message is being sent about Christmas
Parent: pop-culture
message is being sent about Christmas
By libby kesil
Staff Writer
FAIR HAVEN — At least one parent in the borough is concerned about the way Christmas is portrayed at Viola L. Sickles School.
At the Oct. 30 Board of Education meeting, Laura Laughinghouse asked the panel to do something about the way the holiday is treated at the K-3 school.
She said that, despite promises for improvement and for fair representation from the administration at the school, many Christian Fair Haven parents have yet to see their holiday presented to their children in the same consistent manner that Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are portrayed in the curriculum and holiday shows.
"As a Christian, a mother and a taxpayer, I ask you to stop the promotion of a make-believe, pop-culture message about Christmas and remedy the inconsistent and unbalanced holiday schoolwork as quickly as possible at Sickles. These concerns have been put off for several years now," said Laughinghouse at the meeting. "I respectfully request that the board act tonight to officially commit to making these changes. Our children deserve it."
Laughinghouse said that the students were taught the importance of Hanukkah vocabulary such as menorah, dreidel, gelt, latke, candles and star and were shown a film using the word "miracle" in recounting the Hanukkah story of how the oil lasted for eight nights. She said that for Kwanzaa, students learned the importance of terms like bendera, dashiki, candles and karamu.
"This is admirable as this teaches our children about other cultures. In contrast, however, my first-grader’s Christmas worksheet has the words apple, fire, happy and snow on it," said Laughinghouse. "Where are the words candles, advent wreath, star, manger, birth, and, yes, Baby Jesus? Our school policy does allow for this, so why isn’t this representation of Christmas taught to our children?"
According to Laughinghouse, the pop-culture approach to Christmas year after year has resulted in a general "desensitization" at the school.
"Last year Christian children at Sickles School were targets for such inappropriate and insensitive behavior as singing ‘We Fish Ewe a Hairy Chris Moose’ to the tune of ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas,’" said Laughinghouse. "This was not taught to our children out in the playground during recess by some smart-aleck kid, but during public school time in music class by our music teacher. Can you imagine any teacher caricaturing the basic greeting of any other religion or culture during school hours?" said Laughinghouse.
She said she had been told that the teacher in question did not mean to offend, which she said was precisely her point.
"If an adult teacher has become so desensitized that she didn’t think such actions were offensive, what kind of impression are we teaching our children about respecting the traditions of the holiday called Christmas?" said Laughinghouse.
She conceded that the holiday show has, for several years, used a song in Spanish, which she said is a beautiful song with a real Christian theme, but because it is in Spanish, no one, including the children, understands it.
Laughinghouse suggested using in the curriculum a song titled "The Advent Song," and a poem titled "Long, Long Ago." She had brought with her photocopies of the song and poem and offered to distribute to the board members.
"The theme of this song is of candles of the advent wreath counting down to a celebration, which fits in perfectly with the similar candles themes expressed in the Hanukkah and Kwanzaa songs," said Laughinghouse.
"Thank you. We’ll take your comments back to the curriculum meeting," said board member Nancy Walrath, who asked for the song and poem.
Walrath conceded that curriculum meeting would convene too late to incorporate the changes in the holiday show and curriculum for this school year.
According to Superintendent William Presutti, the curriculum meeting would not be open to the public but the results of that meeting would be reported at the next board meeting in November.
"We are all guilty of making insensitive remarks, having a careless thought. That is what makes us human. However, despite many complaints over the years by parents, Sickles’ curriculum and holiday show continue to reflect an obvious disregard for the Christians in this community," said Laughinghouse.