When is 20% > 80%?
mrincredible said:
I'm very concerned for the PTA co-president who put the editorial letter out about this. Now that this has been picked up and twisted by right-wing Islamophobes I worry she'll be targeted for a social media assault. And if you think this is trivial, search for "gamergate" to see how horrible that can be.
I totally blame that stupid Maplewoodian piece which was the first to suggest this religious slant which was picked up by the other news sources.
My daughter is a SB alumni and Communications major in college. As part of her Mass Communications class, she writes a blog about media analysis and its influence. She is going to do her next post about how the SB story went from a simple pronouncement about how a school decided to not have a Halloween parade (on a day that isn't Halloween) to how the same story morphs and appears in state and eventually national mass media as a plot PC liberals hatched up to avoid offending Muslims..... None of which is remotely correct.
mrincredible said:
I'm very concerned for the PTA co-president who put the editorial letter out about this. Now that this has been picked up and twisted by right-wing Islamophobes I worry she'll be targeted for a social media assault. And if you think this is trivial, search for "gamergate" to see how horrible that can be.
Oh no!! I sincerely hope that will not happen!!! The 24 hour, insatiable news cycle at it's worst.
campbell29 said:
My daughter is a SB alumni and Communications major in college. As part of her Mass Communications class, she writes a blog about media analysis and its influence. She is going to do her next post about how the SB story went from a simple pronouncement about how a school decided to not have a Halloween parade (on a day that isn't Halloween) to how the same story morphs and appears in state and eventually national mass media as a plot PC liberals hatched up to avoid offending Muslims..... None of which is remotely correct.
I would love to read that
callista said:
mrincredible said:Oh no!! I sincerely hope that will not happen!!! The 24 hour, insatiable news cycle at it's worst.
I'm very concerned for the PTA co-president who put the editorial letter out about this. Now that this has been picked up and twisted by right-wing Islamophobes I worry she'll be targeted for a social media assault. And if you think this is trivial, search for "gamergate" to see how horrible that can be.
I'm probably just overthinking the situation.
Late to the party here (yes, that was a pun). Can't the school just not have a "parade" and just allow kids to dress up at school? It was a long time ago, but when I was at Seth Boyden I think that's what we did. I don't remember any parent attended parade, we just wore our costumes to school and enjoyed the day. Maybe teachers passed out some Halloween themed treats, but we still had class. It wasn't like it was a big party all day. I know that the demographics of the community have changed in the last 35 years, but let the kids be kids for a day...I promise it won't negatively impact their transcripts, and no one will suffer long term emotional trauma.
If I recall correctly, the problem was that as many as 20% of kids are being kept home because any Halloween celebration conflicts with their religion. Faced with this reality, the decision was made to cancel the Halloween celebration.
What is wrong with doing that? I daresay school is more important than Halloween.
How is this different from having district holidays on important Jewish religious days given that so many residents are Jewish?
People are carrying on like this is an attack on Halloween and threat to the American way of life. It isn't.
I thought they had no idea how many objected on the grounds of religion, or for any reason.
Something like 20% of the school is not participating (many at school, some at home), for a variety of reasons which aren't really our business.
Given the major opt-out, the difficulty of staffing alternative activities, and the lack of academic importance to the event, the school leadership (professional and elected parent representatives) made a decision to focus on other activities, and not have this one.
I think that is fine, and that no Halloween-celebrating child is going to lack in opportunities to wear costumes and eat sweets outside of school.
who cares whether they have a parade or not. Its definitely not my business, However,I imagine that of the 20% (ish)of people who do not participate in the parade its a religious exception for maybe 1-2%. I am guessing there are a good amount of families don't participate also because they are more into the healthy eating/ gardening than the sugar in candy. I would guess there is a healthy percentage of those families. Why else? Be transparent. To imply its all about some SB kids being more sensitive to their left out classmates than others is supercilious & probably a source of some of the rage!
friendorfoe said:
who cares whether they have a parade or not. Its definitely not my business, However,I imagine that of the 20% (ish)of people who do not participate in the parade its a religious exception for maybe 1-2%. I am guessing there are a good amount of families don't participate also because they are more into the healthy eating/ gardening than the sugar in candy. I would guess there is a healthy percentage of those families. Why else? Be transparent. To imply its all about some SB kids being more sensitive to their left out classmates than others is supercilious & probably a source of some of the rage!
Parents were not required to record their reasons on the opt-out form, so what is there to be transparent about? The point is that a large minority was opting out (for whatever reason), which defeated the purpose of having an all-school celebration.
Here's yet another Halloween celebration opportunity for our community (brought to you by our schools)!
http://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/celebrate-halloween-chs-cougars-v-livingston-football-game-oct-31/
sac said:
Here's yet another Halloween celebration opportunity for our community (brought to you by our schools)!
http://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/celebrate-halloween-chs-cougars-v-livingston-football-game-oct-31/
And (GASP!) it actually takes place on Halloween!
I just saw this post on FB
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=645458712224020
HarleyQuinn said:
I just saw this post on FB
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=645458712224020
JFC.
