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Essay / Reasons for school days off for non-Christian holidays
Table of ContentsIntroductionReasons This is a problemLaws regarding public school holidaysPossible solutionsConclusionIntroductionThis research paper addresses the inequality of having only the day off Christmas as a compulsory school holiday in public schools across the country. I will discuss the legal status of celebrating Christmas only outside of school as well as the legal status of celebrating religious holidays in public schools. I will also discuss some possible solutions to this problem along with the pros and cons of each solution. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Every year, across the country, students of all ages look forward to the free time they can spend with friends and family during the Christmas period. But what about students of other religions who celebrate different holidays like Hanukkah or Diwali? In most public schools, the only mandatory day off for a religious holiday is Christmas Day. But important Jewish, Hindu or Islamic holidays are often spent by students sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher rather than recognizing their heritage or spending quality time with friends or family as they should be . The government should require schools to provide school holidays for important holidays of religions other than Christianity. their religion doesn't matter or is inferior to Christianity, which is not true. This creates a feeling of inequality for students who follow less recognized religions and is bad because not only does it demean these students, but it could also create a feeling of hostility and even conflict and arguments between groups of people. students who do not follow the same religion. and it seems very medieval. But this also poses a few other problems. One of these problems is that it forces Jewish students, for example, to choose whether to skip school for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year which occurs from September 29 to October 1. Meanwhile, most public schools are still operating, to respect their religion, but risk missing important information in class or on whether they should attend school. Students of other religions are forced to choose whether they value education or religion more, which should not happen. Public School Holiday Laws Under the First Amendment, having school holidays for any religious holiday, even Christmas, is unconstitutional. According to Charles Haynes, director of the Religious Liberty Center at the Newseum Institute, the only reason we don't have school on Christmas Day is that "the problem is that Christian holidays like Christmas were put on the calendar during of the creation of public schools. by Christians. » In fact, public schools aren't even supposed to put up Christmas decorations or anything like that around Christmas, but are allowed to teach the history of the holiday as long as it isn't too biased on a religious level. Public schools may teach the history of any religious holiday as long as it is deemed appropriate by a person responsible for administering the curriculum and the teaching of the lesson is not motivated by a religious reason. Alternatively, if a religious holiday deemed appropriate is taught and a student decides they do not want to participate in the learning because they believe it iscontrary to his religion or he simply does not want to learn more, he can ask to be excused from the course and the teacher must oblige. This is also true for religions that many consider secular and are permitted to be taught in public schools, such as on Halloween or Valentine's Day, and which some would argue actually have religious roots. for holidays like Halloween and Valentine's Day is much more common in elementary school, where parties and other celebrations are often held for these occasions. These practices are permitted, but courts have made clear that this does not mean schools are free to teach whatever they want about religion and that students simply ask to be excused if they feel uncomfortable. easy. Public schools must grant an excused absence to all students. who fails to attend school for a religious reason, but the student is still required to make up any tests or quizzes they missed and may miss an important class discussion or insight from the teacher. Schools often cancel school on a religious holiday if many students are likely to be absent because of it and it would seem pointless to have a school. Possible Solutions One solution to this problem is to simply exclude all important holidays of each religion outside of school. end the problem immediately, but it would also create a few more. Firstly, having so many days off from school would extend the length of the school year in order to cover all the information required in the syllabus and many teachers and students would surely be very unhappy to have their summer holidays shortened. Another problem is who would do it. decide what is and is not considered an important holiday. For example, schools would certainly give students a day off on public holidays such as Hanukkah, Diwali, Eid, and Chinese Lunar New Year, but would they also cancel school on a public holiday such as National Bagel Day January 15? It might not be anything ridiculous, but there would surely be conflicts over which holidays are important enough for school to be canceled and which ones aren't. Unfortunately, National Bagel Day probably wouldn't make the cut because it's completely unnecessary. The solution to this problem would be for students to declare their religion at the start of the school year and then have days off during all their major holidays. So students of different religions would get different breaks. This solution obviously poses many problems. The first and most obvious would be that it is essentially religious segregation and, as we have learned from history, that is never a good thing. Another problem with this solution is that it would be more difficult for children to be friends with other children of different religions because their school breaks would be at different times of the year. In this scenario, if there was a Catholic boy whose best friend was Islamic, their free time at school would be different and they would rarely have time to socialize with each other. Another possible downside to this solution is that if children were given the choice of which religion they follow, many students would simply lie and say that they follow the religion that has the most free time at school and this would not would not be good because it only teaches children. that religion is not important at all when it should actually be something that everyone respects. A third possible solution to the problem here is to..