Getting Halloween Decorations Cancelled for Entire Class?

[bushdianee]

I remember working in a school with some families who didn't observe any holidays including birthdays. They always made a big thing out of not celebrating but their children had better have any treats passed out waiting for them the next day.

 

[Moliphino]

I don't celebrate it and never have, but I don't care of others do. I just do my own thing and let others do what they wish.

I don't do anything to celebrate Halloween as an adult, and even as a kid I was mostly just in it for the candy. If I had kids I would get them costumes and take them trick or treating if they were into it. I do think the costume parades at elementary schools are super cute.

 

[TippyThomas]

I don't do anything to celebrate Halloween as an adult, and even as a kid I was mostly just in it for the candy. If I had kids I would get them costumes and take them trick or treating if they were into it. I do think the costume parades at elementary schools are super cute.

I have no kids or family so I really have no reason to celebrate it. My family didn't get into Halloween for many different reasons so it wasn't something that I even experienced as a child. I have no bad feelings about the holiday. It's just not a holiday I celebrate.

 

[Magical2017]

not to take this topic off track but if you perceive this to be unacceptable (for you) micromanagment on a school's part what is your take on entire school districts mandating that EVERY classroom of identical grades in every school within their district presenting/teaching the identical material (down to the pages in the book/workbooks) on a day by day basis (so if i walk into your classroom today for say 4th grade math, no matter what your student's skill/mastery level is-you have to be teaching the identical material every other 4th grade teacher in every classroom in your district is teaching today-no variations)?

just curious b/c this is how micromanaged at least one of the districts near us has become (not sure how many more are doing it at this point).

I am not the person you were addressing, but as a former elementary teacher and current teacher educator, I will weigh in. I think this level of micromanaging is ineffective (mandating that teachers use a script, word for word, for every lesson). In schools where team meetings occur weekly, data can be discussed and teachers can work out how they think the next lessons should be introduced. They don't necessarily need someone to tell them what they all need to say and what time to say it.

While having the same standards and curriculum is fine, the presentation of content depends on the students. You can have three different teachers using the same workbook page, lessons, and flip charts, but the level of discussion will vary; sometimes that is a good thing because the teacher is responding to what the students are doing and saying. Sometimes it is not because one teacher might not be teaching in a way that meets the needs of the students. That is what mentoring and lesson studies are for, imo (if you have a school that values these things, of course).

If I notice my students are confused, I might want to throw in a turn and talk and have the students discuss and defend their thinking, and then have a student model or model myself with a think aloud. I might need to help them connect ideas. If Mr. X next door has students who find the content easy, he needs to extend their thinking and modify the material so there is productive struggle and promote more student to student discussion. Ms. Y might find her students lack the conceptual understanding to more forward. Ms. Y may spend more time on something because that is what her students need for that lesson. Reading from a script leaves some kids bored and others lost. Not all curriculum writers are educators or work with students directly.

It should also be up to the teacher whether small group work, whole group work, pairs or independent work would be best for each particular lesson on any given day. I observe in 15-20 classrooms per week each semester and see the same lessons being taught in different ways as teachers to respond to their students. They don't need a one-size-fits-all script.

 

[Living42Day]

I'm a person of faith, and was taught growing up to be in the world but not of the world. That is how I choose to live my life to this day.

I disagree with a lot of things that people do in our society today, but I am not going to stop or shout from the rooftops that you are wrong because we were all blessed with having free will. That is your choice and who am I to stop you from making your choices and decisions. That is why my kids went to public school. They needed to grow up and learn to get along with people from a wide variety of backgrounds, beliefs, and cultures. It would be a disservice to them to keep them in an echo chamber bubble when it is much better for them to learn these lessons now in an environment that is safe. I also disagree with the theory of evolution as it pertains to our origins, but my kids still learned it and knew that what they were being taught was simply that - a theory. Learning about other opinions will not put a strain on our faith, challenging it can only make it stronger.

We celebrate Halloween, it is all about what you make it. Having fun, using your imagination, and having joy in life is bringing glory to God. If you only look at it as being a dark, scary, Satan-worshiping day then you are limiting yourself IMHO. I think if this mother should be teaching her child that not everything revolves around you and that you will encounter situations that you disagree with. The child doesn't need to participate in Halloween activities if they do not wish to, but decorations are not going to cause harm.


