When is 20% > 80%?

You all just don't get it.

And as mamabear said - It's over!

Great. Until next year. Or Valentines Day.

Hitler.

BAD costume idea, that.

checking to see how the forum deals with the time change.

Oh good... it's not as late anymore.

I guess I'll keep working for an extra hour.

jamie said:
checking to see how the forum deals with the time change.

So you want to see how well forum posters deal with changing times?

What do changing times have to do with Halloween? Kids still love it. Certain busybody, Nanny-type parents want to ban it in schools, because it involves sugar and creativity and a degree of agency for the kids, and the pious nanny parents think they think they know better. It has never, ever, ever, occurred to them that perhaps--just perhaps--they do not, in fact, know better, and that they are in the end just major buzz kills.

breal said:
What do changing times have to do with Halloween? Kids still love it. Certain busybody, Nanny-type parents want to ban it in schools, because it involves sugar and creativity and a degree of agency for the kids, and the pious nanny parents think they think they know better. It has never, ever, ever, occurred to them that perhaps--just perhaps--they do not, in fact, know better, and that they are in the end just major buzz kills.

Was it your kid's school? If not, then why are you complaining? It seems to me, from what I've observed, that the members of the school community are behind the decision and it is other people who are not affected who are raising a stink about it.

100% sure this was a Nanny-generated "improvement." 100% sure this was not the kids' idea.

My position is, if there is a chance to have a Halloween parade, for F's sake have the parade. Life is short.

breal said:
My position is, if there is a chance to have a Halloween parade, for F's sake have the parade. Life is short.

That's why you are thankfully not a Principal or a PTA leader.

Let it go already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0MK7qz13bU

Were the religious objectors the onestrick or treating without costumes?

@jamie - Can we 'sink' this thread?

Do you mean bury it in a scary graveyard?

How about we rama massive stake through its heart then tie it to the train tracks until the sun comes up?

Whenever you take the moral high ground (some of our kids are compassionate for their schoolmates, the other ones, well they are going to have to learn to be caring) you run the risk of being criticized and questioned. What's wrong with that? It provides social checks and balances. And though SB is not my kids school (by choice!) the choice of that school has an effect on the whole town. Why in the world would you want to sink the discussion? It's obviously not just about the parade or the kids who cannot participate for religious reasons alone--- lets start there. The decision and response are representative of social and cultural forces operating here and throughout the country

ridski said:
How about we rama massive stake through its heart then tie it to the train tracks until the sun comes up?

If vampires were as hard to kill as MOL threads, vampires would have prevailed ages ago.

maybe they were dressed as religious objectors?

tjohn said:

ridski said:
How about we rama massive stake through its heart then tie it to the train tracks until the sun comes up?

If vampires were as hard to kill as MOL threads, vampires would have prevailed ages ago.

Ah. That explains why it can be hard to get us to look in the mirror.

New topic: NMNF(E)?

DaveSchmidt said:

tjohn said:

ridski said:
How about we rama massive stake through its heart then tie it to the train tracks until the sun comes up?

If vampires were as hard to kill as MOL threads, vampires would have prevailed ages ago.

Ah. That explains why it can be hard to get us to look in the mirror.

Self-reflection is for the weak.

Reviving this thread.  They don't want to have a parade in school, fine.  No Halloween parties in class, okay.  But the children were told to not even wear costumes to school.  No compromise at all?

Halloween is a religious holiday. I grew up with the position being that Jews do not celebrate Halloween and am still very conflicted by the holiday. My daughter dresses up and has trick or treated (she is aging out but intends to still do so this year) but I have never allowed any "pagan" decorations at our house. 

I would rather it not be observed in public schools.

Thanksgiving, while you can find a religious connection, is a very different animal.  

Two years later, and I’m still flummoxed by what makes wearing costumes to school so important.

Then again, the last time I wore a costume to school, I was a flummox.

Would children be allowed to come to school in costume on Purim?

Really?  Every Jew in my very Jewish neighborhood went around in costume, with the support or aid of their Jewish parents, and no one understood themselves to be celebrating a religious holiday.   Jut because something has its roots in some ancient pagan ritual doesn't make its religious if there's no conscious religious dimension for the people who are "celebrating" it now.   I don't think Yaweh is offended by a kid in a Batman costume asking  neighbor for candy.      

ska said:

Halloween is a religious holiday. I grew up with the position being that Jews do not celebrate Halloween and am still very conflicted by the holiday. My daughter dresses up and has trick or treated (she is aging out but intends to still do so this year) but I have never allowed any "pagan" decorations at our house. 

I would rather it not be observed in public schools.

Thanksgiving, while you can find a religious connection, is a very different animal.  

I never thought any Jews would be opposed to Halloween until I attended a bar mitzvah in the Boston  area, where the Rabbi was questioning whether Jews should even open their doors to trick or treaters due to the day's Christian roots.  That said, there are a number of other groups in the Seth Boyden district, Seventh Day Adventists, agnostics, and/or atheists to name just a few, who might oppose the practice of celebrating Halloween in school on religious grounds.  Then there are the economic concerns and concerns of lost instruction time that were raised at the time Seth Boyden School first decided there would be no Halloween celebration on school grounds during school hours.