Teaching About Holidays

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Teaching About Holidays
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Teaching About Holidays

• An unbiased approach to teaching about culture.
• A PowerPoint presentation for educators.
• J. Rickelle Dennell

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The Classroom as a Melting Pot

• Every classroom is filled with diverse cultures
  and religions
• Children should learn about others cultures and
  holidays in order to facilitate their
  understanding, tolerance, and acceptance of one
  another

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Teaching About Holidays Can Be a Touchy Subject

• Students are in our classrooms about 9 months out
  of the year. Throughout this time, each month
  provides many opportunities for us as teachers to
  help our students understand and learn about
  other cultures, customs, and traditions as well
  as their own.
• As teachers, we need to provide an education that
  is unbiased, making sure we teach about many
  different cultures, not just our own or the
  majority. Teaching about holidays MUST be done
  in an unbiased way !
• While emphasizing one particular holiday or
  religious practice is prohibited, teachers are
  permitted to teach about a variety of cultures
  and traditions without emphasizing one. Many
  activities including art, music, and drama, can
  be used to teach about different ways of
  thinking, as long as it is not pushed upon
  students.

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Teaching About Holidays Can Be a Touchy
Subject

• Planning creative and sensitive holiday
  observances is a challenge educators and
  administrators across the country face every fall
  and winter especially the December Dilemma.
• Although public schools are prohibited from
  sponsoring religious celebrations, teachers can
  design seasonal activities that respect the
  rights, beliefs and cultural practices of all
  students.
• The special challenge is to create holiday
  experiences that are both inclusive and
  meaningful.

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Teaching About Holidays Can Be a Touchy
Subject

• Teachers must be careful not to cross the line
  between teaching about religious holidays (which
  is permitted) and celebrating religious holidays
  (which is not). Celebrating religious holidays in
  the form of religious worship or other practices
  is unconstitutional. Teaching about a holiday
  will be constitutional if it furthers a genuine
  secular program of education, is presented
  objectively, and does not have the effect of
  advancing or inhibiting religion.

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Why Teach About Holidays ?

• It is important for students to learn about
  others cultures and traditions in order to help
  them accept and understand how people are
  different, and that it is okay to be different.
  Students who are different will feel accepted,
  and feel more comfortable helping everyone
  understand their culture and traditions.
• Teaching about holidays enriches students
  awareness of how holidays are celebrated
  differently around the world, and is a great
  learning experience for students who have never
  heard of some of these holidays or traditions.

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Why Teach About Holidays

• Holidays talked about in the classroom not only
  include Religious ones like Christmas, Kwanzaa,
  and Hanukkah, but also Patriotic ones such as
  Flag Day, Presidents Day, and Memorial Day, as
  well as Special Days such as Mothers Day,
  Fathers Day, and Grandparents Day. Special
  Months may also be included like March which is
  Red Cross Month and Womans History Month.

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The holidays which we celebrate help identify who
we are, as individuals and as a community.
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Holidays Categories

• Religious/Ethnic
• Patriotic
• Commerations
• Special Days/Weeks/Months

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Popular Religious Holidays

• Christmas
• Hanukkah
• Kwanzaa
• Easter
• Passover
• Ramadan
• Rosh Hashanah
• Thanksgiving
• http//www.historychannel.com/exhibits/holidays/ma
  in.html

• El Dia de Reyes / Epiphany
• Yom Kippur

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Popular U.S. Patriotic Holidays

• Flag Day
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Veterans Day
• Presidents Day
• Armed Forces Day
• Charter Day

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Special Days and Months

• Mothers Day
• Fathers Day
• Grandparents Day
• Groundhog Day
• May Day
• Earth Day
• New Years
• Eve/Day
• Chinese
• New Year

• Black History Month
• Red Cross
• Womens History Month
• Asian Pacific Heritage Month
• Halloween
• Cinco De Mayo
• Thanksgiving

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Frequently Asked Questions

• May religious music, art, literature and drama be
  used in teaching about holidays?
• Yes. Music, art, literature, and drama with
  religious themes may be included in teaching
  about holidays, provided that their overall
  effect is not to endorse religion and that they
  are presented in a religiously neutral, prudent
  and objective manner, and relate to sound,
  secular educational goals. Indeed, the study of
  religiously inspired material can, in the correct
  setting, be made a part of a secular educational
  program.
• Religious symbols such as crosses, crèches and
  menorahs may be used as teaching aids in the
  classroom provided that the symbols are displayed
  as examples of the cultural and religious
  heritage of the holiday, and are temporary in
  nature.