What has worked in my sons elementary. There is a very small group the doesnt celebrate. The parade begins at 2:30 and goes to 3 . If parents don't want kids to celebrate, the parents pick them up an hour early. The kids don't have to be exposed to things they find harmful, the kids who do celebrate can do so.
Put Halloween at the last period, and let those that don't celebrate go home a period earlY. We also do not have bussing, so kids can leave anytim
The celebration in question was already at the end of the day, actually. But the point is that it wasn't 'a very small group', but something like 20% of the school.
Robert_Casotto said:
thinking this through to its logical conclusion, the Township should move to ban unwanted Saturday religious solicitation on religious grounds.
That would be not thinking this through.
breal said:
I don't think this is going to help Seth Boyden's opt in numbers, except among Jehovah's Witnesses.
And with normal thinking families
campbell29 said:
What has worked in my sons elementary. There is a very small group the doesnt celebrate. The parade begins at 2:30 and goes to 3 . If parents don't want kids to celebrate, the parents pick them up an hour early. The kids don't have to be exposed to things they find harmful, the kids who do celebrate can do so.
Put Halloween at the last period, and let those that don't celebrate go home a period earlY. We also do not have bussing, so kids can leave anytim
Or don't do it. It's not meaningful, except to a group of reactionary parents. And some opportunistic media orons
Having some of the children leave school an hour early raises other problems. Isn't being sent home even more exclusionary than being sent to the library or some other alternative activity? Due to the opt in status of the school, I would assume that more children are bused to/from SB than any other school in the district. How do these children get home if only some of them are let out an hour early? Where do children go for that hour if their parents work and the children are enrolled in an after school program?
Does anyone know how the day went yesterday at SB?
It is not difficult to have an alternate event. Schools have plenty of staff that don't have their own classroom (music, art, gym, special education therapists, etc.)
There can be one alternate event for kids not participating in Halloween. You don't have to spread it out to different rooms. The event can be a fall themed party with leaves, acorns, pine cones, music, games, treats.
Halloween parties can be scaled down...I don't know the layout of SB..but it could be limited to the classrooms for the Halloween parties or at least the immediate hallway (by floor, wing). Don't invite parents. Don't have a parade (or confine it to a short walk through the immediate hallway). Don't allow parents so kids whose parents can't come aren't disappointed.
Both parties can be equally fun..maybe more so for the Fall party so the kids don't feel left out.
Have a costume drive and and allow parents and children come pick out costumes beforehand for kids that can't afford a costume. Also have the costumes available for the kids to pick out on their own in case they have negligent parents (yes i knew a student in this situation that I provided a costume for since DYFS left her in the home despite not being fed, supervised, etc). Also provide directions for simple low cost home made costumes. I have made costumes out of a few pieces of poster board and paint.
Use the festivities as an incentive to reach a school wide goal...therefore it is educationally relevant. For example: for x number acts of kindness, there will be a 30 minute party. If the goal reaches X number, it will be 60 minutes.
Students can be given educational goals related to the parties. The oldest students could be in charge of planning, budgeting, organizing, etc. It teaches kids to work together.
Social skills are an important educational goal.
When Halloween is actually on a school day...there is no point to try to teach toward the end of the day...the kids are too excited about trick or treating. Its not as bad when Halloween falls on a weekend.
joan_crystal said:
New arrivals who want to experience Halloween for themselves will have more than sufficient opportunity to do so without attending a school-sponsored Halloween parade. The celebration of Halloween in this county may be fueled by highly visible commercial interests but that does not mean that it is part of every American child's culture.
Having a costume making workshop with donated materials might help resolve the problem of not being able to afford the time or the expense involved in coming up with a Halloween costume for the parade. It does nothing to address the issue for some of being opposed to the celebration of Halloween on educational, religious, cultural, or psychological grounds.
The other suggestion of having an appropriate alternate FALL themed party addresses the issue of people opposed to Halloween. The Fall party kids are brought to that room before costumes are put on...and costumes are removed prior to the parties ending. The fall party kids would not have costumes. The fall party could have some benefits the Halloween party doesn't have such as disco lights, games...
As far as making costumes..
send home instructions for simple low cost costumes to be made at home.
if a school had an art club, the club could make them to be available for others to use....even a middle or high school art club could make costumes for the elementary schools
doing it in all art class might be an issue as most kids would have store bought costumes..but maybe only have the oldest kids make costumes in art class...to be distributed as needed...and if no kids need it...have staff wear them....make something with adjustable shoulder straps such as an M&M....while on a kid it would go down to their knees, an adult would just wear it over their torso (straps can be stapled on at the last minute to fit or there can be velcro to attach them to adjust to size...
This would be in addition to having donated costumes for kids to choose from if needed.
Who are these kids who can't afford a costume? I've lived in verylow income neighborhoods for three quarters of my life and never saw a family that couldn't scrape up a few dollars for a costume or didn't have the creative impulse to create one. Resourcefulness and creativity are not confined to certain income groups. In addition, any art class projects involving making costumes or masks should be for everyone! It's actually a great idea.
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I'm very concerned for the PTA co-president who put the editorial letter out about this. Now that this has been picked up and twisted by right-wing Islamophobes I worry she'll be targeted for a social media assault. And if you think this is trivial, search for "gamergate" to see how horrible that can be.