Choosing To Not Celebrate Winter Holidays in the Classroom
An Interview with David Wish, First Grade Teacher, San Francisco, California
Jonathan Cohen, TU Galaxy Classroom Producer

Why have you decided not to have winter holiday celebrations in your class?

Celebrating any particular religious holiday in a public school is wrong. It can alienate students, and depending on the activities, may violate the separation of church and state, a fundamental clause in our Constitution. In addition, celebrating holidays is not my idea of good curriculum.

How do you feel about studying religion in the class?

It is okay to study religions in school but this is a tricky project. The law says it is fine. In addition, many advocates of multicultural education believe we should strive for better understanding of precisely the difficult topics of race, ethnicity, and religion. Multicultural education, especially about religion, is an area of study that must be approached with careful preparation and consideration.

Many schools however, celebrate Christmas. Some know this isn't quite right so they include Chanukah. However, I feel strongly that this is not quality multicultural education. I feel that multicultural education should encourage respect for all cultures. We must avoid tokenism when undertaking multicultural education. Adding a Chanukah song to a Christmas Concert is an example of tokenism.

Should teaching about Christmas and Chanukah occur at the same time?

Teaching young students about Christmas and Chanukah side-by-side may create the false impression that they are analogous, and that Chanukah is the Jew's Christmas. This is far from the truth.

For Christians, the birth of Christ is one of the two most important holidays of the year. For Jews, Chanukah is, in religious terms, a minor holiday. The observance of Passover (sometimes called in English, "The Feast of Freedom") and the Jewish new year holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are far more important to religious Jews than Chanukah. If multicultural education is the goal, teaching about the Jewish religion should focus on Passover or Jewish New Year, even if they don't conveniently fall in December.

What about teaching other religions?

If we are to be honest with our students, we must recognize that America has 1,500 different religions. An intellectually honest education might pay attention to those religions with the most worldwide believers or the most American adherents. For example, the Muslim population in the U.S. is around six million people. Yet few schools pay attention to the observance of Ramadan. It is not quite the happy, give-presents sort of thing that inspires a classroom party. Although Ramadan may not occur at an opportune time, students deserve to learn about this major religious event, sacred to a billion humans.

Do you find teachers, in general, to be sensitive to the feelings of non-Christian students?

Beyond a token celebration of Chanukah, no, not really. How well-rounded an education is it when students only learn about Christmas and Chanukah?.

How many schools note the beginning of Ramadan, the Hindu Feast of Diwali, or the Lunar New Year celebrated in many Asian cultures? Yet millions of Americans celebrate these holidays. Yes, holidays of some religions practiced in America happen in December, and some of these have themes of light and celebration, but this doesn't mean we should treat them as equivalent. Trying to cram multicultural education and increase understanding about other religions by using the "Winter Holiday Season" may have the opposite effect.

How have parents responded to your decision not to celebrate holidays in the classroom?

Some students follow a religious faith that teaches them to avoid secular celebrations. For them, any classroom party is an intrusion into their religious beliefs. Schools with Jehovah's Witness students often find situations in which they must excuse those students from classroom celebrations.

I have spoken to parents that believe schools should be sensitive to the beliefs of Christians who hold the birth of Christ as a sacred event that shouldn't be overshadowed by Santa and shopping.

How do you respond to parents who want holiday celebrations in their child's classroom?

Classrooms can be jovial and festive without treading on this sticky ground. I don't want to be the Grinch, but I have chosen not to bring religion into my public school classroom and I refuse to pretend that Christmas is a flavorless non-religious holiday. So what do I do? We still have great parties with yummy treats in my first grade class at this time of year but I always have academic reasons for celebration. I try to schedule our curriculum so that we finish projects we can feel proud of students. We celebrate our academic achievements, play math games, and celebrate the hard work we have done in the fall semester.

David Wish has ten years of classroom teaching experience. He is also the founder of Little Kids Rock, a non-profit organization, which runs free music classes for inner city students. He's proud that Little Kids Rock has brought music into the lives of over 500 students at a time when music is seen as an extra.

For more information about school policies and guidelines about celebrating holidays in schools, visit the following websites:

The Department of Education website Religion and Public Schools
provides an excellent and authoritative treatment of this topic with several resources.

The Teacher's Guide to Religion in the Public Schools is an exceptionally valuable resource that deals with the topic of how to treat religious holidays in the classroom.

Visit other links provided by the Department of Education Guides -- Religion and Public Schools

The American Civil Liberties Union also has an excellent and informative website where you will find an article of consensus on the current laws concerning freedom of religious practice and the separation of church and state. It is signed by a variety of organizations spanning the ideological, religious and political spectrum.

Religion In The Public Schools: A Joint Statement Of Current Law

Also on the ACLU website, you can read a legal bulletin explaining court cases concerning the Establishment clause of the constitution. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." See: The Establishment Clause And Public Schools

Jonathan Cohen is a former science and history teacher at an inner city middle school.

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