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FAQs Continued

• May students be excused from classes that teach
  about religious holidays if they have objections
  based on religious beliefs?
• Yes. If the religious beliefs of students or
  their parents conflict with the content of
  classroom activity, students may be excused. When
  excusing a student, care should be taken to avoid
  stigmatizing or appearing to punish the student
  (for example, a student who is not permitted to
  take part in a holiday party should not be
  required to sit in the hall and do math
  problems).

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FAQs Continued

• May religious symbols be used as decorations?
• No. Religious symbols are not permissible
  seasonal or permanent decorations.

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FAQs Continued

• What are the responsibilities of the school
  toward a student who has taken an excused absence
  for a religious holiday?
• A student should not suffer adverse or
  prejudicial consequences from an excused absence
  for religious observance and should be allowed a
  reasonable opportunity to make up the schoolwork
  missed due to the absence. Penalties to
  scholastic records may not be imposed upon
  students who are absent for religious holidays.
  Students should never feel pressured to choose
  between school attendance and religious
  observance.

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Helpful Holiday Book Lists

• http//www.cincinnatilibrary.org/spotlight/sp20021
  2/children.asp
• http//www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/fourth-o
  f-july/kids-books/
• http//www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/july4/book.html
• http//www.inspiredparenting.net/learn/library/vol
  2_no5/review_html
• http//www.theholidayzone.com/main.html
• http//www.fresnostatenews.com/2003/December/TopBo
  oks.html

• http//www.scholastic.com/familymatters/parentguid
  es/holiday/booklists.htm
• http//www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/thanks/books.htm
  l
• http//www.scpl.lib.fl.us/kids/kids_holidays.html
• http//www.melanet.com/kwanzaa/books.html
• http//shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/rl/kid-holid
  ay.html
• http//www.waterborolibrary.org/bklistjs.htm
• http//www.ils.unc.edu/ils/releases/RELEASE_holida
  ybooks.html

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Links for Holiday Lesson Plans

• http//www.cloudnet.com/edrbsass/edholiday.htmmu
  ltiple
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• http//www.cloudnet.com/edrbsass/edholiday.htmFa
  ll
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• http//www.cloudnet.com/edrbsass/edholiday.htmWi
  nter
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• http//www.cloudnet.com/edrbsass/edholiday.htmSp
  ring
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• http//k6educators.about.com/cs/lessonplansthe/a/h
  olidaylinks.htm

• http//cybersleuth-kids.com/sleuth/Education/Lesso
  ns/Holidays/
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• http//www.teachervision.fen.com/page/3816.html?de
  toured1
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• http//www.education-world.com/holidays/index.shtm
  l
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• http//www.lessonplanspage.com/Halloween.htm
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• http//falcon.jmu.edu/ramseyil/holidays.htm
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• http//www.lessonplanet.com/search/Geography/World
  _Cultures/Holidays
• http//www.ilovethatteachingidea.com/ideas/subj_h
  olidays.htm
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• http//www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity
  .jsp?ar553

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Helpful Holiday Links

• http//www.historychannel.com/exhibits/holidays/ma
  in.html
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• http//www.melanet.com/kwanzaa/about_toc.html
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• http//www.holidays.net/ramadan/story.htm
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• http//www.holidays.net/easter/
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• http//edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/holidays.html
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• http//www.holidays.net/mother/story.htm

• http//www.jewfaq.org/holiday2.htm
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• http//www.holidays.net/christmas/
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• http//www.holidays.net/mlk/
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• http//earthday.wilderness.org/history/
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• http//www.benjerry.com/fun_stuff/holidays/hallowe
  en/history/index.cfm
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• http//www.usmemorialday.org/
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• http//wilstar.com/holidays/newyear.htm
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• http//www.groundhog.org/
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• http//www.arborday.org/

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More Holiday Links

• http//www.holidays.net/father/story.htm
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• http//www.scpl.lib.fl.us/kids/kids_holidays.html
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• http//www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/ch
  inese_new_year.html
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• http//www.wilstar.com/holidays/patrick.htm
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• http//www.mexonline.com/cinco.htm
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• http//www.usacitylink.com/usa/
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• http//www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity
  .jsp?cid391