Off topic, but that is also what I find so fascinating about some people who lack faith or choose to be anti-religion. I don't feel the need to correct you or say how stupid your beliefs are, but there are certain people who have to knock those who are religious or believe in God in any instance that He comes up. I am so secure in my faith that I do not need to tear down others' beliefs or lack thereof, perhaps that is not the case for everyone.

 

[Dug720]

I teach special education in NYC public schools - we have the major Jewish holidays off (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and our Spring Break is over Passover); we get a week at Christmas called "Winter Break"; we get the 2 Eids off; we get Diwali (the major day of it) off; we get Lunar New Year off; if Passover and Easter don't line up (they generally don't in leap years) we get Good Friday off...and starting this year we get Easter Monday off. (Our other times off are Presidents' Week and Federal Holidays including Juneteenth). If families (or staff) celebrate other religious holidays (such as Ethiopian Orthodox...or pretty much any Jewish holiday for Hasidic Jewish staff) they can request the day off for observance.

At my school, we don't have any regulations for Halloween/Fall decorations. On Halloween (or a designated day if Halloween is on a weekend - usually Friday) we have "Character Day" and students and staff can dress as their favorite character - from anything - and in the afternoon we "trick or treat" to related services rooms and such - usually in place of the teachers' prep period that day. If classrooms want to have a party they can. In December we talk about Christmas (in the secular sense), Hanukkah (dreidels and menorahs), and Kwanzaa (kinaras) - if we talk about one, we have to talk about the other two in December. We'll talk about Lunar New Year and Juneteenth. Thus far we don't really talk about Eid...and Diwali observance just started this year. I'm sure once there is some form of curriculum developped we'll address those - and there may be individual teachers who do if they have knowledge about them.

 

[LSUmiss]

So teachers who don't decorate for Halloween have rooms that are "less fun"?



But people have a choice on going to Disney and other places.

I would say yes. I would never expect a teacher to spend his/her own money, but I have no doubt that most of the kids would find that to be more fun. DS’ teacher has the classroom very nicely decorated & it does not include Halloween decos that I’m aware of, but I promise he & his classmates would think it was more fun with them! They will have a party or “fall fest” on Halloween day though.

 

[JLTraveling]

There are sects of people who believe that Halloween is a satanic or devil worshiping religion. On the other hand I think Disney/HP is mostly viewed as fantasy storytelling.

Tell that to my cousin. Her mother absolutely forbid her from reading HP or watching the movies, because her fringe religion preached that merely reading the spells would conjure the devil. On the other hand, she happily put my cousin on a plane at age 12 to spend a week with me at HHN, and she got a kick out of all the photos.

I'm coming at this from a very different perspective than most. My dad's family is Jewish. My mom's family is conservative Christian. And my mom's family's church hosted an elaborate Halloween party every year, complete with full decorations and costumes. We like holidays, and we celebrate almost everything.

In addition, for a variety of reasons I went through a series of private Christian schools as a kid. Halloween decorations are not indoctrination. Being forced to spend a week at a "camp" that was actually a religious revival, force marched to a tent meeting in front of a bonfire at 2am, and repeatedly told that your parents are trying to drag you down to Hell because they aren't part of the school's religious sect? That's indoctrination. I was all of 8 years old at the time. Indoctrination can also take the form of forcing kids to write essays on why the Salem Witch Trials were a GOOD thing (yep, that happened too) and similar such assignments.

For high school, I ended up in a rigorous college-prep school that happened to be affiliated with the Episcopal church. My first year I took a required World Religions course. The first day, the teacher brought in copies of all the major religious texts--the Bible, the Quran, the Book of Mormon, etc. He set them all on the desk and asked a simple question, "Which one is right?" After some discussion, he explained that they're all right, and they're all wrong, because they all contain something that is valuable to someone, but none of them have the complete answer to anything. It was mind-blowing to me after years at those other schools.

What I've come around to is this: Religious/spiritual belief is an incredibly personal thing. Two people in the same exact church don't necessarily hold the same exact beliefs. And the same person can hold conflicting beliefs, like my Grandma. She was very anti-gambling. When a group of us went to the casino during a family reunion, she lectured us up and down. When we came back and told her we hit the jackpot, she fell to her knees praising the Lord. And when we said we were just kidding, she went right back to talking about the sins of gambling.

