Newsgroups: bit.listserv.deaf-l
Date:         Sat, 12 Dec 1992 10:50:15 EST
From:         "Cathy Brandt" <CBRAN00@UKCC.UKY.EDU>
Subject:      Re: christmas parties?
              11 Dec 1992 18:37:10 EST from <annie@PSYCHE.MIT.EDU>

On Fri, 11 Dec 1992 18:37:10 EST Annie Senghas said:
>This doesn't really have much to do with deafness, but I'm
>surprised to read about all the Christmas activity in the
>classroom.  Isn't that illegal?  (Separation of church
>and state, and all).  Isn't your (Cathy's) school a
>public school?
>
>-Annie

Annie, you are the second person who has asked me about this.  Yes, I am in the
public school.  But, we still decorate and celebrate Christmas.  They do call
our vacation Winter Break instead of Christmas vacation.

Frankly, the entire school does it and so do most of the schools in the system.
I'm sure the teachers who have children who do not celebrate Christmas are
sensitive to that and treat the situation with care.

As I said in another post - we have ten kids (in the two classes) and we know
each family rather intimately (sometimes better than we would like <grin>).
Each of our families are celebrating Christmas, all have trees and are doing
festive activities.  So - Individualized Education?  Well, therefore these kids
need to know and understand what much of society is doing and what their
families are doing.  They need to learn the vocabulary and understand what is
happening around them.  Something happened in the classroom last week (I don't
dare tell you all or I'll be getting flamed until NEXT Christmas) that was
child initiated.  It led to an extensive discussion and well well welllll  - uh
that's all I'm willing to say.  One of the children did not really agree with
the other three children.  I made it very clear that his opinion was JUST as
important as theirs and he DID not have to believe like them or like me.  He
is  a smart boy and could decide for himself what he believed. (Lew and Bryce
you can guess who was unwilling to buy the group's idea)  It led to a great
discussion on individual differences and a respect for all.

And, at this time of the year when many folks are celebrating Christmas it is
IMHO rediculous to NOT teach about Christmas.  The whole idea of separation of
church and state is highly misunderstood from the original intent.  Folks have
twisted and turned that to mean and do more than what the writers originally
intended.

I certainly am not forcing    the kids to believe in Christmas.  And frankly,
at times I have a hard time with teaching so much of the commercial aspect and
not teaching that it is a celebration of the birth of Christ.  For me this is a
very important time of year.  It is a time for me to realize all of the many
gifts God has given me and how very blessed I am.  It is a time for me to be
grateful that He did send His Son.  But, I don't teach that in my classroom.  I
KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that ALL of the parents in my room would LOVE
for me to teach THAT and to share what Christmas means to me.  But, because we
are in public school I don't teach the religious aspect.  I do bring in the
festive/commercial side because it is allowed here and our kids do need to
understand what is happening.

Yeah, maybe the parents should be doing all of this at home.  But, they CANT do
it all and aren't able to provide the type of learning activities that we can
with a group.  They can certainly reinforce it and extend the teaching.

We MUST remember before we make sweeping statements about education and what
SHOULD and SHOULD NOT be done - we must remember that there are individual kids
in each classroom.  And, no one knows their individual needs like their parents
and their teachers.  And that is my business - not teaching school - meeting
needs.

And so at this time of year when many folks are celebrating different things I
also celebrate KIDS - one of the greatest gifts we have!  And as I do I look at
these eight eyes who stare at me constantly and realize what a big
responsibility I have to teach them about so many DIFFERENT aspects of our
world.

Cathy - a teacher who is simply trying to meet a child's need to know and under
stand what is happening around him.
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