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Candace TeranTED 505December 4, 2017Do Holidays Have a Place in the Classroom?With malls decorated top to bottom in rich green garland and people bustling to the stores to pick up the most perfect Christmas gift for that special someone I can only image what it would feel like to be a child that does not celebrate one of the biggest holidays in the United States. I will not lie, I am that person that gets really into the holidays, I love Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and the list continues. It is easy to get wrapped up in the warm and fuzzies that the holidays bring and it is even easier to forget those that may celebrate in different ways or not at all. As a future educator I look forward to exposing the children in my classroom to all the rich and wonderful cultural holidays our diverse population of Southern California bring to the table. With that said, I must also be prepared to explain professionally why I am talking about Ramadan and how this relates to their child’s education. I understand why it would make some parents uncomfortable but I also understand that for a very long time we have brushed the others (people of color, non- white, non- heterosexual, non- Christians) under the rug and not acknowledged their culture, beliefs, values, or religion at all. It seem that the talk of holidays creating controversy did not spark until recently. The Starbucks red cup incident of 2015 is a perfect example of how anything can upset people. The growing popularity of Dia De Los Muertos and how it clearly is cultural appropriation. Or the misconception that Cinco De Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day (spoiler alert it’s not). It is clear that teachers need to start educating children early on what holidays are, what they mean, and what they represent for those that celebrate it. The research question I pose is how do I appropriately bring holidays into the classroom and what is the professional way to respond to parents and families that may be upset about it. To begin this investigation I wanted to look into what friends of mine that have children or plan on having children thought about holidays in the classroom. This was a convenience sample and the survey was distributed using SurveyMonkey on Facebook. I did not mention what the survey was about because I wanted people to participate without a predisposition on how they would respond. Out of 66 responses the top five holidays that are celebrated are; Christmas (65), Thanksgiving (63), Mother’s Day (62), Halloween (61), and Father’s Day (56). So there my work is done right? Wrong. All this shows is that within my friend group and the people that took this survey most of the celebrate common U.S. holidays, my interest was peaked even more so by these results but also by the qualitative answers that I was looking for. Being in the credential program there are two things that are pounded into our heads; first you have to be culturally sensitive all the time and second not everyone’s story has been told. I also had to look into what are the most common religions in Orange and Los Angeles counties since these are the two area that I am most likely to teach in. In Orange County the top five religions are Roman Catholic, Non-Denominational Christian, Southern Baptist, Mormon, and Assemblies of God (Glenmary Research Center, 2000). In Los Angeles County they are Roman Catholic, Non-Denominational Christian, Mormon, Southern Baptist, and Buddhist (Glenmary Research Center, 2000). In order to clearly evaluate the beast that I am to tame, I needed to investigate what populations I will likely be dealing with and how to prepare myself to professionally to teach children about other non- mainstream holidays while being culturally sensitive.With the current presidential administration it is important to make sure that all students in my future class feel welcomed, comfortable, and have a brave/ safe space in which they feel they are able to be themselves. There are not many people that are willing to admit just how uncomfortable they are with talking about other religions, cultures, and values with young children. Because I feel so passionately about inclusion, I also feel like this is my job. In the survey I put out three of the questions dealt with this concept. First I ask parents how comfortable they were about speaking with their child about others religion, culture, and values. 82% poled in with saying that they are somewhat comfortable with talking to their children about it while 18% said they were not comfortable at all. The next question asked was how do you talk about other’s culture, religion, and values, 96% commented that they talk about it when the question comes up with one 2% saying that they take the initiative to have these conversations with their child(ren) without having to be cued or questioned. The last question, which I was very surprised by the answers, was what would you like your teacher to know about your personal values and how would you like that to be incorporated into your child(s) classroom community. 25% responded with it is not the teachers business nor do I want the teacher to talk about that in the classroom. This is very interesting because a lot of what I have learned is what ways can I bring the children of my classroom’s values into the classroom. I guess I never considered that there will be some people that see that as inappropriate or unnecessary. As I began to investigate the concept of how to appropriately pull holidays into the classroom, I came across the concept of the “tourist” holidays. Julie Bisson wrote in her book Celebrate!: An Anti-Bias Guide to Enjoying Holidays in Early Childhood Programs (2009) that as teachers we want to make sure that we are not highlighting some holidays as normal and the rest of the holidays as others. This means that if we are to bring other cultural holidays into the classroom that as a teacher it is just as irresponsible to talk about Christmas as being a normal holiday because a majority of people in the area celebrate it normal and Rosh Hashanah and Passover are not. So how do we talk about these holidays without making a clear “others” category? First and foremost we must be respectful of the first amendment of the Constitution in that there must be a separation of church and state; with this we have to be clear that we are not speaking down on other religions but rather speaking about them. We also have to recognize on the other hand that it would be impossible to teach history if we did not talk about religion. There are difference in talking about and teaching about. If a parent were to come up to me and express they are upset because I told their child about Judaism and Muslim I will have this response ready; “I understand why you are upset that I spoke to your child about different religions. Know that as an educator it is my job to stay neutral and not push any religious agenda on to your child or any other child in my classroom. With that said I spoke about these two religions because we were talking about December holidays. Now to provide your child with the tools, skills, and knowledge to share spaces with people of mixed cultural values I saw it as appropriate to discuss these religions and holidays with the classroom, also I used this opportunity to tie it into [insert curriculum here] which meets the CCSS [insert standard here]. This is the lesson plan that I used if you would like to look it over and next week we are planning on discussing [insert lesson here], if you would like you are more than welcome to join us that day so you can see how and why we are discussing these things or if you are more comfortable I can have your child work on something separately in the classroom.” This would be the best case scenario of what I could say to a parent that was perhaps confused or concerned about why I will be talking