So yes, we could remove all traces of any holiday from the classroom environment. It would be "equitable," but so very boring. We could create generic winter parties and fall festivals, but that would take away some of the magic. Or we could strive to be as inclusive as possible, and use the holidays as teaching moments to explain different world views--which I believe would be incredibly valuable. Individual parents could opt their kids out, but everyone else would learn valuable lessons that would serve them for a lifetime.

 

[Buzz Rules]

It is a ridiculous comparison. One is a life-threatening safety risk. The other is something that you personally don't like for religious reasons. Your religious beliefs are for you to follow yourself, not for you to impose on everyone else around you.

A more valid comparison to this mom trying to force the teacher to decorate (her classroom with her own money) in a way that follows mom's particular religion would be another parent trying to force the teacher to wear a head covering or long dresses because that's what their religion says women should wear. (The rules for dress should only apply to followers of that religion, not everyone else they come in contact with.)


Isn't Halloween a Catholic/Christian holiday? I have always been taught that All Hallows Eve (Halloween) is the vigil celebration of All Saints Day (a Holy Day of Obligation/major feast day in the Church’s liturgical calendar).


I don't think it's necessarily that simple. Depending on the family, they may not have allowed the child to participate regardless of how "inclusive" the school tried to make the party. If they know the generic "winter" party is a substitute for a holiday party, they would likely still refuse. In addition to being banned from attending holiday and birthday parties, the JW kids that I went to school with were also not allowed to participate in the pledge, pep rallies, movies, dances, sports, etc.


This is how I feel as well. It seems absolutely bizarre to me to try to prevent your children from having any exposure to the fact that there are different people in the world with different beliefs and customs.

How tenuous is their faith if a few jack-o-lanterns or skeletons would completely corrupt them?


This isn't even a stretch. This has happened throughout the last 30+ years. I remember when I was a kid in the 90s the Southern Baptist Convention's boycott of Disney (we lived in Central Florida at the time). Then there was all the anti-Harry Potter/magic uproar where parents were trying to prevent schools and libraries from any mention of anything magical.

There is a major difference between the Irish pagan/witchcraft tradition and the secular kids Halloween holiday. All Saints Day/All Souls Day (the first one being one of the holy days of obligation) have nothing to do with the traditional Halloween beliefs or Mexico's Day of the Dead except dealing with the afterlife, which is why the feast days were chosen near Halloween. I can't discuss religious beliefs on here so that is the most vague answer I can give you without risking points.

 

[DVC-Don]

We had a Baptist neighbor years back that would keep their kids out of school if Halloween fell on a school day and would spend the day at their church on any day that Halloween fell on.

 

[tcufrog]

Mom should probably gird her loins and buckle up. Diwali is maybe two weeks after Halloween this year and there's a good possibility that, unlike Halloween, there will be a segment of curriculum devoted to explaining the celebration and her child may also participate in making decorations for the classroom to mark the occasion.

Education has been devoting a lot of attention to multiculturism over the past 25 years. Matter of fact, mom probably wants to suit up even before Diwali -- it's a good possibility her child will be learning all about dia de los muertos the day after Halloween and coloring a mask.

Not all religious people are psychotic about others' beliefs.

The best Christmas parties I've ever attended have been hosted by my Muslim and Hindu friends. They even do a grab bag gift exchange at them. AND the food!!! It's always so good!

Religious holidays can be religious for those who believe in them, or they can be secular for those who like to have fun. I've never participated in a blood sacrifice at a Halloween celebration. Everyone is having fun and oohing and aahing about everyone's costumes, and of course... candy.

DS12 attends a secular private K-8 school. The student population is quite diverse and there are lots of Israeli families at the school. There's a huge company here that brings promising Israeli employees here for special training for 2-3 years and most of them have their kids attend our school if they're the right age. We're always sad when they leave and we always gift them with a state flag their last year during our end-of-year celebration.

Every year the parents' group throws a good old-fashioned Halloween carnival. It's a huge deal and there are Halloween decorations everywhere, carnival games that hand out tons of candy, a photo booth, a fortune teller, and a very elaborate haunted house. They charge a flat fee so the kids can do whatever activities they want to do. It's not a fundraiser and the goal is to break even. It's so popular though that last year they made money. There are also a pumpkin carving contest and a costume contest. A lot of parents dress up and a lot of former students come to volunteer. It's completely optional and the highlight of the school year.

