easter is the Sunday before they go back to school.

[NittanyJen]

Yep. I was born in 1964, and, although my school was techincally smoke free, the "continuation" school from which my husband graduated had a smoking lounge.

 

You were BORN in 1981? Wow, this is one of those moments when I feel really, really old.

 

I was ignoring that! LOL!! Too close to my graduation date!

 

A friend of mine was in physical therapy, when she and her physical therapist realized they had graduated from the same high school. The chirpy therapist asked, "So when did you graduate?" My friend responded, and the therapist squealed, "OOOOOhhhhhhhhh so cool! I was three that year!"

 

My friend wanted to know if she could have some Geritol with her stim & ice . . .

[milovany]

I just checked our local public school calendar. Spring break this year is Monday, March 25 through Friday, March 29. Good Friday is on the 29th, and Easter is the Sunday before they go back to school.

 

I don't know about western Easter (can't remember), but Easter/Pascha in the eastern church varies widely -- it can be in late March, it can be in early May. There's no way spring break can be tied to it (at least not as I have experienced Spring Break). Depending on the school district, and whether secondary or university, it was always the same every year; something like 2nd week in April or 3rd week in March.

 

ETA - I just looked at the calendar for the school district where I lived growing up. In 2013, yes, Easter is right before Spring Break (late March), but next year, Easter is not until the 20th of April. Spring Break will be over by then.

Edited September 29, 2012 by milovaný

[cindergretta]

All of our school districts are on different spring breaks. It is actually a little annoying because from half way through March to half way through April, some different district is on break. (Why should it annoy me? Because it gets in the way of our outings! :lol: ) We live in a school district squished between two other school districts but all close and on top of each other, if that makes sense. And while they are all in the neighborhood of Easter, I wouldn't say they are planned around Easter any more than both occur in the spring. :tongue_smilie:

[Jean in Newcastle]

Easter is Sunday March 31. Our local school district's spring break is April 8 - 12. How is that an Easter break in disguise?

[NittanyJen]

Reason for Homeschooling # 579:

 

My husband's spring break at the university NEVER coincided with the school district's spring break. Ever. They seemed to purposely mess with the town/gown relations by making sure families could never take actual vacations by scheduling them on different weeks every year.

 

Now we don't have to worry about that any more :)

 

Of course, now he's graduate director, so we can't take vacations so much anyway, because grad students are always around . . . but it's a moral victory.

[Wheres Toto]

I don't know about western Easter (can't remember), but Easter/Pascha in the eastern church varies widely -- it can be in late March, it can be in early May. There's no way spring break can be tied to it (at least not as I have experienced Spring Break). Depending on the school district, and whether secondary or university, it was always the same every year; something like 2nd week in April or 3rd week in March.

 

ETA - I just looked at the calendar for the school district where I lived growing up. In 2013, yes, Easter is right before Spring Break (late March), but next year, Easter is not until the 20th of April. Spring Break will be over by then.

 

Easter does vary every year but my dd's school was always off the week after Easter, with Good Friday starting the break. So, there were weeks that Spring Break was in March, other years it was the end of April. I know other schools did it differently because she danced with kids from all different districts and some were off the same week for school and dance and others weren't.

[extendedforecast]

Easter is Sunday March 31. Our local school district's spring break is April 8 - 12. How is that an Easter break in disguise?

 

Ours is March 12-16, somewhat close to Easter, but still a couple of weeks away. And, I live in an area with a very large population of Christians.

[Osmosis Mom]

I think some schools in MI officially close for Muslim holidays (huge Syrian population there).