about different religions in the classroom, but it is one response that I plan on using. Lastly it is also important to recognize and name the people that we are talking about. For example instead of using the phrase, “Some people do not celebrate The 4th of July.” the statement should come out something similar to, “In Mexico people celebrate their independence day on September 16th were as in the United States it is celebrated on July 4th.” As I further dug deeper into the concept of holidays in the classroom I found a whole new curriculum and instruction that is known as anti- biased education. This curriculum focuses on giving every child the chance to be seen and heard. Many teachers have a tendency to focus on cultural differences but this mind set can be toxic as it excludes many different stories such as; ableism, racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, gender, and many more to list.Sapon- Shevin (2017) acknowledges this is an issue that the millennial generation is having to deal with and recognizing that what we have been taught has been toxic but also provided more hindrances. The author talks about the concept of color blindness and invisibility in reference to how my generation views the world (Sapon- Shevin, 2017). The definition of color blindness in this article is to be taught to not see the difference among people, to not point these differences out, and to not acknowledge that they exist (Sapon- Shevin, 2017). Sapon- Shevin (2017) suggests that this leads to toxic and naturally unequitable environments to raise children in. Children are naturally curious and by teaching them it is not ok to talk about these differences or rather teaching them it is a bad to even see these, means that as a teacher I cannot teach children how to recognize when there is an injustice going on and how to combat these injustices. This happens because people become so afraid to acknowledge these differences in the classroom that we lose out on opportunities to take real life situations and turn them into teaching moments (Sapon- SHevin, 2017). By having a generation with a color blind lens we were taught that even acknowledging that someone has a different skin tone as ourselves make you racist. This is heavily related to teaching holidays in the classroom because not all holidays are rooted in religion. For example, Indigenous People’s day celebrates the stories and culture in retaliation to celebrating Christopher Columbus, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday but we also take time to look at his accomplishments using nonviolent tactics, and International Women’s Day which celebrates the accomplishments that women have made throughout the years. These are all holidays that I plan on using in my classroom in order to teach about those that have suffered and struggled to make their story heard.There are many ways in which we can teach and talk about holidays in the classroom. First it is important to make sure that we do not get caught up in the flurry of December warm fuzzies. There are many holidays throughout the school year that impact the student's education, whether that means they are not in class or it is not a nationally recognized holiday. Either way it is the job of the teacher to ensure that students feel included and valued throughout the school year. Because there are many holidays that land in the middle of the school year another approach is to find commonalities between these holidays and focus on the nonreligious aspects of these special days. For example both Christmas and Hanukkah have commonalities on light and giving noted by Seigel (2016). What this means is the teacher can talk about these two holidays and show students something they may be familiar with, such as Christmas, and show them that there are other holidays with similar attributes and traditions. Another thing a teacher can do is talk about where and how these holidays are celebrated all over the world. For example, the way people in Scandinavia celebrate Christmas is very different as it is in the U.S.. We can talk about other holidays that are not celebrated in the U.S. but are similar to a holiday we have here, such as El Grito De Dolores which is Mexico’s Independence day and have them compare and contrast the way we celebrate the 4th of July. I think the last thing is that as a teacher I need to be aware to not get so caught up in the holidays that I begin to ignore and dismiss the curriculum as a whole. Especially around end of November and December, everyone is ready for winter break and it can be hard to stay focused and not spend as much time needed on the content. I think that bringing holidays in the classroom is important because holidays play important parts in our lives, but I also know that too much of a good thing can be bad. I also want to make sure that each holiday I address, the students are aware of the actual meaning and traditions behind the holiday. It is hard to talk about holidays in the classroom without talking about stereotypes, misconceptions, and cultural appropriation. For example, as stated earlier Cinco De Mayo is not the Mexican independence day, but because it is so common for people to celebrate this “holiday” I think I would be doing a disservice to my students if I did not talk about it. With this in my I would turn this into a research project such that the students in my class look into the actual meaning, traditions, and cultural references. They can do a know, want, and learn chart (what do they think they know, what do they want to know, and what did they learn). In their research that is guided by me I will provide them with things to consider. I would provide them with things that are stereotypically associated with Cinco De Mayo (such as a sombrero) and an item that is actually associated with the holiday (such as a map of Oaxaca, Mexico) and have them write or talk about these items in their investigation. This investigation has lead me to understand the concept of professionally and appropriately bringing holidays into my future classroom. After my personal survey I found out that most people seem to want their child(ren) introduced to a broad spectrum of cultural diversity. I must always be aware and support the voices of those narratives that have traditionally not be talked about. I know now how to respond to parents that may feel threatened or question my reasons for talking to their child(ren) about different holidays but I am also equipped with the knowledge of how to respond respectfully and in a nonthreatening manner. Over my research into this topic I also found that holidays do not have to be the center pieces of my classroom but rather used a garnish of the student’s learning. I look forward to exploring these holidays with my students and learning more about the rich diverse world that we all live in. I think this is very important, as a future educator, for me to look into and be nuanced in because these students will grow up to be adults and they will have to learn how to share spaces with people that differ in values, traditions, and cultures as they do. I fully believe that by talking about these differences and learning to embrace them as early as possible we will see the next generation achieve great things. ReferenceBisson, J. (2002). Celebrate!: An anti-bias guide to enjoying holidays in early childhood programs. Redleaf Press.Glenmary Research Center Orange County. (2000). Retrieved November 30, 2017, from Research Center Los Angeles County. (2000). Retrieved November 30, 2017, from , M. (2017). On the impossibility of learning “not to see”: Colorblindness, invisibility, and anti-bias education. International Critical Childhood Policy Studies Journal, 6(1), 38-51.Siegel, P. (2016, October 13). Teaching About the Holidays in Public Schools. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from ................
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