Since we have so many students who aren't Christian, all of the grades have winter parties on the last day of school. Each class has its own party hosted by the room parents and the parents' group sponsors a special surprise. One year they hired a hot chocolate food truck and another year they had a snowball fight. We very rarely have snow and never have it before Christmas. They hired a snow cone truck to bring snow cone balls for the kids to throw at each other for the snowball fight. The kids were so happy.

We don't practice a religion but we celebrate Christmas and Diwali as part of our cultural heritage. We have two Christmas trees and a huge Lego Christmas village. Every year we throw a giant catered Diwali party complete with lighting off small fireworks in the backyard.

 

[PollyannaMom]

not to take this topic off track but if you perceive this to be unacceptable (for you) micromanagment on a school's part what is your take on entire school districts mandating that EVERY classroom of identical grades in every school within their district presenting/teaching the identical material (down to the pages in the book/workbooks) on a day by day basis (so if i walk into your classroom today for say 4th grade math, no matter what your student's skill/mastery level is-you have to be teaching the identical material every other 4th grade teacher in every classroom in your district is teaching today-no variations)?

just curious b/c this is how micromanaged at least one of the districts near us has become (not sure how many more are doing it at this point).

Quoted this to answer, then @Magical2017 said everything I was going to! I absolutely agree that it's best when you can individualize your lessons to your class. Even when I was subbing, I would get to know the needs and general "feel" of the different classrooms and engage them differently. Sure, publish a "script" for new teachers who want it as a starting point, but please don't require it!!

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

IMO, anyone that goes against a public school doing anything, using religious anything as a reason against whatever should NOT be sending their kids to public school and should be sending them to a religious based school or home schooled, period!

 

[Mysterian]

So teachers who don't decorate for Halloween have rooms that are "less fun"?

Absolutely.

 

[Boopuff]

We had a fun-sucking administration. A few years ago they decided that you can't cover a bulletin board with brightly colored paper (deemed a big fire hazard) so our decor ideas were very limited. Also the powers-that-be said that anything on the boards needed to be "child created" So we had the kids make fun decorations! But it's still a bit of a bummer, and we couldn't have anything hang from the ceiling.

 

[HopperFan]

We had a fun-sucking administration. A few years ago they decided that you can't cover a bulletin board with brightly colored paper (deemed a big fire hazard) so our decor ideas were very limited. Also the powers-that-be said that anything on the boards needed to be "child created" So we had the kids make fun decorations! But it's still a bit of a bummer, and we couldn't have anything hang from the ceiling.

The ceiling thing is against fire code here so I get that.

SO if you can't cover the bulletin board - what do the kids create that can be put on a bulletin board? I assume they aren't paper (fire hazard for sure). Sounds like to me - if I were a teacher - my boards would be empty. No sense getting in to the hassle of dealing with the rules.

I wonder if fire retardant fabric or vinyl would be acceptable on the bulletin board? It is fairly reasonable.

 

[Boopuff]

The ceiling thing is against fire code here so I get that.

SO if you can't cover the bulletin board - what do the kids create that can be put on a bulletin board? I assume they aren't paper (fire hazard for sure). Sounds like to me - if I were a teacher - my boards would be empty. No sense getting in to the hassle of dealing with the rules.

I wonder if fire retardant fabric or vinyl would be acceptable on the bulletin board? It is fairly reasonable.

We opted to paint the boards! Solved our problem, but then we were stuck with the same color background LOL. When we had projects, or sometimes classwork, we could display it. Go figure. The boards still looked cute. Some of the older kids in our building were very destructive, ripping down boards while transitioning. That was a tough problem to solve.

 

[Kimkimba]

When my ds25 was in elementary school, his best friend was a JW. His parents would pick him up early whenever there was a holiday party like Halloween or Christmas. No birthday parties either. But his dad always did fun things with him - one year my son went to Eastern State Penitentiary with them. They didn’t expect everyone else not to celebrate.

 

[pindecisive]

This reminds me very strongly of Ruby Franke's short where she's crying over her daughter dancing to a song. She's in jail now for harming her children.

Absolutely.

Agree. I fondly remember my kindergarten and first grade decorations and holiday celebrations.

 

[goofyernmost]

For all of those that don't understand why their kids think adults are stupid, just think about the last few years. If I were a kid in todays world, I wouldn't ask for the time of day from an adult. I sincerely hope that those coming "of age" in this decade were born with working brain cells.